Why rugby is reckoned to be better than football

“I am probably attracted to rugby because it is a man’s game.” So the Sun reported “the shock conversion” this month of Jimmy Greaves from football to rugby. “Football has been part of my life… but I no longer regard it as a passion,” Jimmy confided in the paper’s news section, writing of his admiration for “the fighting sprit, which is missing in football”. This has been a common theme. As it did with the last Rugby World Cup in Australia, the oval‑ball code’s four‑yearly hijacking of front and back pages provoked a particularly vehement reaction against any and all things associated with football.

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The omens did not look good for Russia after Wembley, but in Moscow there was a rare success for Europe’s biggest underachievers. Saul Pope explains why the only English winners were the supporters

In the immediate aftermath of Russia’s 3-0 defeat to England at Wembley, a journalist at the Moscow daily Sport Express imagined the arch twisting over Wembley to be a noose around the neck of his national team. Russia seemed destined to fail again; despite having the largest population of all the European nations to draw on, the national team have not made it past the first round of a major tournament since becoming the official successors to the Soviet Union side, and they have a less than impressive qualifying record (just four out of the past seven major tournaments). A Russian friend with whom I attended that game glumly surmised that the only victory any Russians would get over England was the illegal smoking den hastily set up in the Wembley toilets at half time, which almost went undetected by the authorities.

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If you’re stuck in the office, can’t afford that away trip or are living on the wrong side of the world, then you still have to keep up with the match and plenty of people want you to do so online. Not all the web options are that compelling, though, unless you love throw-ins. Ian Plenderleith reports

Gary Lineker once famously remarked that it was more fun watching Wimbledon on Ceefax than it was to watch them live. That was before the internet, but with the advent of online commentaries, live blogs and constantly updated match trackers, there is more than enough opportunity to follow a game by sitting in front of a screen that is not actually showing the action.

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Dear WSC
The substitutes’ bench at a football stadium should be exactly that – a rickety, splintered wooden structure, also housing an elderly physio with a smoker’s cough, that players will be only too keen to get away from. Yet several Premier League clubs, including Newcastle and Spurs, have comfortable seats for the substitutes that look like something from the executive class on an aeroplane. These players won’t feel motivated to leave their padded headrests with optional vibro-massage function in order to run around in the wind and rain. What next – soothing music piped in through headsets? Treat them mean to keep them keen, for God’s sake.
Glyn Teasdale, via email

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Northwich are hoping a takeover will save them, reports Michael Whalley

Neil Redfearn certainly knows how to pick a club in crisis. In the summer of 2006, he quit the manager’s chair at Scarborough as they lost their Conference place amid a host of financial woes. The former Barnsley and Bradford midfielder might have hoped for an easier ride when he pitched up at Northwich Victoria this summer. He didn’t get it. Nine Blue Square Premier matches brought eight defeats and a draw. So Redfearn packed his bags to find something less stressful to do.

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