Ireland open against Bangladesh in 2011 World Cup

CRICKET: Ireland will open their 2011 World Cup campaign with a clash against Bangladesh in Dhaka as they bid to turn over the…

CRICKET:Ireland will open their 2011 World Cup campaign with a clash against Bangladesh in Dhaka as they bid to turn over the Asian side for a third straight time in international competition, writes Emmet Riordan.

The Group B clash takes place at the 25,000-capacity Shere Bangla Stadium in Mirpur on Friday, February 25th.

Phil Simmons will know the task that awaits them after losing a one-day series 3-0 at the ground at the beginning of last year.

Ireland move on to India for the rest of their group games, with an enticing double-header in Bangalore against England (March 2nd) and hosts India (March 6th). Both games take place at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, which holds 40,000.

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They then head to the north of the country where Simmons will pit his wits against his former side West Indies in Chandigarh on March 11th, before finishing up the group phase with two games at the famous Eden Gardens in Kolkata against South Africa (March 15th) and fellow qualifiers the Netherlands on March 18th.

IRELAND WORLD CUP SCHEDULE: Friday, February 25th: v Bangladesh, Dhaka; Wednesday, March 2nd: v England, Bangalore; Sunday, March 6th: v India, Bangalore; Friday, March 11th v West Indies, Mohali; Tuesday, March 15th v South Africa, Kolkata; Friday, March 18th v Netherlands, Kolkata.

Doran-Jones called up as emergency cover

RUGBY:
For the second successive week England have been forced to delay the scheduled announcement of their Test team and scour the country for fit replacements.

The Bath prop Dave Wilson, who has a shoulder problem, still hopes to face Argentina but Martin Johnson was last night forced to summon Paul Doran-Jones as emergency cover. Johnson will now name his line-up tomorrow.

The 24-year-old Doran-Jones was born in Dublin and has played for Ireland Under-19 and Under-21 but attended Wellington College in Berkshire and is qualified for England, whom he also represented at schoolboy level. He has made only nine career Premiership appearances, however, since joining Gloucester from London Welsh this summer and his call-up underlines the paucity of England’s current prop options.

Argentina also have injury problems to resolve prior to Saturday’s game at Twickenham. The Pumas have to soldier on without two of their English-based contingent, the Harlequins winger Gonzalo Camacho and Leicester’s Lucas Amorosino. Camacho pulled a hamstring against the Scarlets at the weekend and Amorosino has a calf strain. With Marcelo Bosch also injured it leaves Santiago Phelan, needing to fill holes in his back line, with two home-based students, Santiago Fernandez and Martin Rodriguez, in line for starting roles.

French well prepared for South African Test

RUGBY:Imanol Harinordoquy is relishing the chance to test his strength against a South African side he regards as having the "nastiest" players in the world when France face the Springboks on Friday.

“South Africa are world champions, they are the best team in the world but they also are the nastiest and most physical team in the world. A team that is always trying to hurt,” the number eight, who will switch to flanker to bring more power to the French pack,said yesterday.

“Of course, they play inside the rules, they don’t stamp on you or knee you because now if you do that it’s a yellow card or even a red card,” he added.

“Our sport is changing but the fundamentals are the same. A rugby game, and particularly a game against the Springboks, is above all a fight between two packs of forwards.”

Asked if he agreed with Lucien Mias, captain of the first France team to win a Test in South Africa in 1958 who said that “in a sport of sacrifice, the Springboks have decided once and for all to be the butcher rather than the lamb”, he answered: “Yes, you could say they are butchers but I can assure you we are not going to be the lambs on Friday.”

FRANCE: D Traille; V Clerc, Y David, M Mermoz, C Heymans; F Trinh-Duc, J Dupuy; F Barcella, W Servat, N Mas, L Nallet, R Millo-Chluski, T Dusautoir (capt), I Harinordoquy, L Picamoles. Replacements: D Szarzewski, S Marconnet, S Chabal, J Bonnaire, M Parra, D Marty, M Medard.

Karlovic makes steady progress

TENNIS:Ivo Karlovic cruised into the second round of the Paris Masters yesterday after seeing off the challenge of Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas.

The giant Croatian was typically dominant on serve, with Cuevas failing to gain a single break point.

Karlovic took the first set on a tie-break before completing a 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 triumph to set up a meeting with Swedish ninth seed Robin Soderling.

There was disappointment for the home crowd in Bercy as Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu was forced to retire from his match against Viktor Troicki when 7-6 (7/4) 3-0 down.

Former world number one Marat Safin, in his final tournament before retiring, squeezed past French qualifier Thierry Ascione 6-4 4-6 7-6.

No southpaw problem for Lee

BOXING:Irish middleweight Andy Lee believes that meeting a fellow southpaw won't cause any undue problems in his home town of Limerick next weekend.

The ex-St Francis, Limerick fighter, who is not a natural southpaw as he is right-handed, will be hoping to achive the second part of an Irish double over France when he faces Affif Belghecham at the University of Limerick (UL) next Saturday.

Both southpaws should be in the ring minutes after the crucial Ireland versus France World Cup play-off match concludes at Croke Park.

The 2004 Irish Olympian and three times Irish senior champion is looking forward to getting in the ring at a venue which is just up the road from his parents’ house in Castleconnell.

He said: “The best knock-out of my career came against Carl Daniels at Madison Square Garden and he’s a southpaw so I don’t see any problem in fighting a southpaw at all.”