Quick slog trumps hard slog

A disappointing performance with the bat ensured that Australia began its home international summer poorly in Perth yesterday, with the T20 side caned by Sri Lanka. In particular, captain Michael Clarke made sure that the focus would be firmly on Australia's shortcomings, continuing his pronounced inability to make an impact on the T20 format with 16 from 19 balls, and leading his side to an eminently forgettable loss. What a waste. I think Clarke should have been on the other side of the country, joining his sometime New South Wales team-mates in a testing day on a seaming Gabba pitch, battling Queensland's probing line-up of seamers and cutters, hopefully batting for hours in a long struggle against the moving ball. Would that not have been a more productive use of the Australian Test vice-captain's time than attempting to slog productively enough to justify his captaincy of the T20 team? Would it not have been wise for Clarke to spend as much time as possible batting on the same pitch and in the same kind of conditions he will be facing on that first vital day of Test cricket in less than four weeks' time? No, for him to be paddling and scooping and slog-sweeping enough to get his T20 strike-rate a bit higher was the priority for Cricket Australia. OK, so sending the Test players back to Sheffield Shield for a re-programming against the red ball did not exactly work for Mike Hussey and Marcus North in Adelaide against South Australia, but at least they were getting their heads into five-day mode. That is what England is doing in the lead-up to the first Ashes Test, while Australia, in contrast, is leaving key men in the coloured clothing virtually until Test eve. You just know that when the Ashes kicks off in Brisbane, there will be lots of horizontal-bat shots and playing across the line from the Australian batsmen. They are simply not that good that they can segue smoothly from one format to another at the drop of a yellow cap.

Wallabies finally change the script

A great effort from the Wallabies in Hong Kong, to get up off the canvas in the final quarter of yet another Test against the All Blacks that seemed to be gone, and reverse a run of ten straight losses with wonderful determination and coolness at the death. Through that horror patch there seemed to be a mindset seeping into the Wallabies' headspace, a feeling of ‘we'll never beat these blokes,' an intuition seemingly confirmed by the floggings administered by the All Blacks at Etihad Stadium in July and Christchurch in August. But something changed for the Wallabies on the South African leg of the tri-Nations tour, when the last-minute victory over South Africa in Bloemfontein in September seemed to imbue the team with belief. Sure, that was immediately followed by a heartbreaking one-point loss to New Zealand in Sydney, which seemed to reiterate the fact that Australia could improve all it wanted, but simply could not convert winning opportunities to wins: but the belief was starting to flow in the veins. Also, and far more important than belief, was the conviction that Australia was developing the weaponry to genuinely trouble the All Blacks. The inspired move of Kurtley Beale to fullback, the faith shown in James O'Connor on the wing, the ball-running brilliance that Cooper brings to the line-up - although his defence was woeful on Saturday: this Jekyll-and-Hyde dichotomy in his game is a luxury Australia might not be able to afford. But these are all weapons and attacking options, of which Australia has been noticeably short against the All Blacks in recent times. Australia now has a shedload of both pace and attacking flair, which makes the long drought against the All Blacks bearable, if this end has indeed justified the chopping-and-changing means, heading into a World Cup year. New Zealand rationalisations to the effect that world rugby needed this result are patronising and annoying, but they're true. Is it too much to ask that there is an under-current of fear emerging under the condescension emanating from across the Tasman?

Clinical Kangaroos confirm England's fears

Another team that has talked itself into losing before it turns up is the England/Great Britain rugby league team, which goes into a game against Australia half-beaten when it sees the green jerseys. Although England started poorly on Sunday, conceding two early penalties and a goal-line drop-out before they had even left their own half, they led 8-6 after a Sam Burgess try and looked in with a chance at least to put the Australians under pressure. But handling errors in the Melbourne rain and poor defence allowed the Australians to stamp their class on the game and run away to an 18-point lead at the break, and realistically, England were not coming back from that. The English could say that they got the worst of the refereeing interpretations - particularly a forward pass for Australia's third try - but they lack the classy finishing of a Slater or the sheer composure and coolness of a Lockyer on the ball, to maximise the slightest of opportunities when they come. Australia simply handled the inclement conditions better and its defence was far more committed, and the sad truth was that a dry track would probably have stretched the margin further Australia's way. So if we think we have some mental issues re: the All Blacks, England's paralysing fear of the Kangaroos makes it look like a momentary pang of doubt.

Fighting Irish hit rock bottom

The University of Notre Dame is the Collingwood of US college football. It has the tradition of the Fighting Irish, the 11 national championships, the seven Heisman Trophy winners, the gold helmets, its own TV deal, the packed houses at Notre Dame Stadium and passionate alumni the world over. It is arrogant in its expectations of success and generally behaves as if its opponent is privileged to be able to play against it. Like Collingwood it is loved, hated and feared in equal measure. But the Irish have faded sadly from their glory years, with their last championship coming in 1988. The team has missed out on bowl games in two of the last three years and ended the year unranked (that is, not in the Top 25) for the last three years, a statistic that got head coach Charlie Weis sacked last year. Before the 2010 season the Irish enticed Brian Kelly away from a successful stint at the University of Cincinnati to become head coach, and an influx if talented recruits - something that Notre Dame's status has always been able to guarantee - had the team featuring prominently in the pre-season ranking projections. But 2010 is panning out just as badly as the Weis era, with the Irish hampered by injuries and last-minute losses. It reached rock bottom for Notre Dame at the weekend - over-shadowed by a non-football event. Last week, a 20-year-old Notre Dame student, Declan Sullivan, died while filming the team's practice session, when the scissor lift on which he was standing tipped over in high winds. The players, who witnessed the tragedy, had to prepare to play a home game against the University of Tulsa, an up-and-coming team but frankly, given the talent differential, one to which no Notre Dame team should ever lose, under any circumstances. Understandably the Fighting Irish entered the game with a less-than-ideal preparation: but after a sombre pre-match the on-field season got worse, when by quarter-time they had lost their starting quarterback, Dayne Crist, to a season-ending knee injury. A horrible week for Notre Dame ended with an intercepted pass giving Tulsa a 28-27 win, plunging Notre Dame to a 4-5 record and igniting a firestorm on the college football chat sites. Imagine the Collingwood fanbase with the team's finals hopes shot for the year, and multiply that tenfold.

Far from the glamour, track workers save Carnival

What a great chance for the Victoria Racing Club to show off the work and dedication of its course management team. After 75 millimetres of rain sank into the Flemington surface at the weekend, the VRC remained confident that a track that ended Saturday with a Heavy 8 rating could be back in ‘slow' territory by Tuesday morning, with even a possibility of a ‘dead' rating. The army of Flemington turf workers that descends on the track between races, repairing divots and plugs, and repairing, mowing and vacuuming the mammoth track in the evenings and three off-days that they get in the Flemington Spring Carnival week, is a group of unsung heroes that might be sung just a little bit more by the VRC this year.