Rugby Defeat Hard To Swallow Old Otliensians B 69 - Selby Fifths 0 Knowing rugger types, they probably have a special song to sing after inflicting this particular score.

Sports Report Update.... 3 legged nag wins Grand National, Yorkshiresoul eats hat. Good gracious, I put a bet on a horse and it didn't fall over its own feet, I'm astonished, and ever so slightly wealthier.

Sports Report I watched the Boat Race, but nobody sank or rammed each other so it wasn't that interesting. This afternoon I'll watch the Grand National, and then I'll tear up my annual betting slip when my three legged nag fails to make the second jump. Tomorrow the World's Dullest 'Sport', F1, zooms around somewhere. Pah, roll on the domestic cricket season.

Power Of Three The last three England hat tricks were all bowled by Yorkshire (or ex Yorkshire) bowlers, Gough, Hoggard and Sidebottom. There must be something in the water, or in the ale they put the water in.

A Win At Last ! Well done the England team ontheir series win (eventually) over New Zealand, who else had a few moments of panic at the end of the last tests though as teenager Southee began to flay our bowlers ? Thankfully Sidebottom stepped in to finish it off.

Good Losers Well done the rugby team, South Africa were worthy winners of the World Cup, just a touch too good for us. The Rugby (Union) World Cup has yet again highlighted some essential differences between two of our major sports. The England rugby team and their management took the disallowed try with a sense of calmness and restraint, there was no shouting and complaining at the referee, no endless stream of vitriol in the after match interviews. Why is it then that rugby is so different from football, where every decision that is perceived by one side to be wrong or unjust is greeted with complaints, often a barrage of foul language aimed at the ref, and a huge amount of pathetic whining and moaning from the manager after the game. The two games have become so different, football players seem to accept cheating as just another part of the game, I can hardly think of a player who is man enough to stay up after even the most featherlight of tackles, especially if it is in or near the penalty area. Players, fall, roll around and feign injury, pretend to have been tripped, and they think it is alright to do so, and we constantly refer to them in the media as 'role models'. For 'role models', see the England rugby side, tough blokes, but mostly fair, the game of rugby seems to have largely cleaned up, you hardly ever see the kicking, stamping and punching that used to on in the rucks and mauls, and when hulking six foot seven and seventeen stone players get caught doing something they shouldn't by the ref, a sharp word is enough to silence any complaint they had. I can't understand why football authorities, and the referees, don't get a better grip on the players. The rules are quite clear, you can't abuse the ref, and yet every week you see players loudly using what is referred to as 'industrial language' to the men in black. I love football, but it exasperates me in equal amount, I hate cheating and when the ref fails to do something about obvious diving and false injuries it makes me upset and angry. Rugby is a man's sport, football in the modern era rather less so. The great hard men of the past are well in the past, there are no blokes left who are prepared to ride out a rough tackle (and then give it back a little later on), the Norman Hunter's and Billy Bremner's have departed football, the school of hard knocks has been replaced by the class of effete softies, and the game is poorer for it.

It Fair Warms Your Heart To see tens of thousands of thoroughly miserable Australians (last week) and Frenchmen (yesterday), well done the England team on getting to the RU World Cup Final.