Sivivatu handed NZRU warning

MELBOURNE: New Zealand winger Sitiveni Sivivatu has been found guilty of serious misconduct after he pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife, the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) said yesterday.

The 25-year-old Fijian-born Sivivatu, capped 12 times by the All Blacks, was reprimanded by the NZRU in a conduct appraisal after a Hamilton court discharged him without conviction last month following the assault.

“The formal warning puts him on notice that we take the matter very seriously while the requirement for counselling is to help Siti work to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again,” NZRU deputy chief executive Steve Tew said in a statement.

“Clearly, we are very concerned when incidents such as these occur which is why we have processes in place to deal with them.

“At the same time, our major concern is that our employees and their families – in this case Sitiveni and his wife – have access to the support and help they need to deal with these issues,” Tew added. – Reuters

South African Els uses Wachovia tournament as warm-up event

CHARLOTTE: Ernie Els (pic) believes his second successive appearance at the Wachovia Championship could provide an ideal warm-up for next month's US Open at Oakmont.

The Quail Hollow Club, a tree-lined par-72 layout of 7,442 yards with three-inch thick rough, is running fast and firm in typical major championship fashion.

“It is the kind of golf course that I really like and I'm looking forward to it,” South African Els said on his official website.

“I had a bit of an up-and-down few days here last year but, despite that, I remember thinking straight after the tournament had finished that I wanted to come back again in 2007.

“In many ways, it reminded me a lot of the old traditional-like courses that we play major championships on. It asks a lot of tough questions about your game.”

Els, who opened with consecutive 71s at Quail Hollow last year before falling back into a tie for 38th, knows this week will place a premium on accurate driving.

“It's probably one of the toughest golf courses on the PGA Tour right now,” the twice US Open champion said.

“It's almost 7,500 yards and the fairways aren't that wide, so you need distance and accuracy off the tee to give yourself a decent shot at the flags.”

Els, who finished second in his most recent PGA Tour start at the Heritage Classic three weeks ago, feels putting is the only component in his game holding him back.

“My putting took up a lot of my attention last week but there's not much wrong,” the world number five said.

“Once I start seeing the ball going in the hole, it'll be fine. In some ways it's a confidence thing, really.

“The rest of my game is in good shape. I heard from a friend last week that the great teacher John Jacobs had seen me play recently and he thought I was swinging the club better than I have for many years, which is good to hear.”

Els, who won the US Open when it was last played at Oakmont in 1994, faces one of the strongest fields of the year at Quail Hollow.

Tiger Woods makes his first tournament appearance since tying for second at last month's Masters, and 26 other members of the world's top 30 are competing, including the entire top 10.

Second-ranked Jim Furyk, who has always loved playing at Quail Hollow, is back to defend the title he won last year in a play-off with South African Trevor Immelman.

“This is played on a very, very good golf course, it gets a very, very strong field and always has a very big purse,” Furyk said of the US$6.4mil event.

“Those three ingredients make a pretty darn good golf tournament.”

Also playing this week are 2005 champion Vijay Singh, who leads the inaugural FedExCup points race and has triumphed twice on the PGA Tour this season, world number three Phil Mickelson and fourth-ranked Adam Scott of Australia. – Reuters

Australian press lament bizarre ending to biggest event

SYDNEY: They might have walked away with the coveted World Cup trophy, but Australians were yesterday shaking their heads at the bizarre ending to the biggest event in cricket’s one-day calendar.

“Victory in tour de farce” trumpeted Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, which bemoaned the official bungling that saw the last minutes of the final against Sri Lanka played in near pitch-black darkness.

Confusion over whether the game had finished, which saw Australia celebrate victory for 10 minutes before being asked to play three more overs, had reduced the competition to an “international laughing stock”, the paper said.

The criticism did not stop at the rain-interrupted final played at Bridgetown’s Kensington Oval but extended to the entire tournament, which was dismissed as too long and boring. “The 2007 tournament will go down in cricketing history as being short on organisation and long on duration,” The Australian daily sniped in an editorial.

The contest was overshadowed by the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer after his team was stunned by cricket minnows Ireland, triggering concerns that match-fixing syndicates had again infiltrated the game.

Moreover, the World Cup was “dull and one-sided”, with Australia comfortably winning every game they played, leaving outgoing coach John Buchanan to say the difference between the Aussies and the rest was as “between night and day”, it said.

Such was the dominance of the Australians in the limited overs game that tail-enders Glenn McGrath, Nathan Bracken and Shaun Tait never had to bat.

The Sydney Morning Herald, under the headline “Blind led the blind”, decried the competition hosted by the West Indies as the “most tedious of tournaments”.

The absurdity of the Barbados final, it said, was “in keeping with a tournament that has witnessed everything from the murder of a coach to the erosion of supporter goodwill courtesy of overly officious administrators”.

The Australian eleven will none-theless be afforded the respect of champions on their return, with a public welcome home in Sydney on Thursday to congratulate the team and bid farewell to McGrath, who retired after the final.

In McGrath’s hometown of Narromine, locals are considering erecting a bronze statue of the lanky 37-year-old paceman or naming a park in his honour.

“Australia’s victory at the Cricket World Cup against Sri Lanka was nothing short of brilliant,” The Australian said in its editorial. “But while the team soared to ever greater heights, the Cup itself sank to new lows, with a farcical final that saw players, umpires, commentators and organisers literally groping in the dark.” – AFP

Malaysia will have to improve consistency, says Alex

PETALING JAYA: Inconsistency plagued Malaysia's fortunes in the second season of the A1 Grand Prix Series and driver Alex Yoong will have to overcome this when the new season gets underway in four months' time.

On Sunday, Alex lost the chance to defend his fifth position in the overall standings after a less than perfect pit stop in the feature race of the final round of the season at Brands Hatch Circuit in England.

He completed the 11th round of the championship with a fifth place in the sprint race and ninth position in the feature race. And Malaysia had to settle for sixth place in the 22-nation championships.

Among the highlights for the Malaysian team in the 2006-2007 season included three race wins, three pole positions and two fastest laps.

After a poor opening round in Holland in October, Alex came back strongly to clinch a double victory in the next round in the Czech Republic.

However, the podium finishes eluded him for the next seven rounds until he won the sprint race in Mexico last month.

Alex was in high spirits after receiving the Bruce McLaren Trophy from the British Racing Drivers' Club on Saturday and had certainly looked forward to finishing the season on a good note.

He was named as the recipient for 2006 for his achievements in the first season of the A1GP and is the first Asian driver to win it.

The accolade is awarded each year to the best Commonwealth driver competing in international motor racing.

Although the team slipped one rung from the previous season, Alex felt that it was still a good year for him and showed that Malaysia can compete at the top level of motor sports.

“At the end of the day, we had a very good year with three race wins. When we’ve been quick, we’ve been very good,” he said.