SPORT
96
10 - 16 October 2019
ROYAL SPECTATORS Aston Villa had Royal approval as Prince William took his family to watch Aston Villa away to Norwich City at Carroll Road and celebrated a 1-5 win.
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Looked like relegation fodder
AS the Spurs players left the tunnel at the weekend, most of them looked very serious. Harry Kane had the expression of someone who’s fed up of losing after Tottenham were smashed once again. Brighton were actually playing a back four, with Burn at leftback and Alzate to the right of centre in a diamond mid field. On just three minutes Burn’s overhit cross from the left forced Lloris to backpedal towards his own line. He made a splitsecond decision to catch the ball instead of pushing it over the bar, but he misjudged where he was in relation to the goal line. As he caught the ball, his momentum took him over the line, so he had to drop it in front of an open goal. Maupay NIGEL OWEN blew his whistle and Benjamin Urdapilleta kicked off for Argentina. Ben Youngs took the ball from the back of the ensuing ruck and kicked it up the field. Argentina took possession and went through the phases as they made their way up the the pitch. With England under pressure, Elliot Daly put in a brilliant tackle to prevent Santiago Carreras from going over in the corner. Referee Nigel Owens took Owen Farrell to one side and pointed out three different penalties his team could have conceded. Argentina got one of those penalties for a noarms tackle by
reacted fastest to head it in from a yard. Lloris landed badly and looked in seri ous pain. He wasn’t able to continue as Brighton took the early lead. After a delay of around five minutes, Lloris was stretchered off the field and given oxygen. Paulo Gazzaniga replaced him. Brighton were the better team and now led by two. Burn hit a bouncing cross towards the near post, where Connolly got in front of Davies to flick the ball towards goal from six yards. Gazzaniga made a brilliant save, low to his left, but Connolly reacted first to steer the loose ball into the net. Thirty two minutes in and woeful Tottenham were 02 down. It was a full debut for Brighton’s Aaron Connolly. He was a pest all day and went on to score his
second goal. The move started when he made a fine run from centre to left to receive Dunk’s long pass. Then he cut back inside, shifted the ball away from Alderweireld and cracked a superb low shot into the far corner from 15 yards to put Spurs 03 down within 65 minutes. The Man of the Match was Aaron Connolly, he took Spurs expensive so called stars apart having more determi nation than the whole of the lacklustre Tottenham side. The focus, inevitably, will be on a to tally awful Spurs performance and a horrible injury to Hugo Lloris. His season most likely over whilst Tottenham are quite frankly looking relegation fodder. Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham’s Manager said after another defeat: “Hugo’s injury had a massive emo tional impact on the team, and we lost
IN PAIN: Hugo Lloris had to be stretchered off the pitch.
a goal as well. We tried to find a solu tion in the second half, a different way to play, but it was impossible. We are living a tough moment. We need to keep going and stick together. I feel sor ry for the fans. It’s not easy, after five and a half years this is the first tough
moment we are living. It’s new for all of us. I hope the pressure comes on me, not the players. We cannot underesti mate this kind of situation, but in the times that are not so good there is al ways the possibility to make things stronger.”
England make quarter finals Kyle Sinckler. Owens told Farrell to warn his players that there was a yellow card in the post. Benjamin Urdapilleta took the penalty and England went behind, 03. England hit back immediately. A drive for the Argentina line af ter a good take from Mario Itoje was stopped illegally. With a penalty to fall back on, England had a freebie and played the ball out to the wing. Jonny May went over in the corner after George Ford had drawn two tacklers be fore finding his teammate out by the touchline. Owen Farrell
pulled his conversion wide of the left upright so the score went to 53, England leading. The 17th minute saw a hit by Tomas Lavanini on Owen Farrell. It was high and Nigel Owens went to his TMO. Argentina went down to 14 men as Tomas Lavanini was shown a red card. The 34th minute saw good play from England, who were just a couple of metres from the Ar gentina line. They sent the ball out wide George Ford swung it towards El liot Daly, who juggled it before
gaining control and cutting inside two Argentinians to go over. Owen Farrell missed yet another kick, hitting the post with his con version attempt. The scoreline stood at 103. After a surge towards the line from Man Tuilagi, Billy Vunipola took the ball from the bottom of the ruck and passed to Ben Youngs. He spotted a gap and nipped through to touch down, as Pablo Matero missed the tack le for Argentina. Owen Farrell made it zero from four on the kicking front. England went in at half time 153 up.
Play resumed, Billy Vunipola, who suffered an ankle injury to wards the end of the first half, re placed by Lewis Ludlam. Argenti na, who were down to 14 men following the dismissal of Tomas Lavanini, made no changes. Having dragged the Argentina defence from one side of the pitch to the other on 44 minutes. Jonny May went for the corner and was tackled. Underhill and Tuilagi drew the tacklers with a couple of good carries before Jonny May went over in the cor ner. Owen Farrell finally got his kicks aligned and put one over to make it 223 to England. Argentina changed their front row: Agustin Creevy, Mayco Vi vas and Santiago Medrano came on for the graveyard shift. England were in control. George Ford pinned them back on their own line with a fine kick to the corner. Argentina won the lineout and cleared their lines.
Santiago Carrera gave away a penalty for going off his feet, but Nigel Owens played advantage. He called a second advantage when Santiago Medrano strayed offside. England took a penalty on the Argentina 22 and Owen Farrell slotted it over having found his shooting boots. Score increased to 253. Matias Moroni exploited a gap in the England defence, stepped out of a lastditch tackle by Manu Tuilagi and went over under the posts for Argentina. The try was converted. Argentina had not giv en up moving the score to 2510. Excellent play from Jack Now ell after Jonny May broke the Ar gentina line with a dash through the centre. Farrell’s conversion kick went over, taking a bounce off the left upright on its way. Eng land’s lead increased to 3210. On 78 minutes England drove over from about 10 metres out for their sixth try of the game. Owen Farrell took the last kick of the game, sealing a comfort able win for England.