BALDRICK BORTHWICK AND HIS CUNNING PLAN
BOB BREWER writes
7/8)At halfway the table looked very familiar. Ireland and France looked as if the title was up for grabs for them and England hovered behind, having edged two victories by a single point. In both cases France and Scotland looked the more fluent attacking sides, spilling try opportunities galore as they gave England’s spirited defence plenty of action. Wales, abysmal in their first two games, let Gatland resign and then had a complete rebirth under their interim coach, but still no victory. Italy, as ever, looked much improved in their first two games but then imploded against a ruthless French outfit, losing by a massive 49pts. And an Italian, led the points scoring list. Tomasso Allan, or Tommy to his mates, had 38pts. Not many, if any quizzing rugby aficionados, would have predicted that back at New Year.
Just looking at the team points differences tells a story. At halfway, France +91, Ireland +28 and England and Scotland -3 apiece. Italy -54, even with Tommy, and Wales -59. I find Steve Borthwick so frustrating in his priorities. No mention of style or pattern of play. He said, ‘We have won the penalty count in two of our three games in this tournament and three out of four in the Autumn.’ Yes Steve, but in the Calcutta Cup game, after winning great ball at the breakdown time and again we kicked it a staggering 861 metres. Box Kicks are not Box Office. We want tries. We did win by a point and not lose by a point as we did so often in the Autumn, but I’m on the edge of my seat for all the wrong reasons.
There was a strange symmetry about Rounds 4 and 5. Ireland won two games but didn’t really flow, with Italy only losing by 5 points 17-22. Scotland beat an improved Wales by just six points and ran out of steam a little bit. France outplayed Ireland, with Dupont injured early on, to go top of the table and England scored 7 tries in a much improved performance in beating Italy, although the three Italian tries were a joy to watch. Were England now really in with a chance of the title?
In the end it came down to the last two games of the tournament. England generally find the Principality Stadium a daunting place to play, Welsh hopes were on the up and pre- match media posts suggested a huge upset might be on the cards. It was a demolition job by Borthwick’s men. Wales were out muscled, out thought and completely demolished by a record 68-14 defeat. 10 tries to England showing that the England coach had a Baldrick type cunning plan after all. I have to eat my critical words. England were impressive, relentless and ruthless with power, pace and flair. A sorry Welsh team had scraps of opportunity but fluffed their lines far too often. At 8pm France at home did a job on Scotland 35-16 with Thomas Ramos scoring 20pts to disappoint the Italian Tommy to top the scoring charts with 71 points. A French winner once more. Tom Allan was second on 45pts.
The tournament record of 93 tries was roundly broken with over 100 this year. Freeman for England and Bierre-Biarry for France became only the 2nd and 3rd players to ever score a try in every game in the tournament and Maro Itoje, in an era of substitutions, has now played every single minute of his last 29 Internationals. We’ll let him off for giving away a few too many penalties. A fascinating tournament with a super French team ending up as worthy winners, as so many canny quizzers had predicted.
4/5)Technically Pakistan was the host nation of the Champions Trophy.
In practical terms, India was.
India refused to play in Pakistan and there is no possibility in modern international cricket of doing without the Indian money, much in the news recently as the Hundred became an offshoot of the IPL.So, India was allowed to play all their games even against the supposed host nation Pakistan in the Never Never land of Dubai. Same pitches, no travel, practice every day, reliable weather. Odds stacked in Indian favour. As with Trump’s America-their way or no way.
The games played in Pakistan were decimated by poor weather, three abandoned. Poor Pakistan who had invested so much money in refurbing three stadia, so much hope of rehabilitation for the years Pakistan was thought too dangerous to visit. I was rooting for ANYBODY BUT INDIA but as so often in 2025 I was to be disappointed. Pakistan and Bangladesh were brushed aside. Australia was no match with their top bowlers missing. Everybody’s second favourite side, New Zealand made two visits to Dubai and briefly made India uneasy. The world’s best white ball side INDIA romped home more comfortably than the figures suggest and as the majority of you quizzers had predicted. Did they need the dice loading in their favour? INDIA but with an asterisk in the history books.
England was an embarrassment. One left-handed bat, no left arm bowlers in their fifteen so no variety. The fifteen included six bowlers as fast as any in English cricket; shock and awe in the opening overs but lacking any subtlety for the later stages. The batting line up contained too many players who thought it was a twenty over tournament. Perhaps they’d play better if it were called THE THREE HUNDRED. Other countries equally short of 50 over experience adapted and built their innings steadily. There were two English exceptions to this charge sheet, Duckett and Root, England’s TWO centurions.
3)NEIL SOUTHWOOD writes
The teenage darting sensation Luke Littler continued his path towards superstardom with victory in the UK Open. Recent years had seen the winners of this ‘FA Cup of Darts’ competition split evenly between homegrown talent and the stars from abroad. This year however it was dominated by the BRITISH contingent and World Champion Littler led the way with a series of superb performances to add yet another title to his growing haul.
The completely open draw throughout the tournament traditionally makes this one of the most unpredictable of the darts Majors to predict. Almost-unknown amateurs could get their chance to claim a big scalp or you might get two of the leading names drawn against each other in one of the early rounds. The latter was certainly the case on the opening night when two-time World Champion Peter Wright faced the current World Champion Littler. This proved to be Littler’s toughest test of the weekend, as he was pushed all the way to a deciding leg by the entertaining Scotsman. Both players averaged over 100 but Littler’s relentless high scoring and calmness on the doubles eventually proved decisive.
Saturday’s action saw him brush aside Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena 10-4 before making slightly heavy work of defeating the Pole Kryzsztof Ratajski 10-8. This was his only sub-100 average of the entire weekend – further reflection of just how consistent he has become so quickly. By the start of Sunday, only one non-British player remained and Gian van Veen was comfortably dispatched 10-4 by Littler early on the final afternoon. Michael van Gerwen had already succumbed to Robert Owen in one of the main early shocks of the weekend whilst defending champ Dimitri van den Bergh had an absolute nightmare in his last-16 encounter with Michael Smith. This was a rare year where the Brit quiz entries could be ticked whilst the balmy Sunday Spring sunshine still filled the arena.
Littler’s closest challenger in many tournaments at the moment is another Luke – Humphries, known as ‘Cool Hand’, and they have already had many gripping battles in major tournaments over the past few months. There was to be no dream final between the Lukes this time though, as Humphries was edged out by a resurgent James Wade 10-9 in the quarter-finals. Wade has won this title in three different decades and he rolled back the years brilliantly to stun the world number one in the match of the weekend. Littler and Wade then made short work of their respective semi-finals to set up what appeared to be a classic final between the two different generations. Sadly, it became a one-sided affair very quickly. Wade missed a couple of crucial early doubles and Littler’s power-scoring and clinical finishing saw him reel off the first nine legs on the trot, eventually triumphing 11-2. Can anyone stop him dominating the darting world in 2025? It would be a brave man who backs against him at the moment.
6)Just as in 2023,a 7 year old Irish trained horse rushed up the Cheltenham hill to win the Gold Cup by six lengths, MORE than the par distance of 2 lengths. Back in 2023 the winner was Galopin des Champs and he went on to retain his title in 2024.This week, Galopin was back, odds on favourite to become that rare beast, a three time Gold Cup winner. Oh dear, he ran a lacklustre race like several other odds on favourites this week. Get your Grand National money down now on Inowhaturthinking,the winner. The English-Irish battle is now so one sided that the crowds stayed away in their droves, fed up of paying £30 for a muddy car park, fed up of fighting their to the bar for a £10 pint and losing their money as Mullins’ eleventh string horse in a race romp home. You can tell I left a fair portion of the Snedden fortune with the bookies this week.
2)NEIL DEWHURST New Orleans, the Big Easy, for many was set to be the answer to the future pub trivia question of “where did the Kansas City Chiefs secure the first ever Super Bowl era three-peat” but that’s not how it turned out. Quite the opposite in fact, with the Philadelphia Eagles cruising to a Big Easy win & chalking up a Super Bowl win for the NFC in the process.
After the Chiefs made their way to another Super Bowl appearance (yawn) through a combination of fortuitous officiating calls against the Texans (roughing the passer, yeah right) & their yearly sneak past the Bills they were set to make history that had eluded even the GOAT, Tom Brady. The Eagles however punched their ticket through their unstoppable run game & the infamous Tush Push making light work of most regular season opponents then in the playoffs the Packers, Rams & Commanders
Under the gaze of two of the most polarising figures of current times, Taylor Swift & President Trump, the battle for the Lombardi Trophy played out in a way not many foresaw (yours truly picked the Eagles after watching a lot of NFL this season so…) with the Eagles establishing a big lead & dominating the game thought the majority of all 4 quarters.
On the Eagles second drive their famous brotherly shove helped them to a 7-0 lead, which they extended with a 48 yd field goal in the 2nd quarter to go up 10-0. With the Chiefs faltering on every drive the Eagles continued to press home their advantage adding a further 2 touchdowns including a pick six, before the half to rack up a 24-0 lead before Kendrick Lamar took to the stage. At this point thoughts of Brady’s comeback against the Falcons must have been stirring through the Chief’s’ fans heads as Serena Williams strutted her stuff, but nothing in that 1st half pointed to that idea / possibility having legs.
In fact as soon as the 2nd half began, the Eagles dispelled the very notion of a comeback with 4 straight scoring drives keeping the scoreboard ticking over moving from 24-0 to 40-6 sealing to deal with 3 further FG’s & a TD with the Chiefs only answer in that stretch a single TD. Such was the Eagles dominance that their back-up QB played out the rest of the game & while the Chiefs added 2 TDs each with a 2 point conversion to bring the score to 40-22 it didn’t much hide the absolute hammering they’d just received.
And so as the ticker tape fell on the worthy champions, who also got revenge for their defeat at the hands of the Chiefs that started the three-peat campaign in 2023 in Arizona, thoughts turned to what comes next. Is Kelce going to continue (yes)? Can Mahomes recover from this awful showing (I’d imagine so)? Will Coach Reid continue to do cringeworthy ads (I hope so, they’re fantastic)?
The Eagles are being pencilled in as the team to beat for 2025, & rightly so as their ground & air game was something to behold this season & looks set to continue again next season, even if teams look set to challenge the legality of their famed 4th & short or goal to go juggernaut of a play-call. They managed to make the Chiefs look less than ordinary, & yes the Chiefs played well below themselves on the day but throughout the season they had managed to find a way to win when it mattered: this time however no last minute made or missed FG or beneficial referee decision (yes yes I’m still bitter about the Divisional Round defeat) was going to help, they were simply blown out the water from the get go by an unrelenting Eagles team.
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