Hartley cited for striking December 10, 2012 RUGBY UNION: England hooker Dylan Hartley is facing another ban after being cited for striking Ulster’s Rory Best with his arm during Northampton Saints’ 25-6 Heineken Cup defeat on Friday. Hartley has served previous bans for gouging and biting offences and faces two to eight weeks on the sidelines if found guilty.
Benitez confident of success December 10, 2012 FOOTBALL: Interim manager Rafael Benitez is feeling confident about Chelsea’s chances at the Club World Cup as they prepare to face Mexican side Monterrey in the semi-finals in Japan on Thursday. “Everybody at the club wants to win every trophy and this is really important for us,” he said.
Rio coin storm as City lose December 9, 2012 MANCHESTER CITY 2 vs MANCHESTER UNITED 3 MANCHESTER City last night apologised to Rio Ferdinand and condemned the home supporter who marred a thrilling top of the table derby by throwing a coin at the Manchester United defender. Robin van Persie’s stoppage-time free-kick extended United’s Premier League lead to six points after Yaya Toure and [...]
Old boys return to haunt injury prone Hammers December 9, 2012 WEST HAM UNITED 2 vs LIVERPOOL 3 WEST HAM manager Sam Allardyce urged his team to dig deep for the Christmas period, after losing yet another key player to injury during yesterday’s defeat to Liverpool. Glen Johnson and Joe Cole returned to haunt their former club with two superb strikes, the latter coming after Mohamed [...]
Keep your jungles, dancing and Twitter – Cook is model captain December 9, 2012 ONE thing about Alastair Cook tells you all you need to know about him. He doesn’t do Twitter. He knows that endless hours frittered away on ground-breaking messages such as “Boys did good job today. Beat India” can be better spent in the nets, or reading a few Mike Brearley captaincy manuals. Or just engaging [...]
Bowlers hailed as England edge to brink of ending 27-year wait December 9, 2012 ENGLAND captain Alastair Cook hailed his devastating bowling attack yesterday after a seven-wicket victory in the third Test against India eased the tourists to within touching distance of a landmark series triumph. Batsmen Nick Compton and Ian Bell sped England to their target of 41 in Kolkata, despite an early wobble that saw Cook, Jonathan [...]
Villas-Boas: we must learn to see off games December 9, 2012 EVERTON 2 vs TOTTENHAM 1 TOTTENHAM boss Andre Villas-Boas admits that his side must stop conceding late goals, having seen Spurs drop another three points during injury time yesterday. A deflected Clint Dempsey effort appeared to send Tottenham on their way to a crucial victory with just a quarter of an hour to go at [...]
Tendulkar and Dhoni spared in India cull December 9, 2012 INDIA have wielded the axe in an attempt to rescue the series in this week’s final Test against England, but have kept faith with under-fire captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and off-form batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Selectors have dropped Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh and replaced them with fast bowler Parvinder Awana, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja [...]
Messi breaks Muller record December 9, 2012 BARCELONA’S Lionel Messi scored his 85th and 86th goals of 2012 last night, overtaking legendary forward Gerd Muller’s record for the most goals scored in a calendar year. The diminutive Argentinian scored both goals of Barcelona’s 2-1 away win at Real Betis, a win that puts them six points clear at the top of La [...]
O’Shea shrugs off Quins’ eight try Euro romp December 9, 2012 HARLEQUINS boss Conor O’Shea is refusing to get carried away despite the Aviva Premiership champions extending their unbeaten European run with an eight-try demolition of Zebre on Saturday. Two penalty tries, a double from Sam Smith and scores from Nick Easter, Matt Hopper, Rob Buchanan and Ben Botica saw Quins down Zebre 57-14 for a [...]