The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Samoa stun Wallabies in Sydney
- Yelena makes winning return
- Fourth stage win for Cavendish on Tour de France
| Samoa stun Wallabies in Sydney Posted: 17 Jul 2011 06:24 PM PDT SYDNEY: Samoa ran in four tries to stun Australia 32-23 in a famous and well-deserved victory yesterday that gave the Wallabies the worst possible start to their World Cup season. The ragged Australians were simply outplayed by the Pacific Islanders, who complemented their usual hard-hitting defence with an uncompromising effort at the breakdown to record their first victory over the home side in five meetings. Alesana Tuilagi, Paul Williams, Kane Thompson, George Pisi etched their names into Samoa's history books by scoring the tries with flyhalf Tusi Pisi adding 12 points with his boot. The ecstatic Samoans, cheered to the rafters by a large contingent of exiled compatriots in the 30,000 crowd at the Olympic stadium, celebrated their victory as if they had won the World Cup itself. "It's history for us to beat the number two side in the world," head coach Fuimaono Titimaea Tafua told reporters, his assistant Brian McLean adding: "Today for us was about getting some respect and hopefully we got some." The Australians, who open their Tri-Nations campaign against the Springboks next weekend, scored a try in each half through winger Digby Ioane and flyhalf Matt Giteau but were always struggling after the visitors had raced to a 17-0 lead. "We got beaten in terms of the physical exchanges," Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said. "They defended strongly, they knocked a lot of ball out, they attacked the breakdown effectively and turned the ball over and profited from that." The Samoans dominated possession early on but their first two tries did come from turnover ball. In the 11th minute, huge winger Tuilaga snared a loose ball inside his own 22 and, with no defenders in front of him, flew down the line, brushing off Giteau and touching down with an exuberant dive. Some 18 minutes later, Williams charged down Australian scrumhalf Nick Phipps' clearance kick and recovered to help extend the lead to 17-0 inside the first half an hour. Australia were stunned but looked to have wrested back the momentum when Ioane raced over after a five metre scrum and Giteau penalties either side of the break narrowed the deficit to four points. The Samoans were not done yet, though, and despite being down to 14 men after Daniel Leo was sin-binned towards the end of the first half, lock Thompson finished a rampaging move to edge the visitors further in front after 46 minutes. Deans brought on replacements from the bench but another storming Samoan attack less than 10 minutes later allowed centre George Pisi to inch over from close range for the fourth try and a 29-13 lead. With an upset now in sight, scrumhalf Will Genia and fullback Kurtley Beale were sent into the fray and the pair did bring more of a cutting edge to the home attack. It was the footballing skills of backrower Scott Higginbotham which brought Australia their second try, however, with Giteau profiting from his chip and chase to touch down in the corner. With only nine minutes remaining and the Samoans scenting victory, it proved too little too late. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 17 Jul 2011 06:22 PM PDT HEUSDEN (Belgium): Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva defied strong winds to clinch victory in her first outdoor meeting of the season on Saturday as the Russian golden girl began her build-up to the world championships. Isinbayeva recorded a modest winning effort of 4.60m, way below her world record of 5.06m set in Zurich in August 2009. The 29-year-old, who has suffered a series of setbacks in the last two seasons, will continue her preparations for the Aug 27-Sept 4 world championships in Daegu, South Korea, by competing at Lugano (July 18) and Lucerne (July 21). Isinbayeva became Russia's best known sportswoman by winning Olympic gold in Athens and Beijing and lifting the world record to well above five metres. However, her aura of invincibility slipped when she failed to record a height in the final stage of the 2009 Berlin world championships and only came fourth in last year's world indoor championships in Doha. Isinbayeva, who has set 27 world records in her career, has said she was preparing to gain revenge for her defeat in Berlin where the world title was won by Anna Rogowska of Poland. — AFP Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Fourth stage win for Cavendish on Tour de France Posted: 17 Jul 2011 06:20 PM PDT MONTPELLIER: Mark Cavendish delivered a textbook sprint in the finale of the 193-kms 15th stage of the Tour de France in Montpellier yesterday to snatch his fourth victory in this year's race. Perfectly set up by his lead-out man Mark Renshaw, the Briton surged with 200m to go before the finish line to beat American Tyler Farrar and Italian Alessandro Petacchi. The win, his 19th overall in the Tour de France, strengthened the Manxman's top spot in the race for the green jersey. Already the most successful sprinter in the race history, the Briton is now tied in seventh place in terms of stage victories with 1909 Tour winner Francois Faber. "My name is on the list but it is for the (HTC Highroad) team. I don't think there's a sprinter with more wins on the Tour and it shows the commitment these guys have towards me. I'm incredibly lucky for that," he said. "I struggled a lot in the mountains and for them I wanted it to be worth it. It was technically difficult, lots of winds, lots of attacks but we stayed disciplined." The Manxman finished the previous stage in Plateau de Beille just inside the time cut but had kept enough strength to beat his rivals as well as the strong winds sweeping the course all day. "What gets you through the mountains is the smell of a success like today's," he said. "You're tired but it's not going to affect the edge of your sprint." His rivals for the green jersey tried to spoil the HTC Highroad show towards the end and Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert moved three kms from the line hoping to avoid a bunch sprint but the Briton's guard reined him in. In the points classification, Cavendish now leads Spaniard Jose Joaquin Rojas by 37 points and Gilbert by 71 before the second rest day. "You can never take anything for granted. I will try to keep getting points and see what happens," said the Manxman, narrowly beaten for the green jersey in the last two years. The overall leader's yellow jersey remained on the back of Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, who ordered his Europcar team mates to relax and let the sprinters' teams lead the way all day. "I was not feeling too good today. I had the rest day on my mind, like many of us," he said. Voeckler leads Luxembourg's Frank Schleck by one minute and 49 seconds with Australian Cadel Evans third 2:06 behind. Yet, with only six stages left in the Tour, the Frenchman keeps shrugging off suggestions that he can win the Tour. "To be honest, I don't believe in it for a second," he said. The long ride along windy roads from Limoux included a long breakaway involving Dutchman Niki Terpstra, Russian Mikhail Ignatyev and Frenchmen Samuel Dumoulin, Mickael Delage and Anthony Delaplace. The last of the escapees, Terpstra, was caught two kilometres from the line. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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