Sports Digest

A roundup of the rest of today's sporting news in brief

O'Sullivan confident of victory

RUGBY: Eddie O'Sullivan is confident he has the players at his disposal to take a valuable lead over Uruguay back to the United States following today's first leg of their Rugby World Cup qualifer in Montevideo.

O’Sullivan leads the Eagles into a last-chance play-off against the South Americans to make the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand as the Americas 2 qualifying side, which will take its place in Pool C against Australia, Ireland, Italy and the Europe 2 qualifier.

With the second leg on home soil in Florida on November 21st, the former Ireland boss wants to return to the States with plenty of points on the board from the opening match of the aggregate series against a team the Eagles have beaten nine times, losing only once in the last 20 years. “We’ve got a very solid pool of players selected for these matches,” O’Sullivan said.

Top English sports 'should return to free-to-air TV'

SPORT ON TELEVISION: An independent review, headed by David Davies, the former executive director of the English Football Association, yesterday suggested that the Ashes Tests series, England's home and away qualification matches for the football World Cup and European Championships, as well as the British Open golf championship, the Wimbledon tennis tournament and the Rugby World Cup should return to free-to-air TV.

Three events were offered up for delisting, with the Epsom Derby, the Rugby League Challenge Cup final and the Winter Olympics now vulnerable.

The English FA have opposed recommendations that England’s home and away international qualifiers become listed events and reserved for free-to-air television.

The FA insist they are best placed to judge the balance between getting the best price for television rights and ensuring maximum coverage. An FA spokesman said: “The FA has always sought to balance its commitment to secure maximum coverage of the sport for the viewing public with the need to attain a fair commercial value for its rights to help ensure that we are able to continue to fund critical investment into grassroots football.”

The Jockey Club, which had branded the list “an anachronism”, took issue with the review’s view that the Epsom Derby is no longer an “event of special national resonance”.

Sporting take giant step

SOCCER: A clinically taken 26th goal of the season from Conan Byrne has Sporting Fingal 90 minutes away from promotion after they defeated Bray Wanderers 2-0 in the first leg of the League of Ireland promotion/relegation clash at Morton Stadium last night.

Bray can feel quite aggrieved at taking nothing from last night’s mud bath lottery as they dominated the game for good spells, hitting the woodwork three times. Sporting took the lead on 53 minutes when Bray’s Chris Deans attempted to clear but the ball came off Stephen Paisley to trickle over the line for an own goal.

The second goal was pure quality 14 minutes later. Left-back Lorcan Fitzgerald whipped over a terrific deep cross and right winger Byrne arrived to score with a stunning side foot volley from 15 yards.

SPORTING FINGAL: Quigley; James, Maher, Paisley, Fitzgerald; Bayly, McFaul, Williams; C Byrne, Doyle (Foley 78 mins), Zayed.

BRAY WANDERERS: O'Connor; Pender, Deans, Foran, Cronin; McCabe (Kelly, 73 mins), Doyle, Massey, Coughlan; Flood (Tresson 78), Byrne.

Referee: Derek Tomney(Dublin).

Impressive Nadal advances

TENNIS: Rafael Nadal silenced a partisan crowd by knocking out local favourite and defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-5 with an impressive performance yesterday to advance to the semi-finals of the Paris Masters.

World number two Nadal, who has won the French Open on the other side of town four times but never this event at the Bercy Hall, will meet Novak Djokovic for a place in tomorrow’s final. The Serbian world number three earlier ruined Robin Soderlings hopes of making the World Tour Finals in London by edging past the Swede 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

Nadal, who still stands an outside chance of finishing the year at number one, faced a strong challenge from the powerful Tsonga, who loves fast indoor courts. But he showed more composure when it mattered.Serving for the match, Nadal won the game to love, finishing with a service winner after one hour 51 minutes.

Russian pair's appeal fails

DRUGS IN SPORT: The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) yesterday upheld a two-year doping ban for former world champion biathletes Ekaterina Iourieva and Albina Akhatova. The Russian pair, who tested positive for the banned substance EPO at the Biathlon World Cup in Sweden in December 2008, had appealed an International Biathlon Union two-year suspension handed out in August. They ban ends in December 2010.