Poetic Justice

Exeter Chiefs - 1st My Prediction - 1st Review: Another superb season down on the Devon coast which culminated in the Chiefs topping the pile by eight points. Following the comprehensive victory over Newcastle in a manner now synonymous with Exeter, Rob Baxter's charges have succeeded in taking their title defence all the way. This season has once again proved the merits of the coaching and recruitment team at Sandy Park, the semi-final winning side featured only four of the same players to have started the Twickenham final almost a year ago. Players like Johnny Hill, Joe Simmonds, Lachlan Turner, and Sam Simmonds have all been revelations for Exeter. Despite a losing start to the season and a rare fixture that brought no league points (defeat to Newcastle in Week 13) the Chiefs have been far and away the best team in the league and they go into their final game on a streak of ten successive wins and five straight games scoring 30 or more points. Player of the Season: Sam S...

Mark Williams won his third World Championship title this year at the Crucible in Sheffield. His victory over fellow veteran of the baize John Higgins made the Welshman the oldest player to ever lift the trophy. The match itself finished 18-16 and was an exciting contest with the momentum swinging on numerous occasions, at one point Williams won seven frames on the bounce to go 14-7 up before Higgins hit back to take eight of the next nine drawing level at 15-15. Despite the high octane match it was what happened after the contest that will go down as the competition’s most memorable moment. The Crucible in Sheffield (Pic/World Snooker) Williams, having joked pre-tournament that he would do his final press match in the nude if he won was forced to honour his promise, baring all for a swarm of journalists eyeing an opportunity for the perfect viral video. An incident that helped put snooker in the sporting spotlight. The 43-year old has been a controversial character for a long...

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....

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...