RUGBY: It does not take a great deal for a referee to arouse the ire of Dean Ryan, but the Bristol player-coach was incandescent when he left the touchside at the Memorial Ground, writes William Fotheringham.
London Irish tied this English Premiership match 19-19 after the stand-in Tim Miller's decision to award a penalty to them almost eight minutes into injury time when Bristol were leading 19-16 and Irish's kicking machine Barry Everitt duly converted to level. The draw restricted Irish's slip down the table to a single place, from second to third.
Ryan, however, was furious at the decision to bring in Miller to replace the experienced but flu-ridden Steve Lander. "I don't think that man (Miller) should have had charge of the game. We had a referee in the middle who was out of his depth, who was inconsistent and who had no control of the game."
Bristol outscored Irish by two tries to one, both taken in the second half. Everitt, who converted Justin Bishop's first-half try, had missed two earlier kicks. But he brought Irish back into the game with eight minutes left with one penalty and then took the chance given him by Miller when Bristol strayed offside.
BRISTOL: Best (Cadwallader, 75min); Rees, Christophers, Little (capt), S Brown; Drahm, Pichot; Johnstone, McCarthy, White, Archer, A Brown, Brownrigg, Short, Sturnham. Replacements: Contepomi for Drahm (half-time); Salter for Brownrigg (54); Blake for S Brown (80).
Tries: Rees, S. Brown. Penalties: Drahm 2, Contepomi.
LONDON IRISH: Horak; Cunningham, Bishop, Venter, Sackey; Everitt, Edwards; Worsley, Drotske, Halford, Strudwick (capt), Fahrensohn, Cockle, Dawson, Sheasby. Replacements: Kirke, Hatley, Hardwick for Worsley, Drotske, Halford (47); Bates for Cockle (54); Delaney for Fahernson (62)
Try: Bishop Conversions: Everitt 1 Penalties: Everitt 4
Referee: T Miller (London).
--Guardian Service
SAILING: Olympic Gold and silver medalist Ben Ainslie became the new 1720 Sportsboat European Champion at the helm of Tom Murphy's Peugeot Motocycles at the South Caernarvonshire club on Friday evening. Mark Mansfield took second overall.
One of Mansfield's younger crew, Peter O'Leary, rushed home from Pwellhi to arrive at the Royal Cork Yacht Club in the early hours of Saturday morning in time to defend his title at the ISA Junior Championships.
Victory for this year's Mirror World Champion Peter Bayly from Lough Derg YC with Niall Cowman in the other half of the event for the double-handed crews was the perfect end to a brilliant season for the 18-year old.
ROAD RACING: Paul Tergat was a runaway winner of yesterday's Great North Run from Newcastle to South Shields after pulling away from a world-class field just before the halfway point. But the Kenyan failed in his bid to become the first man to run the distance in under an hour in England, finishing 31 seconds outside.
"I believed it was possible to do - but alone on your own it is hard," observed Tergat. Julius Kimtai finished second in 61:36 with third-placed John Mutai making it a clean sweep for Kenya.
The women's race went to the wire before world record holder Susan Chepkemei edged ahead of Joyce Chepchumba, with less than 500 metres remaining, to record the second-fastest time ever of 68:40. Derartu Tulu finished third.
Ireland's Patrice Dockery was second in the women's wheelchair race.
CYCLING: David McCann and Paul Griffin tightened their grip on leadership of the overall and points classifications in the tour of Hoikkado over the weekend. McCann took his second stage win on Saturday while Griffin was second yesterday. The duo are first and second overall, while the Irish squad lead the team classification.
Closer to home, Ciarβn Power finished 35th and 55th on the final two stages of the Tour de L'Avenir and ended the race 33rd overall. There was bad luck for promising young cyclist Tim Cassidy who crashed out of the Acht Van Bladel race in the Netherlands with just 20 kilometres remaining.
GOLF: Gary Murphy had a closing round of 71 for 275, 17 under par, in the Grand Prix in Sweden. He finished joint 11th.
BODYBOARD: The new European Cup champion Heloise Bourroux from France dedicated her win in Ballybunion in Kerry yesterday to the two French surfers (Matt Walbrou and David Legleye) tragically killed 10 days ago on their way home from the last grand prix event.
