England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, playing for the first time in 10 months, kicked 17 points on his Toulon debut on Friday as his new club held Stade Francais to a 22-22 draw in the French Top 14 curtain-raiser.
Injury-plagued Wilkinson confidently landed two monster kicks in the second half as his side eyed victory, leading 22-19 with three minutes left.
But he ended the evening sharing the limelight with Stade’s South African scrum-half Noel Oelschig, who also kicked 17 points, including an equalizing penalty three minutes from time.
PHOTO: AFP
Wilkinson eased his way into his new surroundings with a third-minute penalty before going wide with an attempted drop goal.
That miss was punished by Stade, who grabbed the first try of the new season in the 10th minute.
Stade’s powerful pack won a scrum against the head, allowing Oelschig to quickly release Argentine back-row forward Juan Manuel Leguizamon, who stepped inside two tackles to score.
Oelschig added the extra points for a 7-3 lead, which quickly became 10-3 when the South African was successful with a penalty.
But Toulon replied in the 20th minute, with a try scored by back-row Thomas Sourice after scrum-half Pierre Mignoni had charged down a hurried clearance by fly-half Brian Liebenberg.
Wilkinson, who spent eight seasons with Newcastle before joining the talent-drain to France, had the last word in the first half with the conversion and then a penalty for a 13-10 advantage.
The penalty was awarded against his English compatriot, lock James Haskell — making his Stade debut after switching from Wasps — who was sin-binned for played the ball on the ground at a ruck.
Despite Oelschig bringing Stade level at 13-13 with an early second-half penalty, Wilkinson then landed two more successful kicks to give Toulon a 19-13 lead.
A penalty followed by a drop goal from Oelschig’s boot pulled the Paris giants level at 19-19.
Wilkinson, with a giant drop goal, restored Toulon’s lead at 22-19, but Oelschig refused to be overshadowed and another drop secured the draw.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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