This morning’s sports pages, both tabloid and broadsheet, are united in their criticism of an England team who were woeful in a scoreless draw with African minnows last night.
‘Roobish’, shouts the Star in reference to both the shocking performance and star player Wayne Rooney’s tirade to the cameras immediately after the game during which he shouted, ‘Nice to hear your own fans booing you, that’s loyal support’.
‘Boring, Boring England are Cape Clowns’ goes the headline in the Mirror, with chief football scribe Martin Lipton claiming witheringly that at this rate, ‘England will be back home just after France’.
‘England stranded in Cape Fear’ writes Keith Duggan in the Irish Times, who claims that the abject display was far worse than the horror show against the USA and adds that there are suggestions, voiced by former England manager Graham Taylor, that camp In-ger-land is rife with dissenting players.
Ireland’s defeat to the New Zealand Maoris takes a back seat to all things World Cup on the back pages but the mood is decidedly more upbeat than it was this time last week after a stirring fight back by Declan Kidney’s men which just came up short in the end.
Kidney’s men dig deep to restore pride, writes Hugh Farrelly in the Irish Independent, while in the same paper, Tony Ward claims that after yesterday’s performance, out-half Jonathan Sexton should retain the number 10 jersey ahead of Ronan O’Gara for the clash with the Wallabies next weekend.
‘At out-half, Sexton did enough to warrant selection ahead of Ronan O’Gara in the final test before the summer break. The pivotal playmaking role has become something of a horses for courses in terms of the needs of the day (based on opposition strength) and on the most recent form of both out-halves involved and, on both criteria, Sexton shades it’, writes the former Munster and Ireland out-half.
On a cheerier note, all the papers are celebrating Graham McDowell’s race to the top of the US Open leader board at the halfway stage, after the Irishman shot a magnificent 68 on day two of the tournament to lead by two shots at the notoriously difficult Pebble Beach course.
