Lions tour adds spice to Super 15 season

The 2013 Super 15 season kicks off this weekend with two all-Australian ties as players seek to impress national selectors ahead of the looming British and Irish Lions tour Down Under.
The Lions tour -- held every four years to either Australia, New Zealand or South Africa -- has forced a revamp of fixtures to give Australian teams extended time off from Super rugby commitments in June and July.
And several star names will be missing from the competition, including talismanic All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, taking an extended break from rugby, and ex-All Black Sonny Bill Williams, who has jumped ship to rugby league.
New Zealand and South African franchises consistently dominate the Super play-offs but Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said the impact of the Lions tour cannot be underestimated as a motivating factor for the Australian conference sides.
"I've got no doubt there will be (Australian) players who will emerge this year. Some will get an opportunity who wouldn't ordinarily have got an opportunity," he said.
The Queensland Reds were Australia's only representatives in the top six last year, when New Zealand outfit Waikato Chiefs were crowned champions after a crushing win against South Africa's Sharks.
But while the Australians have the Lions factor to drive them and the Reds, Brumbies and NSW Waratahs have the firepower to beat any team, picking the champions remains a notoriously inexact science.
"Over the last two seasons we have seen two franchises -- the Reds and the Chiefs -- win the Super rugby trophy for the first time," SANZAR (South African, New Zealand and Australian Rugby) chief executive Greg Peters said.
New Zealand and South Africa have seven teams with a realistic chance of making the top six.
From the New Zealand conference the Chiefs, seven-times champions Canterbury Crusaders, Wellington Hurricanes and Otago Highlanders are all likely to challenge, along with South Africa's Northern Bulls, Sharks and Western Stormers.
The Reds match-up with two-times champions the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday is the marquee match of a quiet opening weekend.
New coach Richard Graham is keen to show the departure of former mentor Ewen McKenzie has not harmed the Queenslanders although he will be down on firepower with James Horwill sidelined by an ankle injury.
They will pin their hopes on halves Quade Cooper and Will Genia against a Brumbies unit in the hands of former World Cup-winning Springbok coach Jake White and looking to improve on last year's disappointing seventh place.
The controversial Cooper, who made a successful debut in the boxing ring earlier this month, settled his differences with the Australian Rugby Union in December after a turbulent few months during which he criticised the "toxic" environment within the Wallabies.
Former Wallaby Clyde Rathbone has ended a three-year retirement to help the Brumbies' cause and the squad has been bolsted by the recruitment of Wallabies' flanker David Pocock from the Force and South African lock Etienne Oosthuizen.
The only other match this weekend sees the Melbourne Rebels take on Western Force on Friday.
The Rebels have been boosted by news their main off-season signing, former Red and dynamic backrower Scott Higginbotham, has recovered from a shoulder injury and will start.
Rebels hooker Shota Horie is poised to make history as the first Japanese player to appear in a Super rugby match while Japan teammate Fumiaki Tanaka could turn out next week for the Otago Highlanders.
In round two next week, packed with derby action, the Highlanders begin their campaign against the Chiefs on the same evening as the Bulls and Stormers kick off the season for the South African conference in a titanic clash.
The Southern Kings, who have replaced the Golden Lions, make their debut against the Western Force on February 23 while the Crusaders do not get their campaign under way until March 1.

Nadal advances to Brazil Open semi-finals

Rafael Nadal advanced to the singles semi-finals of the Brazil Open, with a difficult three-set win over Argentine Carlos Berlocq.
The 26-year-old Spaniard, ranked number five in the world, won 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours 24 minutes against the 30-year-old Argentine, ranked 78th in the world.
Nadal will face off in Saturday's semi-final against another Argentine, Martin Alund, who earlier Friday defeated Filippo Volandri of Italy 7-5, 7-6.
The Spanish star is top seed in the $455,775 Brazil Open, his second comeback event after a seven-month absence due to a knee injury.
Last week, he competed in the Vina del Mar Open in Chile, losing the singles and doubles finals Sunday.
The world number five, who has claimed seven of his 11 Grand Slam titles on the clay courts of Roland Garros, won the Brazil Open in 2005 when it was held in Costa do Sauipe in eastern Bahia state.
The tournament was moved to Sao Paulo last year when Spaniard Nicolas Almagro won.

England chasing 140 in T20 decider

Stuart Broad and Jade Dernbach led a much-improved England attack that restricted New Zealand to 139 for eight in the Twenty20 series decider in Wellington on Friday.
With the three-match series at 1-1 after the Black Caps notched a crushing 55-run win in Hamilton on Tuesday, captain Broad and Dernbach bagged three wickets apiece to give their battling line-up a modest target of 140.
Opener Martin Guptill (59) top-scored for New Zealand but the Black Caps could not repeat the batting blitz that swept them to victory in their previous match, managing just three sixes in the innings.
Despite admitting he was wrong to make the Black Caps bat first in Hamilton, Broad again elected to bowl after winning the toss, aware the chasing side has won all four previous T20 internationals at Westpac Stadium.
The gamble paid early dividends when he enticed Hamish Rutherford (11) into a pull shot with a short-pitched delivery in the fourth over which sailed to Dernbach in the field for an easy catch.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum and Guptill steadied the innings. But they struggled for runs before McCullum tried to break the shackles and was caught on 26 attempting to cart James Tredwell over the boundary.
Incoming batsman Ross Taylor managed the first six of the innings in the next over off the bowling of Joe Root before being caught out.
It capped a disappointing T20 series for Taylor, who has averaged less than eight in three innings since he returned to the international fold after being dropped as captain late last year.
With Grant Elliott (15) and Colin Munro (1) failing to produce, the pressure was on Guptill to produce a big innings for the Black Caps.
He managed 59 off 55 balls and looked threatening in the latter stages of the innings before Broad caught and bowled him for his third wicket.
Dernbach mopped up in the last over, dismissing Nathan McCullum for a golden duck and dismissing James Franklin for 15 with the final ball of the innings.

Airdrie Utd 2-2 Hamilton: Match Report

Airdrie Utd 2-2 Hamilton: Match Report - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game as it happened.


Last-gasp May saves Hamilton

Two goals from Steven May gave Hamilton a vital point in a dramatic 2-2 draw with relegation rivals Airdrie at New Broomfield.

Jamie Bain came close to an early opener for the hosts when he struck a post after just three minutes.

Airdrie were desperately unlucky on 16 minutes, Jordan Moore this time unfortunate to see his effort come back off the bar.

Martin Canning twice went close for the visitors before the break but couldn't direct his efforts on the set pieces.

However, his side were ahead after 61 minutes when May was well placed to finish Gary Fisher's cross.

Airdrie drew level three minutes later, Jordan Moore scoring from the spot after Bain was fouled by Alexander Neil.

Bain looked to have snatched all three points when he struck deep into stoppage time, but May had the final word as he poked the ball over the line with the final kick to ensure a share of the spoils.

Messi signs new Barcelona contract extension

Lionel Messi has signed his two-year contract extension with Barcelona.
The Argentina superstar put pen to paper on his new deal at the Nou Camp on Thursday afternoon and is now tied to the Catalan giants until June 30, 2018.
Messi follows in the footsteps of fellow club stalwarts Xavi and Carles Puyol, both of whom signed their extensions last month. Barca announced in December they had agreed new contracts with the trio.

Rooney insists title race far from over

United, who lost out on the final day of last season to cross-town rivals Manchester City, are currently nine points in front of the reigning champions and 16 clear of third-placed Chelsea.

However, the fact that last season saw United blow an eight-point lead in the space of a mere four games to give City a huge boost, means Rooney is refusing to get carried away by the situation Alex Ferguson's men are in at the moment.

"Results are the most important thing now," Rooney said ahead of United's match against his former club Everton at Old Trafford on Sunday.

"Look at Manchester City against QPR. They should have got the win, had a lot of chances but ended up dropping two points," added Rooney, who scored England's first goal in their 2-1 friendly win over Brazil at Wembley on Wednesday.

"That could quite easily have happened to us against Southampton the following night.

"It proves we have to keep picking up the points when we can.

"Once it comes down to the last four or five games, then we will see what position we are in and work out what we have to do."

United, unlike City, are concentrating on more than one front with a Champions League last 16 first leg clash against a Real Madrid side featuring former Old Trafford star Cristiano Ronaldo in Spain on Wednesday.

Rooney, though, said fatigue would not be an issue.

"We don't have anyone who doesn't want to do the work," he said. "We all look at the statistics after the game to see how much running we have done and are well aware of everything we do. There is no hiding place with all the technology and stuff."

For all that United have been scoring goals this season, they have conceded plenty too and made harder work of some matches than their supporters, and indeed manager Ferguson, would have liked.

"I can't put my finger on why we are not killing teams off," said Rooney. "We have scored plenty of goals. It is the most number we have scored at this stage of the season.

"We have conceded too many and have done throughout the season, but that is the way we have been set up to play. We have to just keep our scoring going."

Tour of Qatar: Stage Four Report

Omega Pharma Quck Step's Mark Cavendish won his second succesive stage of the Tour Of Qatar when he sprinted to victory in today's fourth stage.
Gatis Smukulis (Katusha), Pirmin Lang (IAM Cycling) and Andriy Grivko (Astana) got away after thirteen kilometres of the 160km stage from Camel Race Track - Al Khor Corniche.
Their lead went out to seven minutes but they were hauled back and with eight kilometres to go, the trio sat up and shook hands before being swamped by the peloton.
This set up a bunch sprint and there was a crash near the finish line which saw a broken collar bone for Argos Shimano rider Koen De Kort and held up race leader Brent Bookwalter.
Cavendish made his move and took the win in a time of 3.30.05 ahead of Vacansoleil's Barry Markus and Astana's Andrea Guardini. Adam Blythe was 14th.
With the ten seconds bonus on offer for the winner, Cavendish, for whom this was his 92nd victory since 2007, became the new race leader with a two second lead over BMC's Brent Bookwalter..
A delighted Cavendish told cyclingnews.com; "I'm really happy, I won here last year on the same parcours. "It's pretty much the same wind, not enough to break the race, but everyone's a bit nervous.
"I knew from experience at this finish that the wind comes from the right so you want to be on the left. But the road sweeps right and the peloton naturally moves to the right, so I knew the gap would open on the left. In the end, I was able to do what I did last year and surf around the peloton with 300-200 to go and sprint from there."