Poetic Justice

Now that the dust in the Australian’s pockets has settled what has been the effect on the players involved, the sport and the country as a whole? I have a look at the facts and fallout of cricket's and Australia’s biggest sporting scandal for years. Rewind a few weeks and it was impossible, cricket fan or not, to escape the constant headlines breaking surrounding the ball tampering scandal fronted by the Australian men’s team. During the third test match against South Africa, Cameron Bancroft was spotted on the cameras attempting to manipulate the condition of the ball with an outside object that was later revealed as being sandpaper. This was admitted by the Australians who claimed it was an idea dreamed up by the ‘leadership group’ and that it was unique to this fixture only. Although, Steve Smith, the then captain of the test team did not name names, the group in question was perceived as himself, vice-captain David Warner and the man caught red-handed    Cameron Bancroft. So

With the Aviva Premiership reaching a tantalising climax with a single win separating third from seventh, how teams finish their campaigns is going to be pivotal to their final landing spots. The difference for some could be a playoff spot or missing out entirely and not even securing Champions Cup qualification. So taking on the theme of finishing I reacquainted myself with the 114 games of rugby (Rounds 1-19) already played in this year’s competition to find out which teams were finishing the strongest. Total points scored in the last ten (Season so far) Total points conceded in the last ten (Season so far) Last ten points difference (Season so far) Bath 81 87 -6 Exeter 103 53 50 Gloucester 50 68 -18 Leicester 93 46 47 London Irish 67 55 12 Newcastle 41 53 -12 N'hampton 46 71 -25 Qui