The Battle for Rugby League Supremacy

World Club Challenge: what World Club Challenge? That is the answer the average person in England would provide when asked if they had heard of the contest to decide world rugby league supremacy.

London’s newspapers generally dedicate at least the back six to eight sports pages to football, but of the round ball variety. All the other sports are forced to fight it out for the remaining one or two pages and rugby league finds itself at the wrong end of the pecking order.

Irrespective of England’s disappointing lack of media coverage, there is indeed a match to be played Friday night, at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton. The current NRL premiers, the Brisbane Broncos will battle St Helens, the current Super League champions for the right to be called the worlds best rugby league team.

The Brisbane Broncos have reversed the trend of past touring NRL premiers by arriving early, playing a warm-up match and most importantly showcasing their strongest side. The contest, played during the English season and Australian off-season has often been given little respect by Australian NRL premiers.

The majority of World Club Challenges have not been given a great deal of respect by Australian traveling teams. Many have rolled into England days before kick-off fielding a bit-and-pieces squad. This year is different. The date for the match was pushed back a month to allow the Broncos’ Test contingent a break to be fully fit following last year’s grueling season and Tri-Nations tournament.

Wayne Bennett, in his twentieth year as Broncos coach, has thrown his full support behind the World Club Challenge and will be hoping for a win on Friday to begin another lengthy season. Captain Darren Lockyer, who experienced some off-field success after proposing to girlfriend Loren Pollock prior to leaving Australia’s shores, will be striving to replicate the form that saw him guide the Broncos, Queensland Maroons and Australia to victory in 2006.

St Helens will enter the match low on confidence, having suffered successive surprise defeats to Harlequins and Wakefield. They also have a worrying list of walking wounded, with gun hooker Keiron Cunningham and captain Paul Sculthorpe struggling to be fit in time.

The Saints should still field at least five current internationals and in a one-off match, playing in front of a cheering home-crowd, in familiar conditions means a sudden return to form is always possible. The Broncos will be confident in the ability and will be keen to inflict some revenge for a heartbreaking 20-18 loss against the Saints in 2001.

In that match the Broncos surrendered an 18-6 lead in the second half and could not overcome the harsh conditions, including a second half snow-storm. Six years on and the battle will resume. If the match reaches extraordinary heights it may steal a page or two from the soccer pages, but perhaps that is wishful thinking.

The Progress of Andy Murray

Cast your minds back to 2004, a promising British youngster by the name of Andy Murray matched up against the experience of 45-year-old John McEnroe in a London exhibition match. In the contest Murray was overawed and outplayed in a set lasting just 17 minutes. Billed before the match as Britain’s next big hope, Murray wilted under the pressure of playing a tennis great.

An examination of Murray’s game at the time emphasises the astonishing progression he has made in a little over two years. Murray lacked a penetrating first serve and missed out on the free points that go together with a powerful serve. His court movement was too slow and his ground-strokes weren’t crisp or sure. His tennis brain was in the developing stages and he looked every bit the inexperienced junior.

Fast-forward to the early stages of 2007 and the determined 19-year-old has slid comfortably into the shoes of Britain’s best. An evaluation of his tennis game today makes for far better reading. He has a precise and more powerful first serve, crisp and penetrating ground-strokes, great anticipation, vastly improved court-speed and a fearsome return of serve.

This combines well with a rapidly developing tennis brain and the confidence that goes along with defeating numerous top-10 opponents and successfully defending his San Jose title with a come from behind win against towering Croat Ivo Karlovic.

Roger Federer and Andy Roddick belong to a fast-growing list of Murray casualties, it is difficult to believe Murray is still yet to leave his teens. Defending his ranking points last week he consolidated his 13 world ranking and after a lean patch during the corresponding tournaments last year seems set to burst into the top-10 in the coming weeks.

Under the experienced tutelage of American coach Brad Gilbert, Murray has excelled and as exchanges the hard-court shoes in favour for the clay court variety he will need to maintain his form, as he quickly become one of the men to beat on the men’s tour. Murray must now consider himself a genuine chance in every tournament he competes and his opponents can consider him a notable scalp.

Looking further ahead to Wimbledon and the inevitable period where the British tennis public pin their hopes on a local hope, it only remains to be seen whether Murray can maintain a level-head and continue to take each day as it comes.

Along with his growing stature in tennis comes the growing pressure to continue to perform. Hopefully Britain will allow Murray time to improve further, just think where he could be in another couple of years.

Fear Factor: Andrew Symonds

The Australian One-Day team won’t be as fearsome without its dread-locked star Andrew Symonds. On Sunday the classy all-rounder successfully underwent surgery to repair his torn right bicep he injured against England recently. The injury sustained after Symonds cleared his arms to play a typically powerful stroke through the offside has thrown Australia’s plans for a third successive World Cup into disarray.

The powerful all-rounder, who cemented his name in the Australian team during the last World Cup, will be doing his best to recover in time for the latter stages of the tournament. Arguably the world’s most valuable one-day player the Australian selectors should have no trouble in selecting him with the hope that he will recover in time to have an impact in the last two or three matches.

Ian Chappell believes Symonds’ ability is irreplaceable and his absence will serve to bring Australia back to the chasing pack of World Cup competitors. Chappell outlined the all-rounder’s ability to instil fear into the opposition through his match-turning batting, run-outs, blinding catches and flexible and tidy bowling.

It is hard to doubt Chappell’s thinking, as Symonds has matured into a much more complete player in recent seasons. His fielding is second to none and he has ability to field in the ring with a powerful and precise arm. In the outfield his flat arm puts doubt in the minds of batsmen and simply his presence in the vicinity of the ball turns two’s into singles and singles into dot balls. Then there is the brilliance of his hands which regularly snavel ‘classic’ with envious ease.

His bowling has improved greatly and he offers the variety of handy medium-pacers and off-spinners that he can flight or dart in depending on the situation. Coming in to bat at number five Symonds faces a variety of different situations. Often he strides to the crease with just few overs left to put the icing on the cake and bludgeon the ball over the ropes, to turn a big score into a score that cannot be chased. Other times he is called upon to dig Australia out of a hole, build an innings and set a target, or guide Australia to victory.

In every role Symonds has become a potential match-winner and even if there is only a slim chance he will prove his fitness, the Australian selectors would be foolish not to take the risk and pick him in the 15-man World Cup squad. After all, according to Ian Chappell just hearing his name is enough to create fear in the opposition.