Rose’s rookie cup warning
JUSTIN ROSE has warned Europe’s captain Thomas Bjorn of the pitfalls of filling half his Ryder Cup team with rookies when he names his line-up for Paris tomorrow.
Matt Wallace’s victory under Bjorn’s watchful eye at the Made In Denmark event, his third of the season on the European Tour, has put pressure on the Dane to include the Englishman.
But with five rookies already in the team – Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Alex Noren, Tyrrell Hatton and Thorbjorn Olesen – Rose has questioned whether including a sixth as a wild card would be a smart move after the experience of two years ago when USA won at a canter. Rose said: “We had five at Hazeltine and that proved too many and is something Thomas is going to have to weigh up.” Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Paul Casey, Rafa CabreraBello and Sergio Garcia are all scrapping for one of the four wild cards. Out-of-form Garcia could be vulnerable having decided against playing in Europe after missing out on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup play-offs.
“Sergio has not given Thomas much to work with by not playing, so we will have to wait and see,” said Rose. ITALIAN Alessandro Tonelli took the overall lead in the Tour of Britain despite losing a sprint finish to Australian Cameron Meyer on the second stage.
Tonelli, of the Bardiani-CSF team, banked a six-second time bonus on the line which meant he claimed the green jersey on the 108-mile Cranbrook to Barnstaple stage in Devon.
Mitchelton-Scott’s Meyer edged out the Italian on the line after a day-long breakaway. with domestic rival Kell Brook is possible too.
Khan, 31, said: “The first fight I lost, people said I was done, but I came back and won the world title. The second fight I lost, people said I was done, but I came back and had probably one of my best performances, then got beat by Canelo, before coming back again.
“I never let it get to me. It just motivates me to keep fighting and proving people wrong.
“I want people to say I was one of those fighters who never took an easy fight.” A MORE peaceful Premiership returned at the weekend.
Not in the stands, where the decibel count was thunderously high across the West Country and substantial for the Harlequins resurrection gig at The Stoop, but it was much quieter on the pitch where week one of the clampdown on antisocial behaviour was a success.
The overdue blitz on appealing, card-brandishing and backchat provided a more wholesome backdrop.
It was a welcome start in reclaiming the respect agenda which rugby union is built upon but which was slowly being eroded at professional level.
Listen in on a Reflink earpiece last season and you were given a clear and disturbing insight into the constant haranguing match officials were being subjected to. The breakdown was being turned into a rugby version of Speakers’ Corner where every man Jack could have his say over a myriad of possible penalty claims. Round one this season had a much lower background noise. Bad habits are hard to break, particularly for scrum-halves who tend to be the motormouths of any team.
Officialdom sensibly took this into account at Ashton Gate on Friday night. When Bristol scrum-half Nic Stirzaker went into rant mode with referee Luke Pearce over some chicanery by Bath at a ruck, it was dealt with intelligently. Pearce took Stirzaker aside, reminded him of his responsibilities, said he had seen the offence and told him to take a breath next time. The chastened No 9 absorbed the lecture silently.
Opposite number Chris Cook is historically one of the worst offenders when it comes to appealing, often resembling a vulture taking off as he stretches arms wide and demands action. There was still the odd flap from Cook at Bristol but it was a much more restrained, and better for it.
This season is supposed to be the one where the English game reverts to the referee always being right even when he is wrong. With pressure high on players it is difficult to live up to those standards – but not impossible. There was a good example of that theory in Park. The Leicester board met to discuss the situation and decided O’Connor had to go.
It leaves England’s biggest club in turmoil ahead of Saturday’s trip to Newcastle and in the market again for a long-term replacement to O’Connor.
Nearly every top coach is tied down at this point in the season, although Mike Ford, father of Tigers’ stand-off George, would be one potential candidate.