Sports Digest

Other sports news in brief

Williams out

RUGBY:Shane Williams has been ruled out of Wales' Tests against South Africa and New Zealand with a shoulder injury. The Ospreys winger was not named in Warren Gatland's side to face the Springboks at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday due to the injury, allowing Leigh Halfpenny to reclaim his place in the starting XV.

WALES(v South Africa, Cardiff, Sat, 2.30pm): L Byrne; L Halfpenny, J Hook, J Roberts, T Prydie; S Jones, M Phillips; P James, M Rees, A Jones, B Davies, D Jones, J Thomas, S Warburton, R Jones (capt). Replacements:H Bennett, J Yapp, AW Jones, A Powell, R Rees, D Biggar, A Bishop.

Campbell's season ended by injury

ATHLETICS:Irish 1,500-metre champion David Campbell has made the difficult decision to end his summer track season before it ever really began due to a chronic hip injury which will now require surgery, writes Ian O'Riordan.

Campbell was among the first Irish athletes this year to register a qualifying mark for next month’s European Championships in Barcelona when he ran 3:39.2 for the 1,500 metres in Sydney back on February 27th.

But, after a disappointing run over 800 metres in Germany last week, he has now resigned himself to missing the rest of the season in a quest to finally get his injury sorted.

Red Bull support drivers after crash

MOTOR SPORT:Red Bull wrote off their drivers' costly Turkish Grand Prix collision as a racing incident yesterday after earlier pinning the blame on championship leader Mark Webber.

Team principal Christian Horner said in an interview published by Red Bull that he and owner Dietrich Mateschitz had both had words with Australian Webber and German Sebastian Vettel since Sunday’s race.

“Dietrich has spoken with both drivers following the incident,” said Horner. “He has always supported both drivers equally and summed it up by saying: ‘We shouldn’t talk about the past, but concentrate on the future. The fact is that we not only have the fastest car, but also two of the best and fastest drivers’.”

Helmut Marko, a close adviser of Mateschitz, had blamed Webber on Sunday for not making space for his team-mate, despite the German turning in to the Australian’s car during the manouevre. Horner, whose team have started all seven races on pole position but won just three this season, said no orders had been given during the race for Vettel to pass Webber and both would retain equal status.

Deans makes some switches

RUGBY:Australia coach Robbie Deans will hand Super 14 player-of-the-year Quade Cooper his first international start at outhalf for Saturdays Test against Fiji in Canberra. The Wallabies regular stand-off Matt Giteau switches to inside centre, the position Cooper operated from during last November's European tour.

Giteau and Cooper’s switch is one of a number of positional changes made by Deans, who is experimenting with his line-up ahead of two matches against England and one against Ireland. Cooper’s inclusion comes six months after he was arrested for an alleged break-in at the Surfers Paradise resort, which led to him being ordered by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) to undergo counselling before being considered for reselection.

AUSTRALIA(v Fiji, Canberra, Saturday): K Beale; D Ioane, R Horne, M Giteau, A Ashley-Cooper; Q Cooper, L Burgess; B Alexander, H Edmonds, S Ma'afu, D Mumm, N Sharpe, R Elsom (capt), D Pocock, R Brown. Replacements: S Faingaa, P Cowan, M Chisholm, M Hodgson, J Valentine, D Mitchell, J OConnor.

O'Brien decides to delay operation on finger

CRICKET:Niall O'Brien expects to play in Ireland's upcoming One-Day International against Australia at Castle Avenue after delaying an operation on his left index finger, writes Emmet Riordan.

The 28-year-old Northamptonshire wicketkeeper received a steroid injection into the injured joint that will allow him take part in the county’s Twenty20 campaign, which runs until July 18th. Ireland take on the world champions on Thursday, June 17th, in Clontarf, a game that fits in well with Northants’ schedule, but O’Brien confirmed that an operation to insert a pin in the injured finger will be required down the line.

“Our club doctor has been speaking to the specialist and they seem to think that an injection for the time being will suffice and get me through the Twenty20,” O’Brien told The Irish Times yesterday.

“We’ll have to reassess at the end of the Twenty20 and I might need an operation then. It will need to be pinned at some stage so we’re just trying to figure out when the best time to do it,” he added.