Samoa defeat leaves Wales on the edge

Oh dear.

In a way, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.  Beating Wales at rugby union in Cardiff is a national pastime for Samoans, so Friday night's 26-19 victory at the Millennium Stadium could be construed as par for the course.

But who are we kidding?  Look at the relative resources of the two rugby countries: Wales should be beating Samoa at home.  Yet the final score here did not do justice to Samoan superiority.  What has happened to Welsh rugby since the Six Nations grand slam triumph in March?  The domestic game is haemorrhaging its best Welsh players to the French championship and, with selection policy in what might kindly be called a state of flux, Wales have looked inept so far in the Autumn internationals.

"Wales's forwards could hardly have been more ineffectual had they picked a front row of Katherine Jenkins, Neil Kinnock and Kimberley Nixon."

Sam Warburton, the talismanic captain from last year's World Cup, was dropped after the comprehensive defeat to Argentina last Saturday but it made little difference.  Samoa won the physical battle; the Welsh forwards could hardly have been more ineffectual had they picked a front row of Katherine Jenkins, Neil Kinnock and Kimberley Nixon.

The half-back combination is also up in the air; Dan Biggar had a torrid time and was replaced by Rhys Priestland before half-time.  With full-back Leigh Halfpenny now the principal goal-kicker, if the fly-half is not providing attacking creativity, there is nothing else to fall back on.  Still, at least Wales did not undermine themselves by leaving out Mike Phillips, easily the best British scrum half of the last few years, for having the temerity to miss the Polish training camp in order to, you know, play some rugby in France.  Intense physical conditioning is all very well, but picking your best players is still the most important thing.  As Martin Samuel wrote after the Argentina match, in which Tavis Knoyle wore the number 9 jersey, Wales "…seem a little like the Royston Vasey XV: a local team, for local people."

Perhaps the Six Nations was the anomaly.  For all the furore over Wales's escapades in New Zealand last year, the fact remains that they lost every match against substantive opposition save the quarter final against Ireland and were whitewashed in their summer tour of Australia.  Yet at least those defeats to the powerhouses of the international game had silver linings; Wales showed character and promise in the semi final defeat to France, in which they were comfortably the better side despite spending over an hour a man short.  The last two performances have been irredeemable.

The Six Nations is increasingly looking like the second division of international rugby.  Things have come to a pretty pass when, to see how to score tries against capable opponents, Wales are obliged to look to Scotland.  Or, even more depressingly, England; the nation who for years have created the impression they think rugby can be played even if nobody brings a ball.  England begin today's matches as strong favourites to defeat Australia.  Wales are now clinging on to a place in Pot 2 for December's World Cup draw.  With Argentina resurgent, a result against Australia or New Zealand may be needed to do so.  Good luck with that one.

Wimbledon fans must not be divided over FA Cup tie

The press are variously describing it as a 'mouth-watering tie' and a 'grudge match' but neither are really accurate.  The FA Cup second round tie between Milton Keynes Dons and Wimbledon is not really a grudge match as there is simply no history or heritage of the fixture, and for a very good reason; there is no history or heritage of Milton Keynes Dons at all.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that Wimbledon supporters are savouring the opportunity to beat MK Dons and settle any scores.  This is not a rivalry, this is a principle.  For almost all Wimbledon supporters, MK Dons is a football club that simply should not exist; a club which stole Wimbledon's place in the league by dubious means and who ought not to be recognized at all.  This is a match many are simply dreading, as they never wanted it to happen.

When Saturday Comes, the excellent monthly magazine, still does not officially recognize MK Dons.  Their annual season preview supplements, in which supporters of the other 91 league clubs in England answer questions on the season ahead, simply has 'No questions asked' in the MK Dons section.  For some, this now appears archaic and petty; for many others, it is a perfectly reasonably adherence to a consistent stance on the issue.

The key issue for Wimbledon fans is now whether to go to the match.  Many have vowed never to set foot in the pretentiously titled stadium:mk, some even lobby other clubs' supporters not to go to away matches there, a request which is acceded to by many.

But there are others who feel that they simply want to support their team, whoever they are playing.  There is no reason why going to support Wimbledon away at MK Dons should be read as acknowledgement of the latter club's 'legitimacy'.

The most important thing, therefore, is that Wimbledon fans respect each other's choice.  The match has to be played: Wimbledon would face severe sanctions if they refused to play.  The alternative is to be divided and conquered.  Those who go are not 'scabs' crossing a picket line.  Both positions have a certain logic behind them, it is simply a question of personal conviction.

What of other supporters?  With the predictability of day following night, ITV Sport have chosen the match for live Sunday lunchtime coverage, so we will all be able to intrude on private grief.  There is, though, talk of the away end being filled by a kind of 'Fans United' assembly, with supporters of other clubs turning up, in their colours, to support Wimbledon against 'Franchise FC'.  A show of unity in the face of what many perceive as being the face of all that is wrong with modern football.

This has a certain appeal but a personal view is that this would miss the point.  The issue here is identity and legitimacy, which transcend the game.  Wimbledon beating MK Dons will not settle any scores, just as MK Dons would not gain the moral high ground if, as is likely, they win through to the third round.  The result is, in many ways, an irrelevance.

Nadal the unknown quantity in new tennis era

Men's tennis does rivalries rather better than most sports.  With the top players meeting so regularly, the major duels – McEnroe-Connors, Becker-Edberg, Agassi-Sampras, Federer-Nadal – build up a sense of continuity and a sizable body of work.  Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have played each other ten times in Grand Slam tournaments alone, 28 times in total.  How many times did Muhammad Ali fight Joe Frazier?  Three.  George Foreman?  One.  Not really the same, is it?

The Federer-Nadal era, though, is over.  When Nadal handed Federer's backside back to him on a silver salver at the Australian Open earlier this year, it had the feeling of a curtain call for tennis's most engrossing rivalry of all time.

And yet it was Federer who won Wimbledon, with Nadal crashing out to Lukas Rosol.  Indeed, that balmy night when the unheralded Czech blasted Nadal off centre court – has there ever been a match when a player simply hit the ball so consistently hard? – remains Nadal's last tennis match of note.  It is testimony to Federer's genius that, even on the wane, he came back to win Wimbledon, despite the fact that Andy Murray played so well in the Final.

With Federer aging gracefully, what of Nadal?  Has his left knee turned into blancmange?  To miss half a year's tennis will leave doubt in the mind of even the most dedicated of the Spaniard's disciples.  Perhaps the French Open, comfortably the least interesting of the four majors in recent years due to the sense of it being little more than a two-week coronation, will be competitive at last.

Perhaps, then, it is time to acknowledge that, in place of Federer-Nadal, we now have Djokovic-Murray.  That the latter pair are now the two best players in the world is becoming harder to refute.  Murray has been a different animal since the Olympics, which looked and felt like the fifth Grand Slam championship that, if the ATP have any sense, it will officially be – in ranking point terms – come the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016.

Inferiority complexes are everywhere in sport.  It doesn't matter how good Germany are, they will always lose to Italy.  Murray never used to quite believe he deserved to be contesting best-of-five Finals with Roger Federer, which is probably why he won just one set in the first three.  The Olympic Gold Medal Final, though, was a rout.  Even against Nadal in that Melbourne semi final, Federer never looked quite so inferior as he did in the Wimbledon re-match.  The poverty of his performance was staggering and, were it not for a patriotic desire to see Murray win gold, would have been a little heart-breaking.

Murray or Djokovic will almost certainly win the 2013 Australian Open; their best chance of avoiding each other in the Final seems to be being drawn in the same half.  Federer will be there or thereabouts at SW19 but, when talented but decidedly second-tier players such as Tomás Berdych and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are capable of knocking him out in the quarter finals, he is far from the favourite.

Murray-Djokovic has the potential to be every bit as totemic a rivalry as Federer-Nadal.  Both players have their best years ahead of them and their meetings are now genuinely in the balance.  Who won matches between Federer and Nadal often depended on which surface they were playing.  On grass and hard courts, Djokovic and Murray look pretty much neck-and-neck.  Clay tournaments are a whole different story and the fitness of Nadal looks like being the key question in men's tennis in 2013.

We've got the truth, now for the justice

The thing about the phone hacking scandal is that we really ought not to have been surprised.  Hearing that the upper echelons of politics, the police and the press were hand-in-glove, and not in a good way, should have elicited from us little more than a weary sigh.

Some of us did not need to be told that Hillsborough was a monumental cock-up by the South Yorkshire constabulary; compounded by a vicious, cynical cover-up by way of a dirty tricks campaign against the victims.  Yesterday’s report into the tragedy was confirmation, not revelation.

So we have the truth.  But truth without justice will mean the bereaved families of Merseyside will still not be at peace.

For their part, the Football Association were right to offer a full apology, albeit after a fashion.  The semi final simply should not have been played at Sheffield Wednesday FC.  The ground’s safety certificate had expired but the ground was chosen anyway.  There had been chaos at the 1981 semi final there between Spurs and Wolves yet the ground was chosen anyway.  This, you see, was ‘the good old days’; we didn’t bother with all this elf ‘n’ safety nonsense.  We had common sense.

There are others from whom a mere apology is not enough.  Falsifying evidence is a crime.  Bullying junior officers to make substantive alterations to witness statements is a crime.  Killing through negligence is a crime.  Perverting the course of justice is a crime.  Conspiring to provide a false defence against charges of manslaughter, even after the fact, is a crime.

If the establishment want us to believe that this is a new era, in which justice cannot be ducked by those in power, and the press cannot be used to cover your backside, then certain people need to be brought to book.  These people were powerful: they occupied top positions in the government and the police.

Some are dead and have escaped justice.  Many are now retired.  But retirement from work is not retirement from civilization.  People have committed manslaughter and others have conspired with them after the fact.  Thatcher’s government used the police as their private army, and nowhere more than South Yorkshire.  In the 1980s it was a very dangerous place to be a working class northerner, such as a miner or a football fan.

It doesn’t matter how old David Duckenfield is, or how ill he says he is.  Arrest him and try him.  It shouldn’t matter that Bernard Ingham – Margaret Thatcher’s then chief press secretary – is eighty years old, or that Margaret Thatcher is demented.  Arrest them and try them; wheel them into court on a hospital bed if necessary.  Their status must be no protection from justice, just as the lowly social status of Liverpudlians in 1989 should not have been a barrier to it.

Others must also pay the price.  Kelvin MacKenzie, who only yesterday accepted that he wrote malicious lies in the Sun, must no longer appear on the BBC.  No serious newspaper should allow him to divest himself of his odious views in their pages.

Boris Johnson, who perpetuated the lies in an editorial in the Spectator in 2004, has apologised and should now resign the London Mayoralty.  If he believed what he wrote he is an idiot; if he didn’t, he is beneath contempt.  Either way, he is not fit for public office.

‘Sir’ Norman Bettison, then a South Yorkshire chief inspector, who was heavily implicated in the police cover-up and subsequently made chief constable of Merseyside, of all places, must resign as chief constable of West Yorkshire.  That knighthood doesn’t look too clever, either.

There is one other group of people who ought to be examining their consciences.  Football hooligans.  Those sociopathic tribal drunkards who stole the terraces from peaceable football supporters in the seventies and eighties are responsible for conditioning the British public so that they believed the lies cooked up by the Tory government, the South Yorkshire police and the Sun.

Justice must sweep through the intransigence and the obscurantism like a wrecking ball.  Only then can the bereaved families of Hillsborough’s 96 victims begin to truly come to terms with their loss.

Trial and retribution

by Mike Martin   @thefootietweet

If John Terry were Scottish, chief magistrate Hamish McRiddle would probably have returned a verdict of ‘Not Proven’.  Only Scottish courts are capable of declaring a case not capable of being judged either way.  Back in the real world, John Terry is an innocent man, except, of course, it is not as simple as that.  We can divide the population into four broad categories according to their response.

First, there is the ‘sticks and stones’ group, who believe that calling somebody a ‘black’ such-and-such is no different to calling them a plain old such-and-such; that footballers are paid more than enough to take whatever insults come their way and if the loony-liberal-lefies don’t like it they can sod off and write to the Guardian.   On grounds connected with the briefness of life, we needn’t bother with this group.

Then there is what you might call the ‘indignant vindication’ category.  In this category we find those who always believed Terry was clearly innocent, that his innocence is now legally established fact and that ought to be the end of it.  Heck, sue Anton Ferdinand for slander while we’re at it.  Of these people, particularly their gifts of omniscience and the judgement of Solomon, I am most envious.

The ‘He’s Got Away With It’ group is sizable, if the immediate response on social networks is any kind of decent measuring stick.  The broad feeling within is that Terry was as guilty as hell and got off on a technicality.  John Amaechi, the former NBA basketball player: “Thanks football – you set entire country back a decade.  ‘Black c***’ now officially ok to say.”  The same man Tweeted to me – if you’ll forgive a spot of name-dropping – “…but court did NOT ‘clear’ JT; it ‘had no choice’ but to declare not guilty”.  In other words: Terry was guilty but just not quite guilty enough.

We know one member of this group.  Rio Ferdinand’s ill-advised endorsement of another Twitterer’s half-witted racist slur against Ashley Cole may come back to haunt him.  Aside from the unhelpful inference that Ashley Cole perjured himself at Terry’s hearing, the term ‘choc-ice’ is particularly pernicious because it implies that there is a ‘black’ thing to do and a ‘white’ thing to do.  The ‘black’ thing to do, it seems, would be to say whatever you have to say to get somebody accused of racial abuse convicted.

A splinter group of the above, the ‘What About Luis Suárez?’ club, profess bewilderment as to how the Uruguayan could be banned for eight matches ‘despite no proof’, yet Terry can ‘get off’ even though there is ‘clear television evidence’ against him.

This view fails to take into account the plain fact that Suárez and Terry were involved in two different incidents.  Just because one is guilty or innocent, it does not follow that the other must be the equally so.  The differences between the two cases are numerous.  One went to an FA hearing, the other a legal trial, so there was a higher burden of proof for those prosecuting Terry.

Suárez was banned ‘on the balance of probabilities’, meaning, in essence, that the 3-man FA panel believed Evra and not him.  Terry was acquitted because it could not be proved that he was guilty.  What if Suárez had had his day in a court of law?

The two players also entered different defences.  Terry’s was a flat denial: he did not call Anton Ferdinand an ‘FBC’; he was merely rejecting an accusation by the QPR player, and that was what was caught on camera.  Quoting something, his defence team successfully argued, is not the same as saying it yourself.  Suárez, on the other hand, did not deny using the word negro or negrito, but denied intending to offend Patrice Evra.  ‘Negro’, he argued, is not the Spanish equivalent of The N Word; it is a harmless term of affection, for which no English word is a direct translation.

This defence foundered for two reasons.  Firstly, as the word was said in the course of a heated argument with a player from Liverpool’s bitterest rivals, the FA panel concluded that it was not said on amicable terms.  Secondly – and here is the important bit – there is the principle that whether or not a word is racially offensive is up to the interpretation of the victim, not the meaning of the perpetrator.  In other words, it was not for Suárez to say whether Evra ought to be offended or not by having his colour referred to.

On balance, and with many months’ reflection, perhaps the FA ought to have given Suárez a shorter ban initially, with a whacking great big suspended one over it in order to set a precedent.  Though the cultural defence was quite properly rejected when considering the verdict, it could have been taken into account when calculating the length of the ban.  As soon as Suárez conceded that he had said the offensive word, it was case closed with regard to the verdict.  The punishment, though, ought to have had an educative element.  That it didn’t leaves us with what some regard as a blatant inconsistency between the two cases.

After decades of being oblivious to racial issues, football has now become hyper-sensitive to them.  It is not ideal but it is better than what we had in the seventies and eighties.

The FA now find themselves in an invidious position.  No credible charge of racist abuse can be brought against Terry given his criminal acquittal; yet to do nothing would be a scandalous dereliction of duty.  Both Terry and Anton Ferdinand ought to be charged for their pathetic, profanity-peppered tiff on the Loftus Road pitch all those months ago.  Rio, too, ought to be very severely reprimanded for his apparent endorsement of the ‘choc-ice’ slur which has now attracted the attention of the Derbyshire constabulary.

Most importantly of all, though, they must not waste an opportunity to clean up English football’s image.  For the idiotic fans, who will surely chant abuse at whichever of Terry, Cole and the Ferdinands don’t play for their club, there is no hope, short of a frontal lobotomy.  Referees, meanwhile, need to be instructed in the strongest possible terms to clamp down an all foul language.  Insulting or goading an opponent ought to be regarded as a punishable offence under the existing gentlemanly conduct rule.

There are those who believe such strict refereeing will result in a torrent of red cards but so be it.  Footballers are generally pragmatists.  Behaviour will adapt quickly.  It cannot happen quickly enough.


Mike Martin is the club reporter at @PickeringTownFC and has written for Late Tackle magazine.

Nalbandian leaves tennis licking its wounds

by Mike Martin


I don’t know who it was who reported David Nalbandian’s idiotic kicking of the Queen’s Club advertising boards, and consequential injuring of line-judge Andrew McDougall, to the police but whoever it was may have done the sport a huge favour.

There has been no equivalent example of violent conduct committed during Euro 2012, which is developing into one of the best international football championships of the modern era, and it is not hard to understand why.  The punishment handed down by the ATP to Nalbandian – a boorish, temperamental oaf with form – pales in comparison to what the footballing authorities would have done had a similar act been committed by, say, Joey Barton or Mario Balotelli.

Who comes out of the incident well?  Clearly, not Nalbandian.  Nor the Queen’s tournament director, who failed to ensure that a full explanation of what had happened was provided to the audience.  Nor the ATP World Tour Supervisor Tom Barnes, who, when interviewed on the BBC afterwards, appeared arrogant and condescending.

Not the BBC themselves, whose analysis in the aftermath suffered from a clawing sycophancy that made them look like little more than ATP lickspittles.  Barnes, who one imagines is never confused with a ray of sunshine, could scarcely have had an easier ride when called into the BBC courtside studio.  Where was even the merest hint of a question regarding the wisdom, or otherwise, of aborting a high profile final on terrestrial television?  Why were heaven and earth not moved in order to help put on a show?  The answers to these and many other questions were not forthcoming, as the BBC simply didn’t ask them.

Then we have the ATP themselves, whose response to Nalbandian’s act of reckless aggression has been feeble.  Nalbandian has been fined €10,000 – a feeble sum to a player with the career earnings of the former Wimbledon finalist – and forfeits his Queen’s prize money.  He has not been banned.

Nicklas Bendtner, the Denmark striker, has been banned for Denmark’s next competitive international match for the foolish but harmless offence of wearing clothing bearing the logo of an unauthorized sponsor.  He has also been fined ten times the amount charged to Nalbandian.  He should have worn racist pants; on UEFA’s current form, that would have brought him a much more modest penalty.

Queen’s Club should also be asked questions about why garish boards are necessary around the shins of base-line judges.  There used to be a tennis club in West Kensington, now it is a pile of advertising hoardings.

So Nalbandian is free to compete at Wimbledon.  Quite how the SW19 crowd – still a baying phalanx of Home Counties prissiness – will react to his entrance early next week is a matter best left to conjecture.  But he shouldn’t be there.  Tennis remains a sport seemingly incapable of standing up to the childish antics of high profile players – they have indulged the wretched Serena Williams and the oafish Andy Roddick for years.  Their attitude to wazzockish behaviour is that of Queen Victoria to lesbianism; they simply don’t believe it happens.  This isn’t football, after all, chaps.  The game is deluded.  In this respect, as in many others, football, for all its myriad faults, has a great deal to teach other sports.

Olympic football draw hoped to stimulate ticket sales

Happily, and unlike previous Olympiads, most of the ticketed sporting events for London 2012 have sold out.  Many could have done so several times over.  For those of us who despaired at the phalanxes of seats which remained empty in Beijing, while the huddled masses pressed their noses against the ground-glass, this is a wonderful thing.

It is not true, perhaps predictably, of the football.  Organizers hope that yesterday’s draw at Wembley, fronted by Gary Lineker and shown live on BBC Two – albeit at not-exactly-prime-time 11 o’clock in the morning – will stoke the imaginations and, more importantly, debit cards of football fans.

Olympic football tournaments have been done very well and very badly.  Even in the modern era, the variation has been marked.  In 2004, Greece sold barely 12,500 tickets per match for the men’s tournament despite having just won the European Championship.  Four years later, the equivalent figure in China was over 43,000.

The Olympic football tournaments have a fine history – longer, it should be remembered, than the World Cup – and are taken seriously… in most countries.  That it is largely shunned in Britain has much to do with the fact that we don’t usually compete but there is more to it than that.  There are two forms of equal and opposite snobbery at work.

The first is the anti-football – and perhaps anti-professional-sport – feeling that still runs deep among some Olympic enthusiasts.  The Olympics, they argue, are not the pinnacle of football – this is the World Cup, of course – so it has no business being involved in the Games.  The same argument is often made about tennis and basketball.  It is piffle.

Football is an accessible and globally competitive sport.  Can that be said of show-jumping?  Of rowing?  Or of fencing?  What business do the Olympics, which involve synchronized swimming and dressage, have in denying the world’s most popular game its place at the Games?

And over in the blue corner, we have the anti-Olympics snobbery of many British football fans.  Let’s be blunt: we can be a parochial lot.  How many of us would get out of bed to see, say, Belarus vs Egypt at Hampden Park?  I would, but I’m not your typical football fan.  I bought tickets to two double headers at St James’ Park, as FIFA insist it will be called during the Games, and had no idea who would be playing but that was not the point.  It is a major international football tournament on my doorstep; that is why I’m going.

So, it should be remembered, will at least a million others.  Between British fans such as your humble servant who have bought ‘blind’ and the fans of the visiting men’s and women’s teams, almost a million tickets have already been sold.  That is more than any other sport but the venues are so much bigger and sessions so more numerous that football remains the sport most threatened by visions of masses of unoccupied plastic chairs.

For this reason, the pressure on Stuart Pearce to select David Beckham could become immense.  Beckham, though, has no rightful place in the 18-man Great Britain squad.  The three over-age berths ought to be taken by those players most unfortunate to be omitted from England’s Euro 2012 squad.  Nor should tokenism lead to the unmerited inclusion of players from Northern Ireland or Scotland – Wales is sure to be represented, quite properly, by the excellent Aaron Ramsey and the world class Gareth Bale – at the expense of more deserving cases.

A fondness for reason does give cause to sympathise with LOCOG.  As I discussed in a recent blog, the British public simply do not seem interested in attending women’s matches.  Great Britain’s opening clash with New Zealand is the first event in the whole Games, yet just 15,000 tickets have been sold in the 74,500 capacity Millennium Stadium.  LOCOG cannot be blamed for underselling the event and hopefully the draw will see sales pick up.

The women’s tournament, though, sees LOCOG bivouacked between a rock and a hard place.  The fear criticism for sparsely occupied stadia but may have been loath to allocate the women’s matches to the smaller venues for fear of being accused of treating it as the secondary football competition.

It is unreasonable to expect the huge football stadia to sell out for the Olympics but it is important that attendances are generally high.  That would indicate a change in attitude; both of British football fans to the Olympic competition and of Olympophiles to football.  The game belongs at the Games.

England vs Holland - player ratings

ENGLAND

Joe Hart (GK) - Could hardly be blamed for Holland's three goals but meanwhile made a couple of excellent saves and looks quite at home between the Wembley posts. 7/10

Micah Richards (RB) - Foolishly ostracised by Fabio Capello, clearly the best right back available, though Kyle Walker could displace him in time due to his extraordinary pace.  Was wasted at CB in the final half hour. 7/10

Chris Smalling (CB) - Was given a headache by Huntelaar in more ways than one but coped admirably with an ineffectual van Persie in the first half. 6/10

Gary Cahill (CB) - His Naples nightmare would appear to be behind him.  A commanding performance plus showed his goal threat at the other end.  Took his goal assuredly. 7/10

Leighton Baines (LB) - In better club form than Cole but lacks the explosive flair of the Chelsea full back.  Didn't have a chance to show the quality of his set pieces. 6/10

Scott Parker (DM) - A performance to vindicate Stuart Pearce's decision to make him captain, though he faded a little towards the end.  High quality tackling throughout. 7/10

Gareth Barry (CM) - Satisfactory but made to look better by Milner and Young who appeared uncomfortable in the second half formation. 6/10

Steven Gerrard (AM) - Looked totally off the pace and his withdrawal caused problems with England's tactics but not performance. 4/10

Adam Johnson (RW) - Gave Pieters a torrid time in the first half, England's brightest attacking and creative threat.  Has probably played his way back into the Euros squad. 7/10

Danny Welbeck (F) - Has pace and power but was too often isolated in the England attack.  Didn't have a chance to threaten Stekelenburg. 6/10

Ashley Young (LW) - A poor performance redeemed by his fine goal in the last minute.  Didn't provide service on the wing and looked a lost soul in central midfield in the second half. 6/10

Substitutes:

Daniel Sturridge (F) - England's best player, looked confident and ambitious.  Produced one classy drag-back and shot but fluffed his best chance. 8/10

James Milner (CM) - England's second half midfield lacked cohesion with Milner and Young in the middle but he lacks the pace needed on the wing at international level. 5/10

Stewart Downing (LW) - Capable but unspectacular.  Put simply, he is down the list when it comes to England's wide players. 5/10

Phil Jones (RB) - Should have played at CB when Smalling went off injured.  Nevertheless, looked lively, composed and produced a fine threaded pass for Young's goal. 7/10

Theo Walcott & Fraizer Campbell (F) - Came on too late to be fairly assessed, though Walcott had a touch in Young's goal.

HOLLAND

Maarten Stekelenburg (GK) - Produced one fine save from Sturridge but well beaten by Cahill and Young. 6/10

Khalid Boulahrouz (RB) - His performance would have been enjoyed by Gregory van der Wiel, who will surely start at the Euros if he is fit. 5/10

John Heitinga (CB) - Coped well with Welbeck but couldn't stem the England tide in the last few minutes. 7/10

Joris Mathijsen (CB) - A hugely underrated defender only beaten by Cahill's fine goal. 7/10

Erik Pieters (LB) - Was glad to see the back of Johnson.  A good young prospect but no Gio van Bronckhorst. 6/10

Nigel de Jong (DM) - Solid but unspectacular.  Dutch public want to see him dropped for the more attacking Rafael van der Vaart. 6/10

Mark van Bommel (DM) - Conservative and powerful but clumsy in the tackle.  Should have been booked in the first half. 5/10

Wesley Sneijder (AM) - A mixed bag.  Oozes class on the ball but spent long periods on the periphery, sitting too deep.  Not in a fine run of form.  5/10

Arjen Robben (F) - A class apart.  Two splendid goals, even if the second was deflected in off Cahill, capped a brilliant performance.  Won the game for Holland on his own. 9/10

Robin van Persie (F) - Subdued and in the back pockets of Smalling and Cahill.  Huntelaar led the line with more conviction, however brief his involvement. 4/10

Dirk Kuyt (F) - Not in the same bracket as the other main forwards in terms of quality but his cross for Huntelaar's goal was divine. 6/10

Substitutes:

Stijn Schaars (LB) - Normally a midfielder but filled in well after half time.  England's late threat came down the other flank. 6/10

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (F) - Shot wide, scored with a bullet header, cracked his head on Smalling's in the process, went off again.  A bizarre but productive cameo. 7/10

Luuk de Jong (F) - Anonymous replacement for Huntelaar.  A squad player at best this early in his international career. 4/10

Urby Emanuelson (AM) - Replaced Sneijder and got involved in the build-up for the winning goal.  Plagued by a jack-of-all-trades reputation. 6/10

Ron Vlaar (RB) - His introduction was swiftly followed by two England goals.  Holland's first choice back four is top quality but they lack depth. 5/10

Ireland frozen out as Italian hopes go for a Burton

England are two fifths of the way to a Grand Slam; or, more probably, two fifths of the way to winning two Six Nations matches out of five.  Saturday's win in the Roman snow showed a certain degree of character but little else.  When they meet a team better at scoring tries than Scotland – which is to say, anybody else – or with a better fly half than the Italians – see above – they might find themselves in a spot of bother.


If Italy had a fly half capable of playing at anything on speaking terms with international standard, they would have walloped England, who froze figuratively as well as quite literally on what passed for the pitch at the Stadio Olimpico.


At least England have a coach who can make effective substitutions.  After 51 minutes, Ben Morgan and Lee Dickson replaced Phil Dowson at Number 8 and Ben Youngs at scrum half to good effect.  Youngs, who looks like a scrum half who could do with being taken out of the limelight for a while, had looked a shadow of his former self.  The introduction of Dickson gave England a sort of purpose and organization in attack lacking in the first half; though again they were dependent on a charge-down try from fly-half Charlie Hodgson to seal a narrow victory.

Hodgson played well enough to give Toby Flood cause for concern that he will not cheerfully walk straight back into the team when he is up to Test match fitness.  He played flat, with discipline and a little vision; admittedly modest virtues, yet utterly beyond poor old Kristopher Burton.  Burton was born in Brisbane yet, had he remained in Australia, would have no more chance of being selected for the Wallabies as Libby Kennedy.

He was replaced at fly-half by Tobias Botes, whose Wikipedia article states that he normally plays as a scrum half.  He ought to stick to the day job as his kicking was worse than Burton's, and that was some achievement.  In the 2009 meeting at Twickenham, flanker Mauro Bergamasco was shoe-horned in at scrum-half and had a nightmare, gifting a first Test try to Riki Flutey and passing the ball with a level of inaccuracy which would shame a boy on the playing fields of Ampleforth College.  No longer are those forty minutes of misadventure the worst individual performance by an Italian in the Six Nations championship.

England, alas, cannot play Scotland's backs and Italy's half-backs every week.  Wales, who made light work of an ill-disciplined Scotland side at the Millennium Stadium, will be favourites to complete a Triple Crown at Twickenham on 25 February

There was only slightly less good rugby played at the Stade de France, and only because there was no rugby at all; not even of any kind.  Match referee Dave Pearson took the sensible decision to call off the match due to a dangerously frozen pitch.

All of which was very fine and proper, but the knowledge that many of the fans travelling from Ireland or the south of France will be neither able to afford nor inclined to return when the match in eventually staged – it is expected to be re-arranged for the weekend of 2-3 March – does give call to some pertinent questions.

Not least, why, having experienced the freezing Parisian weather every night of the last week, could the authorities not have foreseen such problems?  As the Stade de France has no under-soil heating (it is built on an old methane field, so it isn't just Twickenham that's built on old farts, &c. and so on…) it was never likely that the pitch would be playable for a kick-off at 9pm local time.  France must not be allowed to schedule a Six Nations match at the stadium so late in the evening again.

Could the kick-off time have been brought forward?  The details of the question are not known to your humble servant, so we will draw a veil over it – not that doing so to the St-Denis pitch did it any good.  If France are to win the Grand Slam, they will probably have to do so playing four Tests in four weeks.

Liverpool walk alone after day of shame

The most pernicious aspect of the fallout of the Luis Suárez-Patrice Evra race row is not Liverpool’s paranoia.  It is not the half-baked conspiracy theories, which propagate the theory that the FA’s independent panel was in hock with Sir Alex Ferguson.

It was not the crass error of those infernal tee-shirts worn before the match at Wigan Athletic; nor the refusal on Saturday of Suárez (culprit) to shake the hand of Evra (victim).  Nor is it the constant low-level hum of accusations that Evra is a liar with form – it was Mike Phelan, not Evra, that made the accusations against the member of Chelsea’s ground staff – or the absurd notion that because it is OK to call somebody a negro in Uruguay we must tolerate it here.  Uruguay, clearly, is not a country which ought to be used when setting our threshold of racial sensitivity.

Nor was it the preposterous apology for an interview given by Kenny Dalglish after Saturday’s match, in which Sky Sports interviewer Geoff Shreeves was said to be ‘bang out of order’ for suggesting the horrible atmosphere at the game might have had something to do with Suárez’s refusal of Evra’s hand.

Nor, even, is it the ghastly, brutal tribalism involved with Manchester United and Liverpool, which gives cause for sections of their support to give choral welcome to two of the most painful events in the history of English football: the Munich air crash and the Hillsborough tragedy.

It is the perpetuation of the belief by which schoolyard bullies maintain a vice-like grip over their prey; by which inner-city drugs gangs perpetuate their freedom to act with contempt for society; and by which, for many decades, footballers got away with racially abusing others players.  It is the reason why the Uruguayan press have turned their fire towards Evra, and why one dunderheaded corresponded sent a letter to the Sunday Times justifying the booing of Evra at Anfield in the recent FA Cup encounter because he ‘…has not acted like a man.’

It is, in short, the notion of the accursed Code of the Pitch.  The notion that whatever happens on the field should stay on the field, and that there is no creature lower in the social order than a ‘grass’.  The notion that, had it succeeded in bullying Evra out of maintaining his charge – fully and transparently proven, lest we forget – against Suárez, would have threatened to return us to the bad old days of a conspiracy of silence.

Could you blame a young black player – perhaps less established in the Premier League than Evra, who is, after all, the captain of Manchester United – for thinking that reporting any future racist language that might come their way might simply not be worth the hassle?

Let’s put it another way: do enough white people in Britain care enough about racism?  Are there still people for whom the battle against racially insensitive language is an encumbrance which must be tolerated, rather than a virtuous part of the evolution of our society?  Is that why Evra is being vilified by some for ‘making a fuss about’ being called a negro?  Is that why he was, with grotesque predictability, so loudly and crassly booed at Anfield in Juanuary?

Sunday’s apologies, from Dalglish and Suárez, at least present a kernel of progress.  It is the first time that Liverpool Football Club have, to any extent, acknowledged any wrongdoing on their part.  Yet there has still been no apology from Suárez for the incident that started the whole infernal affair.  He has still not told Evra that he regrets calling him a negro.

That this is the case maintains the worry that Suárez still believes he is the victim, both of a malicious accusation by Evra and of British ‘political correctness gone mad’.  But, in hoping that all who sail in her respect racial sensitivies, Britain has aped Ebeneezer Scrooge towards the end of A Christmas Carol.  “I haven’t taken leave of my senses, Cratchet.  I’ve come to them.”

Ireland and Wales serve feast after Calcutta Cup famine

Is there a single sight in sport more predictable than Scotland finding an ever-more ingenious way of not scoring a try?

Scotland dominated large spells of Saturday’s Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield yet, faced with a reasonably competent defensive display from England, they simply could not turn it into points on the board.  They could not even get penalties as England suddenly seemed to be a team on speaking terms with self-discipline.

Scotland have not scored a try in four Test matches, two of which were against Georgia and Argentina.  At Murrayfield, they went left and dropped the ball.  They went right and dropped the ball.  They went down the middle and dropped the ball.  For dropping the ball is what the Scotland rugby team do; at Murrayfield, it is almost endemic.

When they weren’t dropping the ball, they were giving away penalties inside the England 22, or turning over possession through being outnumbered in a ruck, or failing to find touch from a penalty.  Dan Parks, the starting Scotland fly-half, had one of those games that commentators are wont do describe as ‘not one for the scrapbook’.  His kicking game was poor.

At the start of the second half, one Parks kick did at least set up a try.  For England.  Charlie Hodgson’s charge-down score summed up the grotesque lack of finesse that the game suffered from start to finish.  Hodgson was excellent, as was England’s second-rower Moritz Botha.  That they stood out merely for looking like international footballers is the perfect condemnation of a dreadful match.

The following day, at Lansdowne Road, Ireland and Wales appeared to be playing a completely different sport.  Their encounter was everything you could ask of a sporting contest: high quality, high scoring and dramatic right to the end.

George North, superficially human, clattered through massed Irish defenders to set up the first try of the match for Jonathan Davies II, and clattered through massed Irish defenders to score the last.  The lead, by the end, had changed hands four times.

The main talking point was the referee, as indeed it usually in high profile rugby Tests.  It was in the World Cup semi final, when Sam Warburton was sent off for a clumsy but, ultimately, non-dangerous ‘tip tackle’; in the Final, when local desperation to see New Zealand crowned world champions evidently invaded the soul of Craig Joubert, the South African whose inept officiating cost France the tournament; and at Murrayfield, where replacement fly-half Greig Laidlaw was denied a try by the Television Match Official.

Wales lock Bradley Davies’ tackle on Donnacha Ryan was, without question, a much worse offense than Warburton’s in Auckland.  In the words of the touch judge Dave Pearson, he ‘picked him up, turned him upside down and dropped him on his head’; the very definition of a spear tackle.  So why only a yellow card was recommended, and why referee Wayne Barnes failed to instantly enquire as to Dave Pearson mental wellbeing and show a red card, only they know.  To make matters worse for Ireland, they lost the game to a borderline penalty, when Stephen Ferris clumsily but safely mis-tackled Ian Evans.  Ferris, ludicrously, was sin-binned for the remaining seconds of the match.

Yet all of this merely added to the excitement.  Scotland v England was a great advert for the 6 Nations; immersive, tense and committed.  This, though, was the great advert for rugby union football.  Wales showed class to add to the quality of character that, on its own, was enough for England to achieve their victory.  Against Ireland, Wales needed something extra.  So will England.

England must strip captaincy of unwarranted prestige

"You know, Lewis, Morse is a bloody good copper.  But sometimes he's more trouble that he's worth."  Chief Supt. Strange, 'Masonic Mysteries'

May we, before we start, agree on one thing?  I do not know whether John Terry is guilty of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, or he was merely rebutting an accusation made by the QPR defender.  Nor do you.  Nor do the Football Association.  Nor even – even! – Simon Barnes, Oliver Kay, James Lawson or the rest of the Fleet Street sport ensemble.

The following is a summation of the press release that, in a more level-headed world, the Football Association ought to have issued upon learning that John Terry’s trial would not take place until a week after the end of the European Championship:

“The Football Association are disappointed that the issue concerning John Terry and Anton Ferdinand will not be settled until after the Euro 2012 tournament.  However, we accept the primacy of the British justice system and will respond accordingly.

In appreciation of the seriousness of the allegations made against Mr Terry, and in accordance with our strong stance against racism, in all of its forms, in the game, we have informed Mr Terry that, should he be convicted, he will not be selected to play for England again.

However, we understand that Mr Terry denies the charges in the strongest possible terms and until such a time as the case may be judged, the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ must apply and Mr Terry will remain as captain of the England team.

In response to suggestions that Mr Terry’s presence in the England dressing room may produce a ‘toxic’ atmosphere, we remind all players and supporters that the matter is sub judice and Mr Terry is entitled to the benefit of the doubt unless/until he is convicted.  All England players should behave in a professional manner and avoid assuming rôles of judge or jurer that are not theirs to assume.  No further comment on this issue will be made by anybody connected with the England team until the end of Mr Terry’s trial and questions from the media relating to this issue will not be welcomed.”

In the absence of such sound reason, we are left to ponder, once again, who the England captain should be.  Worryingly, suitable candidates do not abound.  Rio Ferdinand is rarely fit and, with Terry set to remain England’s principal central defender, may regret wasting a good opportunity to keep quiet should Terry be acquitted.

The FA, though, have an opportunity of their own; specifically, not to appoint anybody as full time England captain.  The rôle, which in football is purely ceremonial, should be awarded on a match-by-match basis.  This is not to say there is a lack of suitable candidates but to argue that a change in culture must be induced in English football.

The Roy-of-the-Rovers culture, that of individual hero-worship, has dominated English football for longer than your humble servant has been alive.  As long ago as 1982, we obsessed over the fitness of Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking, ignoring the fact that England had other players who were indeed good enough to beat France 3-1 in their first match in Bilbao.

Since then, intolerable pressure has been placed on certain players to be the man who brings the trophy home for England: Paul Gascoigne in 1996, Michael Owen in 1998, David Beckham in 2002, Wayne Rooney since Euro 2004.  Already, we are seeing disproportionate attention given to the state of Jack Wilshere’s health, even though it is only February.

Capello, who for two pins would now award the captaincy on a match-by-match basis, must be at his wits end.  Yet the whole situation would have been avoided had certain players respected the court case and not made inferred assumptions of Terry’s guilt before a single witness has been called.  There is no reason for a dressing room split and Capello should not be blamed for the fact that some players have manufactured one.

Terry is now left in a situation where, for his own sanity as much as anything else, he ought to retire from international football.  Terry has been one of Chelsea's best players this season and remains the best centre-back available to Capello.  Yet has it all become more trouble that it's worth, for team or player?  Should Terry be found guilty, it is his own fault; but if he is acquitted, how could he have any faith in the FA or those of his senior international colleagues who have already conducted the trial in their own heads?

The Myth of the Africa Cup of Nations

You, like me, are probably looking forward to a top notch international football championship.  You, like me, are probably eagerly anticipating excellent football, lively atmospheres and wall-to-wall television coverage.  Alas, I speak of Euro 2012, coming in June, not of the Africa Cup of Nations, which begins on Saturday when Equatorial Guinea take on Libya, live on British EuroSport.

I say Equatorial Guinea.  What I actually mean is a bunch of mercenaries masquerading as a national football team for which many have only the most spurious claim to be entitled to play.  The Confederation of African Football (CAF) have for years turned a blind eye to eligibility issues.  Perhaps we should hope that Equatorial Guinea do well, leading to protests from opponents which may finally force CAF to act.

The Equatoguineans, such as they are, are only in the tournament because the tournament is in Equatorial Guinea, who co-host with Gabon.  At least Gabon have a halfway competent side.

Equatorial Guinea should have no business hosting the championship.  Though the richest country in continental Africa, its wealth is distributed with grotesque iniquity; 70% of the population live under the UN Poverty Threshold of $2 per day.  It is also listed by Freedom House as having one of the worst national human rights records in the world.

Usually around this time, the BBC wheel out a pundit – often Mark Bright – to talk about the ‘colour and vibrancy’ of the tournament.  Codswallop.  If you want colour and atmosphere at an international tournament, get hold of a DVD of the Holland-Italy match in Bern at Euro 2008.  If you want matches played in mostly empty stadia unless the home team are playing, with irritating bands playing continuously regardless of what happens on the pitch – they don’t even stop for a goal – and barely interested fans wandering idly into the stadium twenty minutes after kick-off, watch the Cup of Nations.

It is often little better on the pitch.  Some tournaments at least make up with drama what they lack in quality: the 2008 tournament in Ghana averaged well over three goals per match; the 2010 semi final between Egypt and Algeria was unforgettable, albeit for mostly the wrong reasons.

But generally it is thin gruel.  The last three Finals, and four of the last five, have been dismal.  The first tournament I followed in depth, in Mali in 2002, was wretched: barely 1.5 goals per game; atrocious pitches, often dangerously so; and lamentable football by most teams.

In Angola two years ago, the tournament started with a bang and the best match of 2010.  In the 74th minute, a Manucho penalty put the hosts 4-0 up over Mali in a delirious Estádio 11 de Novembro in Luanda.  A Seydou Keita goal seemed to be only a consolation but Mali scored again in the 88th minute, then in the 93rd and finally equalized in the 94th.  It was surely the most extraordinary opening match to any major international football tournament in history.

That, though, was a false dawn.  Take Jonathan Wilson’s word for it: “The football in Angola two years ago was rubbish.”  Overshadowed by the terrorist on the Togo team bus – evidence that this was yet another tournament misguidedly taken to an inappropriate country – the football did little to warm the blood.  Algeria and the hosts almost certainly conspired to draw 0-0 in their final group fixture, thus guaranteeing progress for both at the expense of the more adventurous but utterly incohesive Malians.

The refereeing was weak and conspired to help cynical teams.  The attendances  for matches not involving Angola were pitiful, yet our intelligence was insulted by preposterously inflated ‘official’ crowd figures which bring to mind a Carling Cup tie at the Emirates Stadium.

But this is a tournament which comes with complimentary codswallop by the bucket load.  Wilson also wrote, in a recent Guardian article, of the editor of another organ rejecting a column for being ‘too negative’ about the tournament.

The appeal of the tournament remains that it is a fascination.  But it was a fascination twenty years ago; that is not progress.  Yet the tournament is bizarrely covered much more by the BBC than the significantly superior Copa América or even the Asian Cup, and that is even after they have lost the rights to ITV.

Africa has been overtaken by Asia as the continent most likely to be the third, after South America and Europe, to produce a World Cup winning nation, or even Finalist.  Japan, or even South Korea, would probably walk this tournament.  That is its greatest condemnation.