Two defeats in a week have not halted England’s drive for next year’s European Championship finals, but Saturday night’s 96-89 overtime loss against Hungary in Budapest has knocked Laszlo Nemeth’s team off course.
After surrendering a 14-point lead against Croatia last week, England again lost the initiative in Budapest to end this season’s first half of the semi-final round fixtures with two wins from five games. Qualification could now rest on the final fixture next season, against Hungary in Coventry, and the race for second place behind the certain group winners, Croatia.Nemeth, a former Hungarian international who was branded a “traitor” in Budapest’s papers for coaching abroad, said: “It was an entertaining game for the fans, but not for those who lost.”England faced Hungary without their top scorer against Croatia, Roger Huggins, who stayed at home for his son’s birthday. But his replacement, Neville Austin, gave England a 70-65 lead with five minutes to play.Andy Gardiner’s three-pointer 22 seconds from time forced the extra period, which was controlled by Hungary’s former Chicago Bulls playmaker Kornell David who scored 26 points. England’s captain, Steve Bucknall, was top scorer overall with 31 points.. Michael Withers, one of the revelations of last season, led the way at Belle Vue yesterday as Bradford produced what will surely be one of the more commanding performances of this. The Australian centre, an unheralded signing last year, claimed a hat-trick as the Bulls swept into the quarter-finals of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup. Michael Withers, one of the revelations of last season, led the way at Belle Vue yesterday as Bradford produced what will surely be one of the more commanding performances of this.

The Australian centre, an unheralded signing last year, claimed a hat-trick as the Bulls swept into the quarter-finals of the Silk Cut Challenge Cup.
Withers began the rout by intercepting Francis Stephenson’s pass after two minutes, juggling it on his fingertips and plunging over.His next contribution was to latch on to the ball when Leon Pryce beat Paul Sampson to Robbie Paul’s high kick and score his second.The sheer power of Paul Anderson, impressive in both attack and defence, took him through Trinity’s attempts to tackle him, and Nathan McAvoy raced away down the right wing to make it 20-0 before half-time.A Wakefield team extensively rebuilt over the winter, but without one of its main signings, Bobbie Goulding, whose groin operation will keep him out for several weeks, had just one genuine chance in the first half.It came when Sampson took Willie Poching’s pass and he showed real pace down the right only to be foiled by Stuart Spruce’s impeccable positioning and was wrapped up just short of the try line.That was just about all that the Wakefield element in Belle Vue’s biggest crowd for years had to cheer as the Bulls resumed the destruction after the interval.Robbie Paul’s inside pass to the excellent Brad Mackay created another try, Withers kicked ahead twice for his hat-trick and Scott Naylor’s strength and Hudson Smith’s eye for a gap yielded two more.Henry Paul landed five of his conversions and McAvoy rounded it off by again cruising down the touchline for the ninth Bradford try with a minute remaining.It was a display that left the Bradford coach, Matthew Elliott, unreservedly delighted. “The scary thing about it was that it wasn’t ideal conditions for open rugby and we still executed so much good play,” he said.”I couldn’t fault any of our players but Mick Withers was my pick. I made it hard for him by playing in about five different positions and he still comes up with a performance like that.”Quite apart from the quality and cohesion of their attacking play, the daunting aspect for Bradford’s rivals in cup or league was their rock solid defence, which never relaxed sufficiently to even consider giving Wakefield a consolation score.”We never asked them any questions,” complained the Wakefield coach, Andy Kelly. “That was our worst performance as a team for a number of years. We’ve disappointed everybody and it’s up to us to sort it out.”Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: Prescott; Sampson, Tatupu, Hughes, N Law; Maloney, Tomlinson; Stephenson, Hudson, Masella, Jowitt, Poching, McNamara.

Substitutes used: March, Price, Jackson, G Law.Bradford Bulls: Spruce; Pryce, Withers, Naylor, McAvoy; H Paul, R Paul; Anderson, Lowes, McDermott, Forshaw, Smith, Mackay. Substitutes used: Fielden, Boyle, Peacock, Radford.Referee: R Connolly (Wigan).. Andy Halliday, the Slough coach, has called for a rapid re-think of England’s policy towards the indoor game after his club’s disappointing three-day performance in the Women’s European Championship. Andy Halliday, the Slough coach, has called for a rapid re-think of England’s policy towards the indoor game after his club’s disappointing three-day performance in the Women’s European Championship.
Slough’s 3-2 defeat of Cambrai, the host French club, in their last game of the event yesterday was not enough to save England’s place in the A Division and follows a similar fate in the Nations Cup recently. Chelmsford, next season’s representatives, will have to contest the B Division.The popular indoor game is given little official recognition and Slough were further handicapped by the absence of four players selected for Olympic qualification, a burden neither the German winners, Rüsselsheimer, nor Spain’s Club de Campo were asked to bear.Halliday said: “Some of the problems this weekend stem from the way domestic indoor hockey is run and the EHA must quickly decide on the future for the indoor game.”. After the weekend’s Silk Cut Challenge Cup fifth round, rugby league attention turns to the first round of Super League V, which kicks off with three matches on Friday. On the Web, the early sites dedicated to the sport tended to be on-line versions of print-based magazines.

They are still on-line, and provide useful information, but there are also dedicated Websites worth adding to your favourites list. After the weekend’s Silk Cut Challenge Cup fifth round, rugby league attention turns to the first round of Super League V, which kicks off with three matches on Friday. On the Web, the early sites dedicated to the sport tended to be on-line versions of print-based magazines. They are still on-line, and provide useful information, but there are also dedicated Websites worth adding to your favourites list.
The World Of Rugby League is an international site, based in Sydney, but its coverage of the UK scene is far from cursory. Challenge Cup, Super League, and the Northern Ford Premiership are all covered on its pages. It has been running up to date pre-season news alongside reviews of the Premiership already underway.Country forums are hosted on site where readers can post news and comments on their own domestic scenes. Best of all, its rugby league links pages are the most comprehensive I’ve seen, covering live news bulletin sites, international sites, and clubs from the Auckland Warrior’s homepage to the York Wasps.The Sporting Life’s Rugby League news pages were also up to date, with all the latest club news and a club-by-club guide to Super League V with predictions for the season.

It is a handy one-stop site for club information, too – comprehensive club profiles are kept on site.Rugby League On-line describes itself as “the definitive guide to rugby league on the Internet” Definitive is pushing it; it is definitely useful though. It is a frames-based site, so the diminishing band of users who have resisted the temptation to upgrade older browsers are likely to be out of luck. Those with recent browsers will have no trouble accessing the information. Super League is well catered for, but so too is the Northern Ford Premiership and the Australian National Rugby League.The front page carries lead news items from each league, with internal pages set aside for news, fixtures, results, league tables and player statistics.