Monty's pep-talk inspires comeback

As team talks go, it fell a few cross words and one slanging match short of harmonious, but 24 hours after Colin Montgomerie's patented motivational speech - the "positive bollocking" - made its debut in the Britain and Ireland locker room at the Seve Trophy it achieved a qualified success in yesterday's second-day fourballs.

Three wins from the five matches left the men in red two points behind the Continental Europe team, which holds a 6-4 lead heading into today's greensome and foursome matches.

Ironically, the captain was on the losing side yesterday.

Montgomerie and Graeme McDowell, Britain and Ireland's only winners on day one, were defeated 3 and 2 by Thomas Bjorn and Henrik Stenson.

Perhaps Montgomerie will have given himself a good talking to when he got back to his hotel last night, presuming he had any supplies of anguish left after his dealings with Ian Poulter, with whom he has had a very public falling out and one very unconvincing reconciliation over the past two days.

The pair were seen arguing on the practice range after Thursday's play, which was notable for a lacklustre performance by the British and Irish team.

The problem was Poulter's decision to head to the practice range after he and his partner Nick Dougherty were beaten by Thomas Bjorn and Henrik Stenson rather than support his colleagues who were still out on the course, including Padraig Harrington.

The Irishman complained that the sound of the Englishman hitting shots was distracting him as he was lining up a putt on the nearby 18th green.

As it turned out, Harrington missed the putt to lose the match, at which point Montgomerie went off to speak to Poulter.

"Ian was not happy with his performance, and that's why he went to the range," the captain said. "But Padraig had a point, and Ian has answered that point. Padraig is now fine with Ian, and I am fine with both of them."

Full marks for obfuscation but looking at the television footage it did not require a diploma from the Association of Teachers of Lip Readers to see the exchanges were angry, to say the least.

For his part, Poulter sounded far from conciliatory last night after he and Dougherty defeated the French pairing of Jean-Francois Remesy and Thomas Levet, recording one eagle and eight birdies between them in the 14 holes played to win by 5 and 4.

"We all sat down and did our 150 lines like little schoolboys and took our medicine," he said when asked to explain the sudden transformation in form.

"I think (Thursday) was a lesson for us in not underestimating your opponent. It was a good kick up the backside for us, and made us go out and play well."

David Howell and Paul Casey began their team's revival with birdies at the first five holes. And their front nine 28, seven under, was then matched by Poulter and Dougherty.

Poulter then started the inward half with three more birdies in four holes and when the match ended on the 14th green they were 10 under.

Howell and Casey claimed the notable scalps of Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez by the same margin and were nine under.

Howell stated: "It was a disastrous day yesterday and we had a good team meeting. We had to buck our ideas up.

"Monty stuck with the same pairings and gave us all a chance. We just changed the order and went with strength from the top."

Harrington and Paul McGinley were sent out first and were an approximate eight under in beating Swedes Niclas Fasth and Peter Hanson three and one.

Asked about the behind-closed-doors team meeting Harrington said: "Monty was good about it. He was not treating us like kids or anything like that."

McGinley said of the Poulter 'incident': "It's no big deal. We are a team and we are not going to nail any of our players.

"Ian Poulter has shown a great bit of nerve to come out and beat Levet and Remesy, who played the best golf yesterday.

As if the Poulter affair was not enough trouble, Montgomerie then had to deal with the news that one of his team, the Welshman Bradley Dredge, had played the first hole of his match yesterday with 15 clubs in his bag - one more than the maximum allowed under the rules of golf - and he had to concede the hole to his grateful opponents, Maarten Lafeber and Emanuel Canonica.

Needless to say, the hole proved decisive as Dredge and his partner Stephen Dodd lost on the 18th green.

"It was a sickening feeling when I saw the four-wood was still in the bag," he said. "I thought it meant I was out of the hole and Steve could continue, but then the referee said it was loss of hole."

"It was really annoying to give a hole away cheaply like that - that was the difference."

Montgomerie accepted the development with a weary smile.

"What can you say to that? He has apologised and all of us on the team have accepted that apology. Obviously, he didn't mean to do it," he said.

He wasn't the only one smiling. With the other side engaged in a soap opera drama, the European team sailed serenely on. Underdogs before the event, Jose Maria Olazabal's squad heads into the weekend two points up.

"I pretty happy with the way things have gone," he said.

Weary he was not.

Guardian Service