Chance to try out for Scotland squad
AT THE CRUCIBLE A RESURGENT Alan McManus holds a slender lead in his first World Snooker Championship last-16 tie in nine years after fellow veteran Ken Doherty pinned him back late on in the first session.
McManus potted a string of breaks before the mid-session interval – including a brilliant 107 – but Doherty chopped his lead down to 4-3, as the pair resume the best-of-25 encounter today. Before beating four-time world champion John Higgins in the first round on Tuesday, McManus’ last triumph at the Crucible came against Doherty back in 2005.
The 43-year-old was the unlucky loser in a tense opening frame, drawing three fouls early on after former world champion Doherty had roped him with a snooker.
But the calm temperament that saw him topple old friend Higgins soon returned, compiling breaks of 69 and 107 – his first century at the Crucible since the pair’s match nine years ago – to take the lead.
Another fine run of 71 saw him extend that advantage to 3-1 heading into the interval, but on resumption the pace slowed down – as the tension heightened in Sheffield.
First McManus needed 17 visits to the table to clinch the fifth frame, before 44-year-old Doherty edged a 46-minute encounter to stop the rot. The Irishman ended the session on a high with a slew of low-scoring visits, including an effort of 26, his highest break of the match so far.
Should McManus reach the quarter-finals he will play either Mark Selby or Ali Carter, with the former – ranked at No.3 in the world – currently 9-7 to the good.
The defending champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan, is in trouble, though. Joe Perry will take a two-frame lead into the final session of their secondround match. The pair shared the eight frames of an absorbing afternoon session as world No.15 Perry moved from a 5-3 first-session advan- tage to a 9-7 lead. The damage could have been worse for O’Sullivan, with Perry missing a number of opportunities to establish a four-frame lead in the final frame of the session.
Perry had responded to an O’Sullivan rally with two flawless back-to-back frames, a nerveless 86 to restore his two-frame advantage and a 73 moved him three ahead.
Despite his superb performance, Perry will have been disappointed not to hold a 10-6 lead overnight, as O’Sullivan brought an end to a long frame and an engrossing session by clearing from yellow to pink.
Ricky Walden also recovered from two frames down to tie up the score 4-4 against Barry Hawkins.
British Eurosport is the Home of Snooker, showing 19 tournaments per season including the World Championship, UK Championship the Masters and all other ranking events. Available on Sky, Virgin Media & BT TV or online/mobile via eurosportplayer.com THE man who masterminded Scotland’s stunning performance at this season’s World Cup is sending out an open invitation to the country’s teenagers to show whether they have what it takes to become international rugby league players.
Steve McCormack’s efforts in guiding a scratch team – it was made up almost entirely of players brought up in England and Australia but all with close blood ties to Scotland – to the Rugby League World Cup quarter-finals was hailed throughout the sport.
Captained by Danny Brough – he had been overlooked by England in spite of winning Super League’s prestigious ‘Man of Steel’ player of the season award – they upset teams representing Tonga, Italy and the USA that were packed with Australiabased NRL players, to earn a lasteight meeting with then-world champions New Zealand.
There is an acute awareness within the sport as a whole and Rugby League Scotland in particular that their efforts will ultimately prove futile if they do not begin to bring through homegrown talent.
The scale of the opportunity was demonstrated in that quarter-final by the presence of David Scott, a 20-year-old from Stirling who switched to rugby league when he felt he was not going to get the opportunities he craved in rugby union.
Having earned his chance to play in the quarter-final with a fine performance in the decisive pool match against the USA, Scott – who is now forging a professional career for himself in rugby league – was pitted directly up against Manu Vatuvei, the Auckland Warriors winger who outweighed him by some 40 kilos and gave a superb account of himself.
The forthcoming Commonwealth Nines tournament, an under-19s event to be staged at Cumbernauld’s Broadwood Stadium in June, consequently represents a perfect opportunity to introduce Scottish youngsters to the requirements of the elite game and McCormack is keen to unearth further talent.
The tournament promises to be high calibre since, with only a few exceptions, the leading rugby league nations are all within the Commonwealth and this is part of the sport’s campaign to push itself up the pecking order of those contending to be accepted into future Commonwealth Games.
McCormack is consequently planning to run open selection days on either side of the border, at Edinburgh on Sunday May 25 and at Leigh on Sunday June 1.
As with rugby union sevens, which has facilitated the emergence of talent like Carlin Isles, the American speedster who has caught the eye sufficiently to be given a contract by Glasgow Warriors in spite of having no track record in the 15-a-side game, league nines requires less technical knowhow.
This is then an opportunity for pacy, physical players who either feel their prospects in rugby union are limited or who simply want to widen their options, to show McCormack and his coaches what they can do.
Players interested in attending the selection days must send their contact and playing details via email to info@scotlandrl.com stating whether they wish to attend the selection day in Edinburgh or Leigh. They must be born in either 1995 or 1996 to qualify and either the player, their parent or grandparent must be born in Scotland, or the player must have resided in Scotland for the last three years.
Those with any queries about the process should email Gavin Willacy, Scotland Rugby League’s media and marketing advisor, at rlbravehearts@hotmail.com