Courtesy of The Observer: Ten technical innovations that changed sport.
An interesting list which harks back to a different era, one of independent, and often amateur, innovators. It is hard to imagine many of the sports mentioned without the equipment in this list.
Photographer Tom Jenkins chooses his pictures of the decade.
Eddie Butler rounds up England's selection options for the Six Nations, with the squad due to be announced on Wednesday. He proposes some interesting ideas, including the suggestion that Delon Armitage might play at centre, although the obsession he shares with other pundits about playing Jonny Wilkinson at inside centre I think overlooks Wilkinson's lack of dynamism. Even if the inside centre is picked as a second fly-half, he still needs to be able to offer traditional inside centre traits, such as crash ball options, which Wilkinson does not. Similarly, Courtney Lawes has become the darling of several leading journalists, but he cannot get into the Northampton team at lock, and is not an obvious pick at blindside flanker. One excellent performance against Munster and Paul O'Connell brought him to national attention, but he needs more performances of that standard before he plays for England.
Meanwhile The Times looks at the risks of eye-gouging, and the importance of Julien Dupuy's disciplinary hearing to the future of the game.
Simon Barnes looks at the ball-tampering row engulfing England's tour of South Africa, and points out the hypocrisy of blaming bowlers for all the game's ills (I'm not sure about the taking of a wicket as the "ultimate point of arousal" mind you).
Mike Selvey suggests that South Africa should be careful what they wish for before they instruct the groundsman to prepare a result pitch for the final test match which starts in Johannesburg on Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment