Home crowd advantage

Home crowds will certainly be a factor in the final round of the Super 14 rugby union championship next weekend. The defending champions, the Bulls, are guaranteed a home semi-final in Pretoria, but the race for three of the four semi-final spots is beautifully open, with the Stormers, Waratahs, Brumbies, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Reds all with chances, even if only mathematical, in the Reds case. (And in the immortal words of Peter Helliar, "yes, but mathematically, I've got a chance of sleeping with Christina Aguilera.") Making it very spicy in this part of the world is that Australian teams could shut New Zealand teams out of the semi-finals, and vice versa. It all comes down to two massive games: the Brumbies versus the Crusaders in Christchurch on Friday night, and the Waratahs versus the Hurricanes in Sydney on the same night. For all four of these teams, a win will get them in. The Brumbies have the harder task, facing the hostility of AMI Stadium and an opponent that believes semi-finals are its divine right (as it had reason to believe, just a few weeks ago.) The Waratahs, in contrast, fill their fans with dread when they are expected to win. It will be a great night on the couch: remember the early start (5:35 pm) due to the time difference with the Inhabited Reef. And yes, I remember my call from two weeks ago that the Reds were the most likely Australian team to make it.

Felicitaciones, Mark

Congratulations to Mark Webber, for winning his third Formula One Grand Prix, in Barcelona, in commanding fashion. Despite some nervous moments at the first corner Webber led all the way, the first driver to do so this year (although that is now standard at the Spanish Grand Prix: this was the 10th year in a row that earning pole position has translated into the chequered flag at the Circuit de Catalunya.) In the end Webber easily held off the "local" hero, Fernando Alonso: it was only when true locals Pedro Martínez de la Rosa (retired) and Jaime Víctor Alguersuari (10th) were out of contention that the Catalan crowd could grudgingly bring itself to support the foreigner from Asturias. Webber was the fourth driver to win this year, in the five races, but more importantly he and Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel look like they will be well and truly in the mix at the business end of the season, currently placed third (Vettel) and fourth behind Jensen Button (McLaren) and Alonso (Ferrari) in the championship battle.

Not-so-pretty in pink

Melbourne found itself snookered on the pink on Friday night. It was so obvious, in hindsight, but the micro-management prowess of the AFL failed it. Strange, because the league seems to pride itself on the garish colour schemes of the umpires, so it's not as if the umpires don't possess luminous shirts borrowed from the US Navy guys who guide aircraft on to carrier decks in the pitch dark at 3 am in mid-Atlantic. But they didn't have them when the most glaring colour similarity of the season ensued on Friday night. It must have been that Melbourne Football Club sprang the Field of Women occasion on the AFL, and no-one at headquarters had heard of the club's desire to have the MCG painted pink.

Easy for Aussies

If there's a wooden surface around, touch it now: Australia's progress through the T20 World Championships is starting to get eerily easy. If 'Watto' and the Suburban Boy fail to send the white sphere to areas of three-dimensional space it was never meant to see - not to mention parts of the Bridgetown street plan - up steps Cameron White or David Hussey to shoulder the batting load. If Nannes or Tait doesn't get you, Johnson must. Even the spin component of Australia's attack fired on the weekend. In an absorbing tournament, Australia's major threat increasingly looks like the World XI - the team formerly known as England.

No Smith, no Storm?

An emotional let-down, only to be expected. That is the spin on the Storm's defeat by the Broncos at the weekend, in its impressive new lair. Undoubtedly the Storm had players sore from the Test match on Friday night: so did Brisbane. But the coincidence that Cameron Smith did not play is uppermost in the minds of Storm fans. Melbourne is full of rumours that suggest it was Smith's personal reaction to the salary-cap scandal and what was done to his club that sparked the team's initial response. Has the burly Queenslander become even more of a talisman to the Storm than before?

Ominous Evans

It was wonderful to see 14 Australians starting in the Giro d'Italia, particularly Cadel Evans, the 6/4 favourite pre-race. For the first time in eight years Evans has varied his preparation to include the Giro. Racing in the European season for the first time in the rainbow jersey of the reigning world road-race champion, Evans has been in strong early-season form, out-muscling Alberto Contador in the last 100 metres of the grinding final climb of the one day classic "Fleche Wallonne" in late April to demonstrate that he is on-song, and has shot out to an early lead in the Giro after two days. Evans is likely to drop back in the standing after the stage-four team time trial - in which his new BMC Racing team is expected to struggle - but after that, he will be looking to claw back time all the way to the finish in Verona on May 30. In particular, watch out for Stage 16 of the Giro, a 19.2-kilometre mountain time trial, reportedly a brutal climb with grades of up to 24 per cent, and a large slab of the route on dirt, which will suit the former mountain-bike ace. If Evans wins that stage, watch for his 25/1 price for the Tour de France start to firm.