Sports Digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief...

Ireland all but assured of final place

HOCKEY: Ireland all but assured themselves of a UCD Nations Cup final place as they trounced France 6-1 in Belfield last night. It took just 90 seconds to get off the mark, Chris Cargo picking out Mitch Darling, whose first touch wrong-footed Matthias Dierckens.

Cork man John Jermyn netted from the penalty spot for 2-0, his 59th international goal, and number 60 came a minute later from Ireland’s first short corner.

The goals continued to flow in the second half. Tim Cockram got a bizarre fourth, nut-megging Mathieu Dierckens. Darling’s second was a classy finish before Mikey Watt touched in from a couple of inches.

Jean-Baptiste Pauchet got the consolation goal.

Morgan on standby to captain England

CRICKET: Eoin Morgan is on standby to become the first Irishman to lead the England cricket team, if Stuart Broad fails to recover from his heel injury, writes Andy Wilson.

Broad is determined to be fit to make his first appearance as England’s Twenty20 captain in Saturday’s international against Sri Lanka at Bristol, and is expected to be fit to do so, having been appointed to succeed Paul Collingwood only last month.

But the England and Wales Cricket Board has confirmed that Morgan has been quietly appointed as his deputy. The 24-year-old left-hander from Dublin was a key figure in England’s ICC World T20 triumph in the Caribbean last spring, when the intelligence of his batting confirmed a sharp cricketing brain. He represented Ireland in the 2007 World Cup.

Guardian Service

Hair today, gone tomorrow

RUGBY: Japan outhalf Ryohei Yamanaka faces a two-year ban for rubbing on a hair-growth cream to try to grow a moustache, dashing his World Cup dreams, Brave Blossoms head coach John Kirwan said.

Kirwan said yesterday he expected the International Rugby Board to throw the book at Yamanaka, ruling him out of the World Cup in New Zealand later this year.

“He’s got a hair-growth cream to try and grow a mo (moustache),” All Black great Kirwan said. “Apparently he’s done that and it had a steroid in it and he didn’t know.

“Which is sad because he’ll get banned for sure. It threw our plans a wee bit out because ideally for the World Cup you need to take three (outhalfs).” Yamanaka flew home from Asian Five Nations duty in Hong Kong last month after testing positive and Kirwan does not expect the player to figure in the World Cup.

Olazabal seeks place in Open  

GOLF: Former major winners Jose Maria Olazabal and Michael Campbell will be among 288 players trying for just 12 places in the British Open at the final qualifying competition next Tuesday. Four courses close to Sandwich are being used for the 36-hole events – Littlestone, Royal Cinque Ports, Prince's and Rye. Olazabal's competition at Littlestone includes former Ryder Cup team-mates Peter Baker and Joakim Haeggman.

Early morning scramble for tickets

OLYMPICS: London 2012 organisers have insisted their computer system will be able to cope when up to 1.2 million people who have missed out so far scramble for the remaining tickets early tomorrow morning. There will be 2.3 million tickets available in this second phase, which is open only to those who tried and failed to get tickets first time round, though the majority – some 1.7 million – are for the football tournament, which organisers admit will be the most difficult to sell out.

The first batch of 2012 tickets were sold via a ballot, with more than 1,500 event sessions oversubscribed and a total of three million tickets sold to 700,000 applicants, but phase two will be available on a first come first served basis from 6am tomorrow.

There are a total of 310 sessions on offer in the second phase of sales, including 44 medal events. Twenty one events have already sold out.

Cutler looking to make amends

GOLF: Paul Cutler will strike the first ball this morning in the English Open Stroke-play championship for the Brabazon Trophy at Burnham and Berrow on the Somerset coast.

The 22-year-old Irish close champion and Walker Cup hopeful from Portstewart, who was bitterly disappointed not to get beyond the last 16 in the Amateur Championship in Lancashire last week, will be attempting to take a gigantic stride towards the transatlantic Cup battle in Aberdeen in September. He lines up in the opening round alongside English pair David Clarkson and Craig Hinton. Rathmore’s Alan Dunbar, Carlow’s John Greene, Reeve Whitson of Mourne and Barry Anderson of Co Sligo are among other Irishmen bidding for glory.