Australia and South Africa play each other for the 60th time tomorrow in a rugby test match carrying increasing significance for the coach and captain of the home side.
Stuck in a three-match losing streak -- the first two courtesy of the Springboks in South Africa -- Australia will be attempting to avoid losing four in a row for the first time since the 1981-'82 season.
South Africa, which holds a 37-21-1 edge in matches between the countries since they first played in 1921, leads the Tri-Nations tournament with a 2-0 record, while New Zealand is 1-1 and Australia 0-2.
Wallaby coach Eddie Jones and captain George Gregan have had to answer increasingly tough questions about their futures with the team.
Both admit the skipper has been playing under par, and that has South African coach Jake Wood worried.
"People are writing the Australians off, writing George Gregan off, and I think that's a danger. We've seen this movie before," White said.
White doesn't agree that Gregan is past his prime.
"He's played over 100 matches for his country, every scrumhalf video that's ever going to be made from now on in is going to have him in it," White said.
"I think it's a bit harsh all this criticism. I'm dreading him having to prove a point on Saturday, because we know when he does have to prove a point he usually does it," he said.
Meanwhile, Jones said that he wouldn't allow Gregan to continue in the job solely because of their long-term relationship.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier