Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Kettle too hot to handle
PUT The Kettle On continued Henry de Bromhead’s brilliant 2021 Cheltenham Festival with victory in the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.
The mare, ridden by Aidan Coleman, followed up her shock success in last year’s Arkle with a battling performance to get the better of Nube Negra – with odds-on favourite Chacun Pour Soi only third.
At least three horses still held a big chance over the last fence – but as Chacun Pour Soi faded up the hill, Put The Kettle On (17-2) ran on decisively to give De Bromhead another major victory after Honeysuckle’s Champion Hurdle triumph on Tuesday.
Nube Negra stayed on to very good effect, from off the pace, but was beaten by half a length, with another length back to Chacun Pour Soi.
SCOTLAND flanker Jamie Ritchie admits they must find a way to ensure tough periods in games are not so damaging.
The Scots have followed their opening Guinness Six Nations win over England with narrow home defeats by Wales and Ireland in topsy-turvy encounters.
They fought back from 14 points down against the Irish on Sunday before conceding a late penalty which handed the visitors a 27-24 win.
A review of the game focused on a number of areas which cost Scotland, notably the lineout and the breakdown, but Ritchie feels they must recognise what is going wrong during matches and rectify it quicker.
“It was frustrating,” he said. “A lot of the stuff we speak about as a group didn’t really go to plan.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a bit. It was a bit of a tough one but we will move on.
“You are always going to have a bad day every so often and it’s just about how you react. For us it’s about learning to react better and quicker in games.