Managers both then and now identified the need for an intermediate level and

Managers both then and now identified the need for an intermediate level and, though the RFU yesterday formally announced the abolition of the Divisional Championship, this is not the end of divisional rugby.Tony Hallett, the RFU secretary, said that as well as the visit already scheduled by Argentina, there would almost certainly be a second autumn Test against unnamed opponents – thought to be New Zealand – and there might even be a third. The manager had appeared to suggest England would have to revert to more tried, tested and more boring means.”It’s not easy to sit there hearing the England side booed,” Elliott said. “We are looking for a more ambitious game than we have in the past. It is, however, difficult to put that style into practice and it’s also not being helped by the fact that a lot of our players in their league clubs are not having the opportunity week-in week-out to play that type of game.”Elliott, the RFU’s national player development officer and a former England reserve hooker, might have added that such is the way the season is structured most England players had not had the opportunity to play any type of rugby during the four weeks since the defeat by South Africa.As his eight years as a selector span both the Geoff Cooke and Rowell eras, Elliott will recall Cooke condemning the quality of English club rugby as long ago as the end of the 1990 tour to Argentina. Elliott said the widely condemned performance in beating Western Samoa 27-9 would not deflect Rowell from his ambition to be ambitious. Rugby Union

STEVE BALE
England’s inability to develop the fluid and adventurous rugby about which talk has been cheap was yesterday blamed – as most of England’s ills have been over recent years – on the standard of the club rugby which is supposed to prepare players for international matches.In Jack Rowell’s absence another selector, John Elliott, was belatedly summoned to Twickenham yesterday to face a press conference arranged by the Rugby Football Union. Typical of their glee was the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper’s description of the tourists yesterday morning as the “Worst Windies”..

That performance followed an equally poor display against a weak New South Wales state side, who were denied victory by rain on the final day.But Richardson appeared to rule out sweeping team changes for today’s encounter with Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.”I don’t think a change in the team will solve our problem,” he said, adding: “The spirit is good because we’re better than what we’re showing, and we’ve just got to turn things around.”Australia’s media are thoroughly enjoying the West Indies’ recent suffering. “I just want to concentrate on the players here, but whatever the problem is I just hope it can be resolved,” he said.The dismal performance against Australia at Adelaide Oval on Sunday followed a four-wicket loss to Sri Lanka on the same ground two days earlier.In their warm-up games, the tourists were humiliated in an eight-wicket defeat by the Australian Cricket Academy, a young side with virtually no first-class experience. If we get one score and get our confidence back, the slump in form could be over.”Lara withdrew from the tour after being fined for a breach of discipline during the Test series in England earlier this year. While efforts continued in the West Indies to convince Lara to make himself available for February’s World Cup, Richardson said the left-hander would not be recalled for the rest of the current tour. England may have difficulty filling the No 3 position in the batting order, but that is nothing compared with the problems facing the West Indies, for whom things seem to be going from bad to worse. Their captain, Richie Richardson,, who has witnessed an alarming slump culminating in the West Indies’ record 121-run limited overs defeat in a World Series match against Australia on Sunday, said: “I’ve never seen it before, I’ve seen us have one or two bad matches but never four in a row.”
The West Indies top order, weakened by the absence of Brian Lara, has struggled for form since arriving in Australia at the start of the month for the triangular one-day competition, which also features Sri Lanka.”Our problem is we’ve got players who are capable, but who have to find form,” Richardson told reporters in Melbourne, the venue for Tuesday’s World Series fixture against Australia “We’ve just got to get one score.

In the process he cleared the red wall when it stood at a massive 7ft 4in.. Second place was shared by three riders: Ireland’s European champion, Peter Charles, on Blue Bayu, John Whitaker on Everest Randi and the Dutchman Wout-Jan van der Schans on Elpasja.Michael Whitaker also extended his tally to three wins yesterday when the remarkable 17-year-old speed specialist, Everest My Mesieur, won again – defeating the Olympic champion, Ludger Beerbaum, on Sprehe It’s Me.Guy Goosen, a 21-year-old Warwickshire rider, had put his name into the record books when winning Sunday night’s P&O Events Puissance on Sagrat. Equestrianism

GENEVIEVE MURPHY
Hugo Simon’s return to the Olympia Show Jumping Championships, in which he last competed 10 years ago, became even more euphoric when the 53-year- old Austrian gained his third victory of the meeting yesterday.Simon’s win on Gondonso in the Snowman Six Bar was particularly satisfying in that he had never the ridden the horse in a competition until he brought him to this meeting.The eight-year-old jumped the only clear of the contest’s fourth round, when the last in a straight line of five fences stood at 6ft 1in. Well aware that the time for his clear round could be beaten, he was obviously happy to see faster horses and riders with snappier names make errors while achieving swifter times.Robert Smith was runner-up with a slower clear on Tees Hanauer – leaving John Whitaker on Everest Welham and Nick Skelton on Showtime (who were fastest of all) in third and fourth places with a single error each.Hugo Simon’s return to the Championships, in which he last competed 10 years ago, became even more euphoric when the 53-year-old Austrian gained his third victory of the meeting.Simon’s win on Gondonso in the Snowman Six Bar was particularly satisfying in that he had never the ridden the horse in a competition until he brought him to this meeting.. Equestrianism

GENEVIEVE MURPHY
Wout-Jan van der Schans of the Netherlands became the unexpected recipient of pounds 16,000 last night, when he won the P&O European Ferries Grand Prix during the closing session of the Olympia Show Jumping Championships.The 34-year-old Dutchman, who is 76th on the world rankings, was first to go in the nine-horse jump-off on the careful but deliberate Leroy Brown.