Today should have been Jonny Wilkinson's day.
Instead the Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland today is set to be overshadowed by the row over England coach Brian Ashton's handling of Danny Cipriani, the youngster who has been anointed as Wilkinson's heir apparent.
England's next big star in waiting, who should have been making his first start for his country, will miss the match after failing to sidestep a photographer waiting for him when he emerged from a London nightclub just after midnight on Thursday.
The result was an unceremonious return to the sidelines and, as Cipriani spends the weekend contemplating what might have been, Wilkinson will almost certainly be entering the history books.
The International Rugby Board ruled this week that the star flyhalf's 20 points for the British Lions in a match against Argentina in May 2005 should count toward his total Test haul.
As a result, Wilkinson has already equaled Neil Jenkins' record of 1,090 points and will claim it all for himself with his first score at Murrayfield.
If it had not been for the Cipriani rumpus, England would have been heading north in confident mood, having disposed of France so clinically in Paris two weeks ago.
But there must be a question mark over how morale in the camp will be affected by Ashton's decision to take a very tough line with the 20-year-old Cipriani.
Ian McGeechan, the former Scotland and Lions coach who is now in charge of Cipriani's development at Wasps, is among those who believes Ashton has got it wrong, describing England's response to a minor misdemeanor as "very harsh."
"Danny, at worst, was naive in his actions but no more than that," McGeechan said.
Ashton may disagree, but there is no doubt that he will now be praying that Iain Balshaw, recalled to the side after initially being dropped to allow Cipriani to come in, will demonstrate greater confidence under the high-ball than he has done in his recent appearances for England.
With Scotland having scored just one try in three defeats so far in this year's tournament, Ashton will be expecting his men to come away with a comfortable win.
But skipper Phil Vickery admits he would gladly settle for the scrappiest of narrow wins against an old enemy with form when it comes to derailing confident English opponents.
"There is no doubt we have the capability to win this weekend, but it's no good talking about it, we have to go out and perform, and we haven't performed consistently well enough at Murrayfield," Vickery said. "If you don't perform you go home as a losing team, full stop."
Vickery admits he is at a loss to explain why Scotland have failed to fire this season, but added: "If they do get it right I think they could pose a huge amount of problems for us."
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS