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A good week for ...
The Warriors did a smart thing opening the doors for their friendly against the Cowboys last Sunday. The 16,703 crowd was the biggest turn out for an NRL pre-season match this year and probably more than the Blues could hope for in a dull round of the Super 14. A shrewd grab for supporters. One pundit on the Rugby Channel's Press Box tartly suggested that they thought it was a dole queue.
Newcastle are are dropping season ticket prices by 10 per cent next season. Portsmouth are likely to follow suit.
Good news for fans of James Bond and fast cars. Aston Martin will battle Peugeot and the holders Audi for outright victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours race this year. The makers of the classic Bond mobile will enter a petrol-engine V12-powered LMP1 car. It will be unveiled on March 8.
The Special One didn't bother shaking hands with Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of Inter's 0-0 draw yesterday. Instead he departed via a trapdoor. "My dug-out is a special dug-out." said Jose Mourinho. "I have a special door in the dug-out that means I can leave directly to the dressing-rooms. But yesterday I left a £300 bottle of wine [for Ferguson] together with a card saying that we will see each other at Old Trafford after the game so that he knows that I am always close to him, always friends, and that I will be there to speak to him in Manchester."
It's been, regrettably, a good week to be a fan of South African rugby. Look at the Super 14 table, look at the highlights from last week's round and, for a worrying glimpse of the next five years, look at Ryan Kankowski blasting around in Hamilton tomorrow night. Bunnies boiled
As much as we don't think much of Twenty20 round these parts, jeez it's good to beat the Indians. The guys are at the top of the world game, but on our shores they're bunnies.
A bad week for ...
Soccer fans in the north of England love the players ... almost as much as they love robbing the players. Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher is the latest Premier League footballer to be burgled.
He joins Liverpool's Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt and Jose Reina in the well-paid-victims-of-crime society. Reina's case was a pearler: his home was robbed in May 2007 on the same night he saved two penalty kicks at Chelsea to get his team into the Champions' League final.
When Fletcher first made United's top team, he didn't impress. In reference to a famously cursed Shakespearean play (and hinting that Fergie might have found a bit of a pet favourite), he was known not by his name but simply as "the Scottish Player".
Another bad week for fans of the herb. Michael Phelps has been dropped as the keynote speaker at two events in Canada next week, with the promoter citing the Olympic champion swimmer's "widely publicised alleged use of marijuana". No problem with his drink-driving conviction, though.
On which note...
Charles Barkley pleaded guilty to charges of driving drunk and could spend time in the big house as a result.
Charlotte Church has banned overrated Welsh midfielder Gavin Henson from hitting the turps. The dodgily coiffed one was questioned by police after a drunken celebration of Wales' Six Nations victory over England.
Everton fans were gutted that they had to reschedule a home game against Stoke because police resources were stretched by a British National Party march through Liverpool on the same day.
(Obvious punchline alert: apparently most of the constables had promised their mates they'd join them on the march.)