Section:GDN 1N PaGe:39 Edition Date:190812 Edition:03 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 23:55 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Monday 12 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •••
Sport^39
Rugby union World Cup warm-upSport
In briefRugby leagueWa kefi eld’s drop fears
grow with Hull victory
Hull strengthened their Super
League play-off ambitions and
increased their opponents’
relegation fears with a routine
26-16 win at Wakefi eld. The British
Army winger Ratu Naulago scored
two long-range tries in the Black
and Whites’ 15th win of the season
which enabled them to climb above
Wigan and alongside second-
placed Warrington. It was a far from
impressive performance by the
visitors but comfortabl e enough to
beat a Trinity side in freefall. This
was their fi fth defeat in a row and
their 10th in their last 11 league
games. PA Media
CricketMalan fi nds form to fi re
Middlesex up to second
Dawid Malan’s unbeaten 91 steered
Middlesex to a Vitality Blast victory
against Gloucestershire at Radlett
that carried them to second place in
the South Group. In imperious form
Malan entertained a sell-out
crowd of 2,227 as he fl ayed the
bowling to the tune of 91 from 59
deliveries, including seven fours
and four sixes. Gloucestershire hit
168 for eight in their 20 overs and
Middlesex fi nished on 156 for three
before rain gave them a Duckworth/
Lewis/Stern victory. PA Media
GolfJung Hur weathers the
storm to lift Open title
Mi Jung Hur won her third LPGA
Tour title with a fi ne fi nal round at
the Ladies Scottish Open. The South
Korean had a closing fi ve-under 66
in wet conditions at The Renaissance
Club to fi nish 20-under, ahead of
Jeongeun Lee6 (70). AP
▲ Mi Jung Hur reigns in the Scottish
rain after winning the Open title
Jones’s creative chaos
releases attacking
instincts but defence
remains a concern
Analysis
Michael Aylwin Twickenhamwhose big problems have been
defence and mental composure. If
attack wins World Cups, England
might even be favourites.
Unfortunately the adage about
what wins World Cups has it rather
diff erently. If defence wins them,
England are still some way down the
rankings, even if there were hopeful
signs of an improvement as Wales
raised the tempo in the second half.Familiar patterns emerged from
the start, England ripping Wales
apart every which way for the
fi rst 20 minutes, before Gareth
Davies picked up the loose ball at
the base of a twisting scrum and
ripped them apart. Davies is as
deadly a scrum-half as any but the
way he handed off a fl oundering
Billy Vunipola was too easy, as was
the way he rounded Elliot Daly,
England’s last line of defence,
with an ease that must have
had Mike Brown spinning in his
confi nement.
Vunipola might be said to
represent this England vintage,
devastating in attack but all too
easily confounded in defence. He
was fl ummoxed again when George
North picked and went in the second
half for his try at a time when
England’s discipline deteriorated
and it looked as if there could be a
repeat of the extraordinary events
against Scotland.
Wales moved to within a score
shy of the hour, having trailed byT
hese warm-up games
mean nothing, of
course, but that does
not preclude the search
for signifi cance. No one
had to look very hard
here. Wales could have gone to No 1
in the world rankings with a win
and extended their record unbeaten
run to 15. And they picked a team to
suggest these were landmarks that
meant something to them. Alas,
either they did not mean enough or
Wales are not ready to claim them.
It is surely the latter. They have
moved on to the shoulder of New
Zealand at the top of the rankings
courtesy of their most recent grand
slam, an achievement not to be
sniff ed at – but, as grand slams go,
it was hardly convincing, yielding
them no more tries, 10, than Italy,
the wooden-spooners. They
developed a happy knack of winning- or forgetting how to lose, as Warren
Gatland memorably put it. Here they
were fi nally issued with a reminder.
This was more or less the team
that won the grand slam. Their
fabled defence was torn apart on a
few occasions by an England team
for whom the categorisation of
“experimental” feels euphemistic.
Rumours of unrest have emerged
from England’s summer camp, and
Eddie Jones has been messing with
the heads of everyone with his rogue
decisions, picking debutants to no
obvious benefi t at this late stage,
replacing players at the last minute,
announcing early World Cup squads.
No one can work him out.
The feeling persists, though,
that creative chaos is simply the
Eddie way. Such antics can blow
up in the perpetrator’s face at any
moment but on the evidence of
this “meaningless” match it is
working so far. England continued
their attacking excellence of recent
times. What really stands out
about them is the way they cut up
teams early on, when everyone
is fresh and there are no excuses.
Their problem, famously, has been
maintaining it. Here was another
second half without a try.
But they do like to fi ll their
boots in the fi rst. It still feels weird
to say it, although it has actually
been the case for some time
(remember Stuart Lancaster’s free-
scoring England in the Six Nations
preceding the unseemly collapse at
their own World Cup), but England
are a team of lavish attacking gifts,
17 just after half-time, and were
starting to play as if they believed
they were the fi tter team. England
looked ragged but, led by the
ubiquitous fl ankers, Lewis Ludlam
and Courtney Lawes, on for Tom
Curry who had looked a million
dollars before his injury in the fi rst
half, they regrouped. George Ford
put his foot on the ball, as they say
in that other sport, and improved
game management looked as if it
might just be a new box ticked.
Time will tell whether defence
or attack wins this World Cup.
England are scoring tries with
abandon (24 in that last Six
Nations). Maybe that will be
enough. But Wales will tell them
there is no substitute for actually
remembering to win.
That spine of Saracens, yet to
return, very defi nitely know how
to but England regained that knack
in encouraging circumstances
without them. Wales, for once,
lost it. Who knows what any of it
means. Probably nothing.Billy Vunipola might
be said to represent
this England vintage,
devastating in
attack but too easily
perplexed in defence
England’s
Billy Vunipola
scores against
Wales but was
found wanting
for Gareth
Davies’s try
DAVID KLEIN/
REUTERSCatterick
2.15 Maystar 2.45 Desert Point 3.15
Delachance 3.45 Gymkhana 4.15 Ramesses
4.45 Tonto’s Spirit 5.15 B Fifty Two
Windsor
5.30 Englishman 6.00 Special Secret
6.30 Indian Creak 7.00 Mordred
7.30 Debbonair (nb) 8.00 Bhangra
Wolverhampton
5.50 Deconso 6.20 Dashed 6.50 Mainsail
Atlantic 7.20 Mujassam 7.50 Carmena
8.20 He’s A Laddie 8.50 Avenue Foch (nap)
Ayr
Abandoned (course waterlogged)Chris Corrigan’s tips
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