George Smith describes himself as a “nuisance” and the Australia flanker is getting ready to be at his annoying best by spoiling Jonny Wilkinson’s England return at Twickenham today.
The 29-year-old, already Australia’s most-capped forward, is back in the starting line-up for what will be his 107th Test appearance after coming off the bench in last weekend’s 32-19 loss to New Zealand in Tokyo.
Much of the build up to this latest Anglo-Australian clash has centered on star flyhalf Wilkinson, making his first England appearance in more than a year, but even Wilkinson, whose last-ditch drop-goal saw England beat Australia in the 2003 World Cup final, is less of an influence if his forwards aren’t keeping the team on the front foot.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Throughout his long career, Smith has proved the worth of the old rugby saying that “slow ball is no ball” by repeatedly frustrating opposition attempts to secure quick possession at the breakdown.
“It is one of my key jobs in every game I play,” Smith said. “You don’t want the opposition team to get quick ball, making a nuisance of yourself at the breakdown is what No. 7s do.”
Together with Wycliff Palu and Australia captain Rocky Elsom, Smith will try to beat England’s all Leicester back-row trio to the punch. Elsom is well-known to Leicester after his superb display helped Irish province Leinster defeat them in last season’s European Cup final, but Smith knows plenty about the treble Tigers threat posed by England’s loose trio of Jordan Crane and Tom Croft, as well as the far more experienced Lewis Moody.
“I’ve seen Crane play some club matches and he’s been quite dynamic. Croft, he’s a workhorse. I was very impressed with the way he plays the game,” he said.
And as for Moody, an admiring Smith said: “I’ve seen him get knocked down and come back. He’s no self regard for his own body, but he definitely shows up for each game.”
Behind Smith, the Wallabies have seen coach Robbie Deans take the bold decision to field a new Test center pairing of Queensland’s Quade Cooper and Digby Ioane, for what will be the opening match of Australia’s Grand Slam tour.
Australia hope Cooper will take some of the creative load off Matt Giteau’s shoulders, while the strong-running Ioane hammers away at England’s defense.
“Having a guy like Gitty in there, beside me talking, and Digby on my outside, I feel very safe,” said Cooper, who will be making only his second Test start.
Ioane is looking forward to a more central role.
“It’s awesome to be playing 13 for the first time at Test level,” Ioane said. “I’m happy playing anywhere — wing or center — but at center you get heaps of ball and I like to get in the action, so that’s the excitement of 13.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed