• Gunners aren't good enough, insists German
• 'Football is not playing nice passes. Football is winning games'

Michael Ballack has said the championship is now between only Chelsea and Manchester United, and has told Arsène Wenger to stop making excuses for Arsenal's inability to win crucial games against their title rivals.

The Germany midfielder branded Arsenal too predictable, and said it may be impossible for the club to ever win anything – their last trophy was the FA Cup, five years ago – unless Wenger is able to make the team more tactically flexible. Arsenal now sit third in the league following their 2-0 defeat on Sunday, nine points behind Chelsea, who lead United by two points.

Ballack was clear when asked if the Premier League has become a two-horse race. "It looks like it," he said. "It's a race between Manchester United and us. But as I said a few weeks ago, it can go quickly that somebody drops points. But at the moment it looks like it's down to the two of us."

Responding to Wenger's comments that he believed the best team had lost, Ballack was dismissive. "I think he always says this when he loses. When he loses he always finds an excuse.

"But football is not possession on the ball or playing nice passes. Good football is winning games and that's what we do when we play against them. We deserved the win because we played very effectively. It was how we wanted to play before the game. It was our strategy. Maybe in the second half we concentrated a bit too much on defending but if you're 2-0 up you can do this.

"For me good football is a mix of winning, successful football, mental strength, good football technically and also physically. I think we have a good mix in the team and we have done this all season. We can't do more. First in the table."

An ongoing criticism of Arsenal under Wenger is that the team is unable to switch tactics from its free-flowing, passing style, and is also unable to deal with more muscular opponents.

Ballack confirmed that Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager, had focused on this. He said: "We want to do our job. We knew the way they would play – we saw it in the first game we played against them [when Chelsea won 3-0 at the Emirates in November] and in the way they played against Manchester United last week [when Arsenal lost 3-1]. It is always the same style. If you get your tactics right like we did today I think you can beat them. That's what we did."

Ballack, who also echoed Didier Drogba's support for John Terry after his loss of the England captaincy, was asked directly if Arsenal would ever win anything playing with their current style. "This season and the [last] season they didn't show they were able to win the league," he said.

The 33-year-old explained why he feels Chelsea are able to challenge for major honours. "We have a lot of big-game players and big characters at Chelsea. That is why we are a good team and it's really great to be part of this club," he said. "Everybody fights for everybody, there is good spirit and good experience in the group, we've had a few years together and there is a lot of personal quality among the players. Even if we don't play a fantastic game we have a few players who can decide a game with one action."

Ballack gave particular praise to Drogba, who scored both of Chelsea's goals against Arsenal. The striker now has 12 in 12 games against Wenger's team. "He is such an important player for us. In big games like this he is always there. That's why he is such a big player," said Ballack. "Two fantastic goals, the second was a great one.

"He's a very individual type. The way he plays he's a different type compared to [Wayne] Rooney or [Andrey] Arshavin. He has unbelievable physical strength combined with technical finishing. He has a lot of qualities and not a lot of players have this. It is much better to playing with him than against him."

• 'It's important that we keep the feelgood factor'
• Liverpool have not won at Arsenal for over 10 years

Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool can increase Arsenal's troubles with their first win at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow night and admits Rafael Benítez's team must not squander the initiative provided by victory in the Merseyside derby.

Liverpool returned to the top four for the first time since October with Saturday's 10-man defeat of Everton and can close the gap on Arsenal to just two points with victory at the Emirates.

They have not won at Arsenal in 10 years, when Titi Camara scored in a 1‑0 win at Highbury, but head to London on the back of 17 points from a possible 21 and four consecutive clean sheets. Liverpool's recent displays have been ­spirited rather than scintillating but Carragher believes confidence has been restored by the manner of victory in the 213th Merseyside derby and that, even with Arsenal and Manchester City away to come, Benítez's side can strengthen their claims to Champions League qualification.

"In one sense it is more than three points because everyone was buzzing in the dressing room on Saturday, but that can quickly change if we don't build on the result," said Carragher. "It's important that we keep the feelgood factor that we've got until after the Arsenal game, and if that is to happen we'll have to make sure we get a good result. Arsenal have been at the Emirates for a couple of years and I don't think we've had a win there yet. So it's something we're going to have to do sooner or later and hopefully Wednesday will be the time. We're going into it in a great frame of mind, but Arsenal is always a difficult game."

Sotirios Kyrgiakos will start a three-match suspension tomorrow as a result of his dismissal in the derby but Steven ­Gerrard, echoing Carragher's sentiments, believes the Everton result can be the foundation for an improved run of form.

The Liverpool captain said: "Arsenal away is always tough but we have used beating Everton as a platform in the past and we've got to do it again. We want to extend our run and go on to better things. We know there is a long way to go and we want to make sure we are in the top four at the end of the season.

"It's performances like Everton that will get you in there. We have got to try and keep this run going, as we can't afford any slip-ups. There is pressure coming from Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa. There are a couple of very tough games coming up but if we can show what we have done in the last six games, I don't see why we can't maintain it."

• 'It'll be Armageddon if we go down - worse than Newcastle'
• Pay reductions reported to amount to 25% of salaries

The West Ham co-owner David Sullivan has revealed that players and management staff will be asked to take a salary cut even if the club avoids relegation from the Premier League and has warned that it will be "Armageddon" if the Londoners go down.

"Everyone will be asked to take a cut this summer," Sullivan told the Sun, which reported that the pay reductions would amount to 25% of their salaries.

High earners such as Scott Parker and Kieron Dyer, who reportedly take home around £65,000-a-week are among those who may be affected, as well as the England defender Matthew Upson.

The full scale of the financial crisis at Upton Park is made clear in documents which the paper claims reveal the club owes £15m to other teams in outstanding fees for its current squad assembled for a costly £75m.

"It'll be Armageddon if we go down. It'll be worse than what's gone on at Newcastle," said Sullivan. "I can't believe the contracts I've inherited. Every position is overpaid, whether in administration or on the playing side. All are earning more than they would at other clubs.

"We have made cutbacks already but may have to make another 20 or 30 people redundant by the summer. We have already had people in senior positions offer to take a voluntary 25% reduction to keep their jobs. It's been gratefully accepted. If someone is doing a good job but is overpaid you still want to keep them. But many people at the training ground should take a voluntary pay cut. There's an army of people supporting the first team. Everyone at the club will be asked to take a salary cut in the summer. The club is in a mess and we all have to pull together. If we go down I can't even consider the situation."

West Ham, two places off the bottom, face Sullivan and David Gold's former club Birmingham City at Upton Park tomorrow evening. Gold has said he hopes his new club "whack" Alex McLeish's side.

"I was at Birmingham City for years and it was great – but I really want to whack them," he said. "I have a great fondness for Birmingham but it was said the way it ended. I am a lot wiser now than when I went there 17 years ago and I want to win. My allegiance is to West Ham – that it where my heart and sole is and I think of my mum looking down and going: 'Come on you Hammers.'"

• Plans for annual Twenty20 festivals may fall foul of ECB
• Rajasthan link-up with Hampshire and Cape Cobras

Grand plans announced yesterday by the Rajasthan Royals to stage a Twenty20 cricket festival in England this July will be met with stiff resistance from the England and Wales Cricket Board. Rajasthan, who won the first Indian Premier League, launched their franchise concept at Lord's yesterday with their captain and former Hampshire player Shane Warne.

Rajasthan are entering into partnership with four teams from around the world, including Hampshire. The South African side Cape Cobras and Trinidad & Tobago are also joining the brand, while the Victorian Bushrangers are in negotiations.

A statement from the organisers read: "Royals2020 will be a dynamic partnership of leading cricket clubs with the aim of creating the 'World's First Global Sporting Franchise'."

The teams will play under the same name, wear identical kit and share players and profits. At the centre of the plan is a series of annual Royals Festivals, the first of which is slated to be staged in England over three days at the end of July. However, the ECB must rubber-stamp any professional tournament in England and there would be no advantage in sanctioning the competition in case it deflected attention away from the relaunch of England's own Twenty20 cup. The date suggested for the inaugural Royals Festival, somewhere among the 10 days at the end of July, would clash with the quarter-finals of the domestic Twenty20.

It is also believed that Sky TV would claim automatic rights to coverage of any tournament in England under the terms of its rights agreement and the ECB – already shaken by potential losses should the government rule that the Ashes must return to free-to-air television – would be bound to support them.

There is a third reason, too, why the ECB would oppose the idea: the criticism that the domestic programme is already overcrowded. The ECB has yet to receive an official application from Rajasthan Royals. When they do, it will be referred to a sub-committee, which will consider whether the proposals will benefit the game in England. Middlesex did gain authorisation for a one-day game against the Royals last summer, and if Hampshire requested the same the odds are that it would be rapidly agreed. A tournament, though, might well be regarded as a dangerous precedent.

The franchise concept will be monitored closely by other IPL teams, who are likely to follow suit. Middlesex and Leicestershire had also been in negotiations with Rajasthan. The Delhi Daredevils already have a memorandum of understanding with Nashua Titans of South Africa regarding player exchanges and commercial tie-ins and the Kolkata Knight Riders are known to be keen to get involved in the England.

The Rajasthan Royals chairman, Manoj Badale, acknowledged that the biggest single obstacle to be overcome in the scheme was the opposition of national boards.

"There is the potential for issues around scheduling, and around ensuring that anything we do with our partner clubs adheres to domestic regulations, and being sensitive about the media rights constraints that exist around the world." Despite that, further Royals Festivals have been scheduled to take place in Australia, South Africa and the UAE over the next 18 months.

• Second-row escapes with warning about future behaviour
• Warren Gatland keeps faith with player for Scotland game

Wales are set to keep faith with the second-row Alun Wyn Jones when they name their team to face Scotland in ­Cardiff on Saturday. Jones was accused by his coach, Warren Gatland, of costing his side victory at Twickenham last weekend after he was sent to the sin bin for a trip and England scored 17 unanswered points in his absence.

Gatland said after the 30-17 defeat that he would consider dropping Jones, who led Wales against Italy in last year's Six Nations, but he has since calmed down and is likely to content himself with a stern rebuke and a warning about future behaviour.

"We've all made mistakes and Alun Wyn did on the weekend," said the Wales kicking coach, Neil Jenkins. "We've had other players in the past who have been sin-binned and we've come through it unscathed. That was not the case on Saturday, but that is how it goes. Things get said, but I do not think he will be dropped.

"We have learned from it and moved on. Alun is a superb player and we have to make sure that we do not lose our discipline against Scotland. Alun will not have to prove anything on Saturday. He knows he made a mistake but he has learned his harsh lesson."

The Wales wing Shane Williams said the players were behind Jones. "We are ­sticking by him," he said. "I know there were a number of unhappy Welsh people on Saturday, but no one is more disappointed than Alun Wyn. If I know him, he will bounce back even stronger from this and I hope he plays on Saturday because he is one of our best players."

Wales hope to have the prop Gethin Jenkins fit to face Scotland after he missed the Twickenham trip with a calf strain, but his fellow Lion Matthew Rees may need surgery to sort out a recurrent groin problem. Jenkins will return to full ­training on Thursday, when Wales will decide whether Rees should have an operation, which would rule him out for the rest of the season, or play on.

The scrum-half Dwayne Peel, another groin victim, hopes to make his comeback for Sale at Wasps on Sunday while Wales's first choice in the position, Mike ­Phillips, who has not played since damaging ankle ligaments last October, hopes to play in a club match this weekend before returning to action with the Ospreys next week.

Wales may have lost the chance of a grand slam, but Williams said they still had all to play for. "We have four matches to go and we can win the title. It is not an impossible task but we know he will have to be far better against Scotland than we were at Twickenham."

Venerating Howard Hawks at the expense of Humphrey Bogart makes a kind of sense, but it translates badly to sport

Every now and then we need to be reminded that sport is about the people who play it, not those who design the way it is played. This may not be the most appropriate thought in the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl, the pinnacle of a sport that introduced us to coaches with earpieces absorbing information from spotters seated high up in the stands, but it was reassuring to hear that a degree of player power was apparently exercised in the run-up to England's victory over Wales at Twickenham on Saturday.

It may have been not much more than a healthy and perfectly natural exchange of opinions, slightly exaggerated in the retelling. But it was interesting that, in the days leading up to the match, several England players put their heads above the parapet to observe that something had to change about the way Martin Johnson's team were performing. And although the team's aura of stolidity was not dispelled overnight, at least there was a bit more of a sense that the players were being allowed to express themselves.

Whatever it was that took place, it seems to work for England. Back in 2003, after a series of turgid victories had taken Clive Woodward's side to the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup, the senior players – Johnson among them – quietly exerted a greater degree of control as they faced the closing stages of the tournament. Not surprisingly, perhaps, "player power" appears nowhere in the index to the book Woodward subsequently wrote to explain his techniques for getting players to do as they are told.

Four years later the squad sent to France with the task of defending the trophy reacted to an early drubbing by South Africa by holding a meeting with Brian Ashton at which the squad's entire tactical approach was, shall we say, reassessed. On that occasion Lawrence Dallaglio and Mike Catt were among the senior players who spoke up, and the team made it to the final.

Even more famous, because it happened in football rather than rugby, was the outburst of English player power that occurred during Italia 90, when Bobby Robson's senior players, including Gary Lineker, responded to an opening 1‑1 draw with the Republic of Ireland by demanding a switch in the defensive formation to incorporate a sweeper for the next match, against the Holland of Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten. A reluctant Robson went along with the plan and stuck with the new five-man defence all the way to elimination in the semi-final.

Because managers are the only ones trusted to talk freely to the media, their importance has become distorted. Every story about Liverpool, for instance, turns out to be about Rafa Benítez. Maybe the idea came from the cinema, where the French invented the theory of the auteur. Venerating Howard Hawks at the expense of Humphrey Bogart makes a kind of sense, but it translates badly to sport.

Watching Arsène Wenger trying to micro-manage his players from the technical areas at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, the thought occurred that the game would be much healthier if he and other managers were kept at a safe distance and allowed to communicate with their players only during the half‑time interval. The same is true of tennis coaches, the recipients of all those beseeching glances from their players between points, and of Formula One team directors, whose exchanges with their drivers should be limited to old-fashioned pit boards.

The Tour de France made a start last year when a stage was run without the radios that enable team directors to tell their riders exactly what they have to do to close down the riders in the breakaway up ahead. Naturally, there was a chorus of dissent from the team directors. But always remember that the job of the manager or coach is to remove the element of unpredictability from their sport – the very thing, of course, that drew us to it in the first place.

Sir Stan's boots kicked into touch by the Special One

Sometimes the discrepancy between football's past and its present values comes sharply into focus. On the very day last week that the National Archive released documents revealing that in 1945 the Blackpool and England team‑mates Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen sold coffee and soap on the black market while visiting Belgium with an FA Services team, DaMarcus Beasley was also in the news. The United States striker, now on Rangers' books, had a bit of bad luck when his car was set on fire outside his home in Glasgow's west end. The car was a £60,000 BMW. Beasley, we were informed, recently launched his own "personalised diamond jewellery range".

Matthews was, of course, English football's first superstar. Later this month the boots that he wore in the 1953 FA Cup final – the one in which Blackpool beat Bolton 4‑3, and that came to bear his name – will be auctioned by Bonhams in a sale whose offerings also include with the second of the two Premier League winners' medals that José Mourinho tossed to the Stamford Bridge crowd on the day in 2006 that Chelsea beat Manchester United to clinch their second title in a row. The estimate for Sir Stan's boots, apparently the very ones that had Bolton's defenders tripping over their own feet and that crossed the ball for Bill Perry's last-minute winner? £6,000‑£8,000. And for José's bauble? £12,000-£15,000.

Steep cost of being a Brit

As predicted, the British Ski and Snowboard Federation went into administration last week, owing money all over the place and most notably to athletes who had paid their own expenses in the innocent belief that they would be reimbursed by the governing body. Think about that as Chemmy Alcott zips down the piste in pursuit of a medal. As her Austrian and Swiss rivals hurl themselves down ice walls at 80mph, they are almost certainly not preoccupied by the small matter of £20,000 missing from their personal bank accounts.

Button's seat of learning

It was only the first day of testing for the new grand prix season, but you would have to say that spending a morning in the pits adjusting the seat of his McLaren was not the most auspicious of ways for Jenson Button to begin the defence of his world championship.

The manager's diet of idealism and disdain for lesser prizes is turning the Premier League into a two-horse race

Arsène Wenger has always followed his own path, but he is leading Arsenal into mediocrity. A largely justified reputation as a visionary distracts people from noticing the most basic flaws in the team. With 25 Premier League games completed, the 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge means they have conceded 30 goals. That equals the worst defensive performance Wenger has presided over since his arrival in the autumn of 1996.

Statistics of that sort are far from bloodless, and Arsenal have been wounded. Never before in the history of the Premier League have they lost all four of their encounters with Chelsea and Manchester United. The Old Trafford defeat may have been undeserved, but there is no quibbling with the aggregate score. Arsenal must be dazed after the 10-2 thumping from Carlo Ancelotti and Sir Alex Ferguson's teams.

In a practical sense, nothing grave has befallen the club. Arsenal are very likely to qualify for next season's Champions League and their current interest in the competition is genuine. They are favourites to get the better of Porto in the last-16 tie that starts next week. The real harm is done to fans, who are starting to feel undernourished on a diet of idealism, and, less gravely, to neutrals who would prefer to see more than just a pair of contenders for the Premier League title.

Two seasons ago Arsenal topped the table at this juncture and appeared reasonably well-equipped. There was to be terrible misfortune in Eduardo da Silva's broken leg at Birmingham City in February 2008. He had notched a dozen goals in that campaign, but has understandably had less impact since his return. He, however, was not to be the only person whose loss would be felt. Jens Lehmann and Gilberto Silva left at the end of that campaign.

It may have been time for them to go, even if the Brazilian was still capable of commanding a place in his national team when England were beaten three months ago, but they have not been replaced satisfactorily. Manuel Almunia has none of the command that Lehmann exuded, and seems to spread unease in the defence. Where holding midfielders are concerned, Arsenal now have no experienced candidates. United and Chelsea have been permitted to notch goals on the break in successive weekends.

The club needs to find a starting point, but Wenger has been disdainful of lesser prizes that might actually be alluring to supporters. Arsenal virtually inflict FA Cup defeats on themselves, and a lightweight selection went out at Stoke City last month. This policy is intended to conserve energy for more important challenges, but getting knocked out does appear to be dispiriting. Since leaving the Britannia Stadium, Arsenal have not won in three games.

Those matches have been particularly tough, but the pattern is also familiar. In 2008, Wenger sent out a weakened line-up against United in the FA Cup and watched as they were crushed 4-0. Injuries were a factor but some of the absentees faced Milan four days later. If Wenger had been writing off the FA Cup it proved to be an error as he helped United to develop the momentum that ultimately took them past the then leaders, Arsenal, in the league.

It is traditional and often fair to point to Arsenal's lack of means, particularly while they concentrate on paying off the cost of the Emirates, but there are limitations, too, that are self-imposed and idiosyncratic. The deals that saw Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor move to Manchester City for a total of £41m was extraordinarily good business for Arsenal and that unanticipated sum was a windfall. The money, all the same, was not used to bring in the centre‑forward who was so badly needed.

There was plenty of time to act since they left Arsenal when over a month of the transfer window remained. Wenger then spoke of wishing to bring in a striker in January, but no business was done. Though the manager was on a demanding mission, it is for his ingenuity and knowledge that he is employed. Sympathy for the harm done by the loss of Robin van Persie to ankle trouble in November is tempered by the recognition that Wenger knew the Dutchman was injury prone.

Arsenal remain the most idiosyncratic of Europe's major clubs. Wenger, with his intelligence and commitment to streamlined football, has endowed them with a status they never enjoyed before but there are days, too, when it seems that success will only be accepted on his pure and personal terms.

Super Bowl XLIV was billed as a showdown between two of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks and the man in black and gold won hands down

So now the party can really get going. "First things first: You need more beer," wrote the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Mark Lorando in a light-hearted open letter to the city of Miami last week, but if the scenes beamed into Sun Life Stadium from Bourbon Street last night are anything to go by, even his home town might struggle. At least they already have the victory parade booked.

Many offices in New Orleans had already decided to stay closed on Monday and many more will now follow suit. After all, winning a Super Bowl doesn't happen every year. In fact, in the previous 43 years since the team was formed, it hadn't happened at all. The symbolism of the Saints' rise since Hurricane Katrina may be obvious, but that doesn't make it any less real to the people of New Orleans. From players to journalists to fans, all have insisted this week that the link between team and city is real, not to be dismissed as cheesy or trite.

But it is the nature of this victory, as much as the fact of it, that is worth celebrating. It was billed as a showdown between two of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks and the man in black and gold won hands down. When their respective careers are done, Drew Brees may not be remembered as an equal of Peyton Manning – the first player, as we were reminded so often this week, ever to win the league's Most Valuable Player award four times – but on this day he was a class above. In fact, he was the game's MVP.

There were anxious glances exchanged in the second quarter, when Brees threw some way over the head of the tight end Jeremy Shockey, and dangerously close to the Colts safety Antoine Bethea, on a short crossing route, but if the Purdue alumnus was a little nervy in that early spell he soon got it out of his system. By the end of the game Brees had completed 32 of his 39 passes – enough to equal Tom Brady's Super Bowl record.

Having just missed the fingertips of Robert Meachem with a long bomb on the third play of the game, Brees soon saw the upside in a more conservative approach. Dissecting the Colts' defence with a series of short passes, he orchestrated touchdown drives of 58 and 59 yards, as well as setting up the kicker Garrett Hartley's third field goal of the night. By the time he found Lance Moore in the end zone to cap the second of those touchdowns with a two-point conversion, the Saints had turned a 10-6 half-time deficit into a 24-17 fourth-quarter lead.

Brees was not the only one to put in an immense performance, of course. Hartley, made all three of his field goals, the shortest being from 44 yards; Marques Colston, after letting a pass fly straight through his grasp and hit him on his chest in the first quarter, went on to lead the team with seven catches for 83 yards and Tracy Porter returned an interception of Manning 74 yards for a touchdown to effectively seal the win. The defence as a whole restricted the Colts offence to a modest 17 points.

But the most impressive showings may have come from the men standing on the sidelines. The Saints head coach, Sean Payton, said before this game that big calls were needed to win big games and he continued to make them even after his decision to go for it on fourth-and-goal at the Colts' one-yard line failed to pay dividends late in the first half. He caught Indianapolis cold by opting for an onside kick at the beginning of the second half, and pressed home his team's advantage by going for two after his team's second touchdown.

The team's defensive co-ordinator, Gregg Williams, meanwhile, much chastised in the build-up to this game for saying that he wanted his players to put some "remember me" hits on Manning, showed there is much more to his arsenal than bravado and bluster. After seeing Manning unfazed by his aggressive blitz schemes in the first quarter, he abandoned them in favour of dropping extra men into coverage. Manning, having thrown for a touchdown in the first quarter, never got another.

Whether such greatness can be sustained remains to be seen – both for the Saints and the league as a whole. For the third consecutive year the NFL's showpiece game was both keenly contested and played at the highest of levels, but the new decade brings nothing but uncertainty. Short of a dramatic breakthrough in negotiations the league will enter a year without a salary cap on 5 March and many feel that if that happens, there will be a work stoppage in 2011. At the same time there is a growing awareness that the problem of head injuries, and the long-term damage they cause for so many players, needs to be addressed.

But for now, this is a moment to celebrate – for Saints fans and anyone else who just enjoys watching this sport played as well as it was on Sunday. And maybe also to ask one more time "Who dat, who dat, who dat dey say gonna beat dem Saints?" Not the Colts. Not this time, anyway.

With the dust having settled over the 16th man affair, this weekend's games are all about who can perform on the day

Leicester had a legitimate reason to lodge a complaint against the Ospreys over the 16th man affair at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. The extra character is supposed to be the crowd, or better still the referee, the first an abusive force often used to sway the second, the abused official. An extra full-back is simply bad maths.

But Leicester's case was weakened by their hand-wringing. Oh game of ours, where are you heading? Roughly, I suppose, in the same direction that the Tigers have been taking it for years. It may be better to leave matters of conscience to authorities other than the Leicester boardroom.

In the end, justice was done and Lee Byrne was fined for not counting and will take his place at full-back against England. His absence would have been one of those causes pinned to the changing room door, proof if any were ever needed of the atrocities perpetrated by the English down the centuries. Can the Welsh find a substitute in time, a replacement for the replacement scandal?

In a world of increasingly fine margins it is always good to be armed with a grievance, one of those one-percenters so dear to Sir Clive Woodward. Warren Gatland has always been quite good at stirring the pot, trying to find a little snag somewhere, but seems to have reached the conclusion that he has roused the opposition more than his team.

This year he has contented himself with a promise that Wales are going to kick the leather off the ball, because nobody that ever tries to run and pass the ball under current law can win a thing. And bless me, Martin Johnson of all people goes and selects a running midfield of Riki Flutey and Mathew Tait.

What will happen presumably is that Gatland will confess to telling a bit of a fib and Jonny Wilkinson will kick and kick, to see if Lee Byrne has been debilitated by keeping the company of lawyers. And it will all hinge, as usual, on what happens up front.

It is one of the best promotional campaigns for ages, that the Six Nations will be decided by what happens on the day between teams of almost equal worth on paper. Back in the days of 2003, the sense of anticipation was dulled by the knowledge that Martin Johnson's England didn't have to play particularly well to crush all before them.

Anything could happen on Saturday, at least at Twickenham. I'm tempted by the draw – say 33-all – but recognise the timidity of the prediction. So, instead, it's going to be England 35 Wales 36. See you next Tuesday (the Breakdown goes stereo in the Six Nations), when we can review the quality of your brickbats.

I'm slightly more certain about the result at Croke Park. Ireland are not always the quickest off the grid in the championship, and Italy's strength is to prevent their opponents from finding a rhythm. But it's not easy to see anything other than an Irish win.

Ireland may well appear slightly lumbering. Being defending champions – and grand-slammers to boot – who are hungry for more, and being in fine form in the Heineken Cup after an excellent autumn series against Australia and South Africa, almost serve as a guarantee that Ireland will not click immediately.

It's the way it goes. Ireland are so strong that they may not find it easy to go all the way back to mastery of the basics. The scrum may suffer a little squeeze from the Italians and there will be hands everywhere to block Irish efficiency.

It's going to be more Ronan O'Gara than Tommy Bowe. I'm going for Ireland 18 Italy 9 in a game that postpones the delivery of a classic at Croke Park.

It's not easy to put France's second rows Pascal Pape and Lionel Nallet in the category of tiddlers, but it's all relative. There's a feeling in France that Marc Lièvremont has gone for lung capacity rather than dimension of bicep in his team to face Scotland.

The return of Mathieu Bastareaud counters the notion of slenderness and Aurélien Rougerie is hardly delicate on the wing, but it looks as if France are going to try to run Scotland off their feet at Murrayfield. Fulgence Ouedraogo, Thierry Dusautoir and Imanol Harindordoquy form a back-row made for hanging pictures rather than banging hooks in the wall.

It could be very attractive. When Lièvremont went to Scotland two seasons ago for his first game in charge, his team played with a verve that suggested that this was to be the start of an age of exuberance.

Such a pace has since been difficult to maintain and France remain a work in progress. They have touched some beautiful heights, in New Zealand and at home, but have also melted to nothing at Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium. It would appear now that they are reaching out for a reminder of what they were striving for as they tried to set a new agenda after the woes of the 2007 World Cup.

Scotland stand in their way, fit and determined to stop as many attacks as France start. When it comes to the aerobics of rugby life nobody will keep going like the Scots at Murrayfield. Can they now convert energy on the back foot into points on the board?

On the first weekend, there will be more spilled ball coming their way than there will be on 20 March. Opening day is error day. I am going for a Scotland win by a comfortable margin. Say three points. No, no, a few more than that: Scotland 27 France 22.

Player to look out for

Benjamin Fall. The Bayonne wing fits the "polyvalent" all-rounder tag, that appeals to Lièvremont, but who is also a bit special. "Interessant," is how his coach puts it.

Gareth Williams. The Cardiff Blues hooker only plays because Matthew Rees has a groin strain, but has been in excellent form for two seasons. Small and round, he is a real livewire in the loose and the contest between himself and Gethin Jenkins to win the tackle count will be tight.

John Barclay. Outstanding against Australia, Scotland's open-side now has a chance to turn all-out tackling into acts of theft and conversion into attack. Scotland's breakthrough as a genuine title-contender hinges on Barclay. So, no pressure then.

Craig Gower. The convert from Australian rugby league may find the Six Nations a piece of fast-tracking too far. There is an upgrade in the pace and intensity that demands time, and Italy don't really have that on their side. But he is a top footballer and by the end of the championship may be well on his way to comfort in his new code.

Andrew Trimble. Ireland's wing has been excellent for Ulster, a sort of throwback to the days of Simon Geoghegan, all legs and hair. He may have to wait for better weather and a smoother service but Ireland at some stage are going to open up.

Mathew Tait. Obvious, but his career has been such a gloomy passage that it about time he passed a fluorescent tube. Having nearly won England the 2007 World Cup he has been as absent as Jonny Wilkinson. How they and Riki Flutey perform together will shape England's season. I was going to say England's style, but they have only contempt for such a phrase.

May contempt be your torch through the tribal feuds to come.

• Lawyers to argue new owner must be given time
• Chainrai warns administration would mean 600 job losses

Portsmouth will today offer Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs an immediate ­payment £1.8m on an outstanding VAT bill of about £7.5m in the hope of being granted more time to find the remaining money to avoid administration.

Continual non-payment of the money caused HMRC to issue a winding-up ­petition on the club before Christmas, and the hearing is scheduled for the high court in London tomorrow. The ­Portsmouth owner, Balram Chainrai, has said that more than 600 jobs could be lost if the club is forced into administration.

Portsmouth's lawyers began stating their case yesterday, which centred on Chainrai's new ownership, the Hong Kong businessman having seized 90% of the club's shares from Ali al-Faraj under the terms of his £17.5m loan. The legal team argued that Chainrai should be allowed time to examine the books and to try and steady the finances.

Chainrai told the Guardian last night: "Time is needed so that we can help the club. It is in everyone's interest that this is granted, and we are hopeful. If we are not given time then the future of at least 600 jobs could be under threat. The ­football club is the second largest employer in Portsmouth."

The club's most recent published accounts show that more than half of its 600 employees work part-time.

Chainrai has been clear that he is only holding the shares in trust and is keen to sell the club as soon as possible. Peter ­Storrie, the chief executive, emphasised how crucial it is that the winding-up ­petition is not heard tomorrow.

He said: "Our objective, now the new owner is in place, is to seek a stay of the winding-up order. We need time for a new buyer to come in and then we will be in a position to pay the Revenue.

"If the Revenue wind this club up then they will get nothing, and that cannot be the right answer. We're in talks with potential new owners, which would be our fifth owner already this season."

Storrie acknowledged the unusual ­situation of multiple owners since last summer, the turmoil that has put the club into and the adverse effect that has had on the current campaign. "I've heard the joke about how we have had more owners than wins this season," he said. "But the media have been putting the knife in all season, and no one is going to stop now."

Portsmouth have won four games and are rooted to the bottom of the ­Premier League, six points from safety. Avram Grant, the manager, is targeting the next three games against Sunderland, who visit Fratton Park tonight, Stoke and Burnley as vital.

"There are 14 games to go, we need to take as many points as possible from our next few games," said Grant. "Our upcoming games are against sides who are around us in the table. We are not playing worse than the sides in mid-table but they're ­taking points and we're not."

Furious at the loss to Hull, the manager says Champions League ambitions remain are on track, if City can learn to win away

Roberto Mancini's flowing, beautifully styled locks means the word "hairdryer" has a very different connotation at Manchester City than it does at United. He laughed when asked if he had ever thrown a tea cup in a dressing room and yet at Hull City on Saturday, Mancini was as angry as anyone can remember seeing him. He left the dressing room early after a brief and to the point half-time team-talk and sat alone in the away dugout.

It was the same old City squandering points against the strugglers and ­stragglers of the Premier League. His promise, made at his first press ­conference, that ­Manchester City would qualify for the Champions League in May and then win the title the following season was being dragged down by the same failings that undid Mark Hughes, losing away from home and dropping points when it is least expected.

And yet 48 hours after the defeat by Hull, Mancini argued with a smile that he was still on course for both targets. "I am more confident than I was when I first came," he said. "In my first three or four games we played very well but we had very few players available. And I am ­confident that when we have the full squad available, we can win at home and learn to win away.

"And you must remember that we have two games in hand. This is an important fact. If we win these two games, we will be in fourth position and one point behind Arsenal. We have to be really confident."

There was a further injury setback today that could further harm City's ambitions. Craig Bellamy, who has yet to score a goal for Mancini, has travelled to London for consultations about the knee injury that has troubled him all season. Nevertheless, Joleon Lescott is perhaps one game away from returning while ­Mancini may start against ­Bolton tomorrow night with both his signings of what proved a low-key and somewhat frustrating transfer window, Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson.

Even at 33, Mancini still invests enormous faith in Vieira to the extent of remarking before City travelled to Humber­side that, had the Frenchman been available, they probably would not have lost the Carling Cup semi-final to Manchester United.

And for the first time today, Mancini was critical of Hughes, wondering how so much money could have been spent on a squad that before Vieira's arrival from Internazionale boasted just three central midfielders. "I know a lot of money has been spent," he said. "But it is strange for me that we only had three central midfielders – Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong and Stephen Ireland. It is impossible to play a whole season using just three central midfielders. Impossible."

He added that if Vieira, whose replacement of Bellamy at Hull was responsible for City's late revival, remained fit for the rest of the season, he would give the calmness and experience of winning that Manchester City lack. Hughes, after all, spent more than £100m on six players – Given, Adebayor, Bellamy, Santa Cruz, Barry and Lescott – who have not won a single major honour in English football.

The most expensive player signed ­during Hughes's tenure, Robinho, once the totem of the new Manchester City but whose failure to adapt to the Premier League became a burden on the Welshman, marked the start of his loan deal with Santos with a goal against São Paulo. ­Mancini remarked that, if the Brazilian had a good World Cup, he might be seen again in a sky-blue shirt, yet that is far from what either the player or the club want.

Indeed, the accent may have changed but Mancini talks the same language as his predecessor. Hughes spoke constantly of "changing the mentality" of Manchester City, making them more ruthless against the weaker clubs, especially away from home. And so it was a 1-1 draw at home to Hull in front of the chairman, ­Khaldoon al‑Mubarak, that set in motion Hughes's dismissal. Nothing, in one sense has changed. "We have to change the ­mentality," ­Mancini said today. "To reach our ­target we have to start winning away. That is the most important thing."

And yet, while many, even at Eastlands, buy into the argument that what might derail Manchester City's bid for the Champions League are too many points dropped against teams in the bottom half of the table, actually, the opposite is largely true. City have been essentially flat-track bullies, averaging 2.21 points per game against the Premier League's bottom 10. Yet none of their rivals for fourth has been quite as poor against the teams around and above them, from which City have taken 10 points from nine games.

Perhaps Mancini senses this. "For me, February is very important because we play Liverpool, Chelsea and ­Tottenham," he said. "For me, it is the crucial moment."

• Manager Owen Coyle says player will be out for 'months'
• Defender's World Cup hopes almost certain to be dashed

The Bolton Wanderers defender Gary Cahill could miss the rest of the season after suffering a blood clot in his arm. The 24-year-old was hoping to win a place in England's World Cup squad.

Cahill was taken ill on Friday and missed Saturday's 0-0 Premier League draw with Fulham.

Bolton's manager, Owen Coyle, said: "Gary suffered a pain in his arm and it became severely swollen on the day of the game.

"There was no way he could play so we took him straight off to hospital. It turns out he had a blood clot in his arm, so he is going to be out for a number of months."

Cahill is due to be released from hospital today after being kept in since Saturday.

Coyle said: "It is a severe blow for the boy but our main concern is his welfare. We have to make sure Gary is fit and well.

"He will miss the next few months, it might be for the rest of the season. We will hear from the specialist later. The clot needed to be resolved and in doing that you need the medication. It follows you can't play.

"As disappointed as we are, at 24 Gary has a marvellous career ahead of him. I believe he would have made the World Cup for the summer but we have to make sure first of all he recovers from this blood clot.

"I don't think it is a sport-related injury, I think it is just one of those things that can happen to anyone at any given time.

"Gary will be disappointed as he has so much to play for. He is one of the best players at the club and he had a big role to play, no doubt about that. He also had a chance of going to the World Cup – but that chance will come again. He is a terrific lad and someone we love working with. He has a great mindset.

"Gary will get the best care available to him. As much as we love football, we will focus on making sure Gary recovers well."

• Bruce questions pace of changes to Sunderland squad
• 'The expectancy is that of a top-four or top-six club'

Steve Bruce fears his desire to subject Sunderland to rapid root-and-branch reform may be behind the team's slide towards a relegation battle.

The squad which left Wearside yesterday for tomorrow night's vital game at Ports­mouth has undergone major surgery in recent months, and Bruce acknowledged that the pace of the change has possibly proved to be counter-productive.

"Something like 23 players have left since I came in seven months ago," said Sunderland's manager, whose side lack a win in their past 11 Premier League games and boast only one victory in the past 15 attempts. "The player turnover has been drastic and I'll probably look at it and think, 'Has it been too drastic?'"

Bruce's 11 signings have joined a sig­nificantly slimmed-down playing staff and helped him to place his own stamp on a squad that is still transitional.

"This is a new team, we're still getting to know the manager and he's still trying to impose his philosophy on us," said the midfielder Andy Reid. "I always thought we'd have a tricky spell."

Not that Bruce harbours any real regrets about his bold modus operandi. "I'm convinced my signings have had a wonderful effect," he said.

Many might disagree. Although Bruce buys such as Lorik Cana, Lee Cattermole and Michael Turner may eventually prove to be inspired, the only arrival to have met expectations is the leading scorer, Darren Bent. After a fine start to the season, Cana's central midfield performances have dipped and the Albanian appears burnt out. Similarly, injuries have decreed that Cattermole has spent much of the season sidelined and Turner, so impressive at Hull, increasingly looks out of his depth.

Meanwhile other arrivals including Fraizer Campbell, Paulo da Silva and Matthew Kilgallon are arguably no better than their swiftly offloaded predecessors.

Despite being north-east born and bred, Bruce seems slightly taken aback by the special demands imposed by the success‑starved 40,000-plus crowds. "No disrespect to my old clubs, to Birmingham and Wigan, but you need a different sort of recruitment policy. Sunderland players have to be able to handle a big, expectant crowd. You've got be a big player to come here. After seven months, I know that.

"Recruitment here is difficult. The expectancy is that of a top-four or a top‑six club. It's huge and players who have been OK at smaller teams often can't cope. The problem is there's no substance to the expectancy of our great, huge support. We've no divine right to be up there, but it's the north-east. Football is the fans' life, it's their passion."

By way of exacerbating Bruce's woes, his side do not freeze merely in front of their own faithful. Away, they have won just once in the league. "I was ­talking about this to Big Sam [Allardyce, the Blackburn manager] a couple of days ago," said Bruce. "We don't know why, but all of us in the bottom 10 struggle playing away."

This does not bode well for Sunderland's prospects at bottom-placed Ports­mouth, but sheer bad luck has also provoked their slump. "I don't like to look for excuses but injuries and suspensions have been mainly responsible," said Bruce, who believes he is finally "getting through" to Bent's talented yet recently indifferent strike partner Kenwyne Jones.

"We've lost key players at bad times and momentum and confidence went too. I played my 15th different back four against Wigan on Saturday – even Manchester United struggle when they haven't got a settled defence."

"I'm not enjoying this, I don't like it. The Premier League can be an unforgiving place. But, when I come through it, I'll be a better manager," he said.

• Meeting to be held in Switzerland
• Capello thought to favour autumn games

England and Wales's qualifying fixtures for Euro 2012 will be decided in Switzerland on 15 March.

The date was agreed in Warsaw yesterday following the draw and the meeting is almost certain to be attended by the national managers Fabio Capello and John Toshack, who will be keen to get the schedule they feel suits their sides.

Capello got his wish for a five-team group and Switzerland is the obvious meeting point to decide the fixture schedule, given that Group G also involves the Swiss, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

The England manager will want to play the most difficult fixtures during the eight dates available in September and October 2010 and 2011, as that is the time of year when he feels English players are at their most productive, before an arduous domestic campaign.

He may try to avoid qualifying games in June 2011, knowing that Bulgaria and Montenegro can get uncomfortably warm at that time of year.

On his way to winning 14 majors, the world's most famous sportsman disappeared into the crowds that followed him everywhere. Now, rocked by a scandal that no one saw coming, he has vanished again. John Feinstein, America's greatest sportswriter, retraces his rise and fall, and finds clues we might have missed

Tiger Woods has always been The Invisible Man. To him, the world was a perfect place when he could walk down the 18th fairway on a Sunday afternoon drinking in the cheers of his adoring fans, collect a large trophy and a massive cheque, say a few words on the engrossing subject of birdies and bogeys in the media tent and then – poof! – become invisible until it was time to tee it up again.

Sure, there were occasional Tiger-spottings: Tiger front row at a basketball game; Tiger laughing it up some place with another sports celebrity such as Roger Federer, Michael Jordan or Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Even those rare appearances felt staged, as if they were part of the non-stop image-crafting being done by Tiger and his managers at IMG. In fact, the celebrity connections Tiger made were usually business-related: he, Federer and Jordan were all Nike endorsers, and he and Manning were both represented by IMG. Coincidence? Hardly.

That's why his ability to again become invisible now, at a time when he is being stalked by half the world's paparazzi, and a large chunk of the world's tabloid media, is hardly surprising to those who know him. It may be a little more difficult these days than in the past. It may take a little more planning and more security but it isn't all that different than Tiger standing over a crucial putt on the 18th: when he puts his mind to something, he can usually pull it off.

Even when word began to spread in late January that Tiger had checked into a sex-addiction clinic in Mississippi, everything was extremely hush-hush. The clinic had no comment; Team Tiger – naturally – had no comment. Rumours abounded about Tiger receiving special treatment – proving he can demand and receive special treatment anywhere. Even in disgrace, he still managed to intimidate people.

Think about it: at least one of Woods's affairs had been going on for 31 months before it became public. The most famous athlete on the planet, arguably one of the most famous people on earth, was carrying on with a woman in Las Vegas for 31 months and the story never leaked. It may have almost leaked, there might have been some whispers in the locker room – and that's all they ever were because almost everyone in golf lives in fear of The Wrath of Tiger – but it stayed secret. If nothing else, Tiger Woods built a wall around himself that was almost impenetrable. Even now, with the wall broken, his number one goal seems to be not so much to repair his marriage as to repair his wall.

Which, if you think about it, makes sense: the wall has been a part of Tiger's life for a lot longer than Elin Nordegren.

Let's not turn this into a psychological study of a fallen athlete because 10 psychologists will give you 10 different reasons why Tiger felt the need to run amok the way he did even while guarding his pristine image 24/7/365.

Whether his father Earl did emotional damage to his son with his own dalliances and by bringing about the break-up of his marriage to Tiger's mother is a question only Tiger can answer, and it may take years of therapy for him to get to that point. Here's what we do know about Earl: he taught his son very early that you give away nothing and you control everything.

When an American TV network made a very bad movie based on his early life 11 years ago, Tiger was asked at a Masters press conference how it felt to have someone make an entire movie based on his life at the tender age of 22. In a rare moment, Tiger let his guard down and allowed his true feelings to show.

"To be honest, it pisses me off," he said. "It pisses me off that people I don't even know are making money off my life. I wish there was some way to stop them."

What pissed Tiger off was the double whammy: someone else was making the money and he had no control. That wasn't the way Earl raised him. In Earl's world, someone would have to pay big money for the rights to make the movie and Tiger and his managers would control the content. In the Earl-Tiger version of Tiger's life, he breaks Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 professional majors and then accepts the Nobel peace prize.

The notion that Tiger allowed his life to spin out of control because Earl was no longer there to counsel him is as silly as the email that Mark Steinberg, his manager at IMG, sent to New York Times golf writer Larry Dorman not long after the early morning accident that began this debacle: "Give the kid a break," Steinberg wrote.

The kid? That would be a 34-year-old billionaire with two children.

There again, though, is a glimpse into Tiger's view of the world. When he was 21 and getting ready to play in his first Masters as a pro (which he went on to win by 12 shots), Tiger had lunch with Arnold Palmer in the champions' locker room at Augusta. Tiger spent a lot of time grousing about how tough his life was. "I can't be a normal 21-year-old," he said. "I have to talk to the media all the time, sign autographs, do photo-shoots for sponsors…"

When Woods finally stopped, Palmer looked at him and said: "You're right, Tiger, you're not a normal 21-year-old. Normal 21-year-olds don't have $50m in the bank. If you want to be a normal 21-year-old, that's fine – give the money back."

Tiger didn't want normality as much as he wanted everything: he wanted to be the richest athlete of all time (a goal Jordan taught him was important), he wanted to win every golf tournament and he wanted to never have to answer to anybody about anything. For a long time, he came very close to all those things.

Even when someone had the temerity to raise a question about his perfect life, Tiger deflected it or ducked it as easily as he spins a wedge to a halt. Last spring, the great NFL player Jim Brown publicly wondered why Tiger hadn't done more for minorities with all of his money and the staggering public platform he had developed.

When one of Tiger's apologists, granted a rare one-on-one TV interview that was set up largely to promote Tiger's golf tournament outside Washington DC, gingerly asked about Brown's comment, Tiger had already been prepped with his answer. "You know, in the last three years our learning centre [The Tiger Woods Learning Center] in California has helped more than 10 million people," he said.

Ten million people?

Putting aside the logistical improbability of "helping" 10 million people in three years (100,000 in three years would be fantastic work), Woods not only made the comment with an absolutely straight face but got nothing but a knowing nod from his questioner – no follow-up at all, as in, "Where in the world did you get that number?"

That's what Woods has grown accustomed to in the past dozen years. In most golf interview rooms if he said the Earth was flat, people would write it down. Most golfers will usually answer a few extra questions either one-on-one or to a small group following a press conference or as they walk to and from the practice ground. Not Tiger. He's so security-obsessed that a PGA Tour official had to walk into the locker room at one of his first tournaments to inform him that his security guards could not order the media to leave just because Tiger didn't feel like talking.

Those who have been part of the very closed Tiger circle learn quickly that to talk at all to anyone outside the circle can quickly lead to expulsion. His first caddie, "Fluff" Cowan, was so friendly and outgoing that he became a bit of a cult figure on tour after Woods won his first Masters in 1997. Within two years he was gone. His first manager, Hughes Norton, enjoyed the give-and-take with the media. By the end of 1998, he was also gone. Butch Harmon, his first teacher, also a hail-fellow-well-met, lasted longer because Tiger really felt he needed him. But after he had won seven majors between 1999 and 2002, Tiger felt he didn't need him either. Thanks for the memories, Butch.

In their places are "Snarlin'" Steve Williams (caddie); Mark Steinberg (manager – known as "Dr No", until his "give the kid a break" email gave him a couple of new nicknames) and Hank Haney (teacher), who is polite to all and willing to talk openly about anyone he has taught – except for Tiger.

All of which leads to the most oft-asked question in this entire tangled web: how could one of the great control freaks of history allow himself to completely lose control of his life this way? Anyone who claims it was an unhappy marriage or an over-developed sex drive entirely misses the point. Tiger Woods went on these binges for one simple reason: hubris.

He did it because he believed he could do it and no one would catch him and, if someone did somehow catch him, they wouldn't dare out him. The one time he appeared to be in jeopardy was three years ago when the National Enquirer, the leading tabloid newspaper in the US, reportedly had one of his "friends" ready to talk for the record. If one believes the ex-editor of the Enquirer, Team Tiger went into action: suppress the story, they told the paper, and Tiger will pose for the cover of Men's Fitness, a magazine owned by the Enquirer's parent company.

That version of events has been denied by the Enquirer's current leadership but some who know Tiger think it passes the smell test: Tiger doesn't usually do things for free and there he was on the cover of a magazine that paid him nothing. Did he suddenly become a fan of Men's Fitness?

Put simply, Tiger never believed any of this could happen to him. And if he hadn't fled his house in those early hours of 27 November who knows if it ever would have happened. Even after the accident, the Woods hubris was still very much in play: by not talking to the police for three days he made a non-story into a story. If he'd let the Florida Highway Patrol into his house the day after the accident, the cops probably would have left behind the $164 ticket they later issued and been given a couple of autographed photos for their trouble. Their report would have reflected whatever Tiger and Elin told them.

Instead, it began to look like a cover-up almost from the beginning, with IMG insisting Tiger's injuries were minor while he literally refused to show his face in public. Within days, there was blood in the water and the tabloid sharks circled and pounced.

Through it all, Tiger tried to be Tiger, issuing escalating statements through his website: there was an accident, he was fine; OK, there may have been some "transgressions"; and then came the release of the 21st-century equivalent of Monica Lewinsky's stained dress: the near-hysterical voice mail sent a few hours before the car accident to the girlfriend in Las Vegas, begging her to take his name off her mobile phone.

There was a weak attempt by apologists to deny that it was Tiger. But it was. If there were any doubt about his voice (and to those who know him there was none), his use of the word "huge" twice in a few seconds was a dead giveaway. Go back to any Woods interview and listen: everything is huge: making a putt is huge; winning a tournament is huge; being able to help 10 million people is huge.

So now Tiger is the Invisible Man again – whether he's hiding out at home or in rehab – until he decides when to make his not-so-triumphant return to golf. In all likelihood it will be next month in Florida so he can play one or two tune-up events before the Masters.

Perhaps he can come back and dominate golf the way he did for 13 years. It's a certainty he will never again be the almost universally beloved figure that he was. But one other thing is just as certain: Tiger the man will remain as invisible as ever, appearing inside the ropes to wield his magic, talking in his famous non-speak way about birdies and bogeys and then disappearing into the mist again.

John Feinstein's book A Good Walk Spoiled is the bestselling non-fiction sports book in history

Motor sport tyre miracles, Robinho's rapping return and Dean Windass, commentating windbag, also feature this week

1) The Six Nations kicks off this weekend, so to whet your appetite, here is: Scotland sticking it to England in 1990; Italy sticking it to Wales in 2007 and Gareth Edwards sticking it to Scotland in 1972. Plus, Ireland's 2009 grand-slam-securing victory, the young Serge Blanco and 10 England tries to savour.

2) The last time anyone was troubled after chomping on balls during a televised competition involving Australia, it was Katie Price and Kim Woodburn eating fish eyes and kangaroo testicles on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! Now Shahid Afridi's cricket ball-chomping antics have earned him a place in infamy, so it may be a good time to remind ourselves of the good times.

3) The heel of God, as Marca called it, saw Guti set up Karim Benzema to score Real Madrid's second in their 3-1 win over Deportivo. Marca went on to describe it as "an unforgettable stroke of genius", "a monument of class and creativity, calmness and courage" that "will be remembered 30 years from now".

4) Super Bowl XLIV: Indianapolis v New Orleans. "It is so on."

5) For all that he occasionally scored pretty decent goals, Dean Windass never seemed quite at home in the Premier League. Now he's moved into television, and he doesn't seem quite at home there, either.

6)) He may have been their record signing, but no one was particularly bothered when Robinho walked out on Manchester City last month. Back in Brazil, people were ecstatic when he was helicoptered on to the Santos pitch, juggled a football, danced with a couple of giant fish and then, wearing a T-shirt adorned with his own smiling face, took to the stage and rapped. Then again, they got to see him score goals like this.

Our favourites from last week's blog

1) The coach was blindfolded, given a basketball, spun a few times and told to aim at the hoop. The audience was primed to react as if the ball had gone in. But what were the odds of this happening?

2) OK, you want long odds, we'll give you long odds. This wheel might have been radio-controlled.

3) And this one simply had to be. Not this one though.

4) Female 10-pin bowler makes history by winning the Professional Bowling Tournament of Champions, in considerable style.

5) Garry Cook on the mic in a New York bar. What's not to love? Oh.

Spotters' badges: cgfc, ondukta, BestNotMiss, Berek, WolvesGiants.

Your surefire route to a lie-in every morning

You get bored at work, we get bored at work; the difference is, we don't get sacked for playing these games. Not yet, anyway.

Collected below are some of our favourite games on t'internet, so get stuck in and putt, kick, or skate your way to the JobCentre.

If you know something we don't, send a link to your favourite online (sports) game headlined The greatest games ever ... to sports.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk (with a few lines telling us why it's so good) and we'll add them to our list - vigorous quality control guaranteed, reader.

Our latest finds

Basketball: Not got the required inches to be a master of the hoops? Well, now you don't need to. This little gem of a game tests your prowess at judging height and distance and gives you a new area of the court to shoot from with every shot you take. You can also see how you rank against other work-shy competitors around the globe. Simple and very addictive. P45 rating ***

Zombie Football: Hot on the heels of the popular Zombe Cricket comes its footballing brother. There's a little more to it - angles and movement - and you can pick your Premier League side. Frighteningly good.

RBS Drop Kick: Just in time for the Six Nations. Watch for the scrum half's signal, catch his pass and ping the ball between the posts. Not as easy as it sounds. P45 rating **

The Hand of Henry: This game is all in French but it's easy enough to work out how to 'jouer'. The graphics are basic but it's fun to play. My score: France 31-1 Ireland. Pretty handy.
P45 rating **

And the full catalogue...

CRICKET

Ashes Desktop Challenge: Not a million miles away from the tabletop childhood game of yore Test Match Cricket. Addictive but ultimately quite frustrating, much like the Ashes then.
P45 rating ****

Test Catch Cricket: Pretty tricky to get the hang of, then hours of fun. And rather addictive, if only for the rare pleasure of taking a one-handed catch at full-stretch. And then keeping the mouse moving for added flamboyance.
P45 rating: ***

Little Master Cricket: One of our favourites. Ever. The very best internet games share the same characteristics - they're simple and they're fiendishley addictive. We're grateful to Mark Jones for suggesting this little beauty. "Try to beat my high score of 366," he says, "either in a Pietersen like smashathon, or in an Boycott-type forward defensive inspired resolute innings." Our best? A hard-hitting 107 after 45 minutes determined effort.
P45 rating: ****

Battrick: "The Barmy Army is all over the game," so 'Shailes' tells us. Manage a cricket team against others from across the globe in First Class, 50- and 20-over competitions, as well as buying, selling, and ground-developing. Like the football version, Hat-trick, which you can find below, you've got to be in for the long haul on this one.
P45 Rating ****

Stick Cricket: Takes a while to get the knack of, but worth the effort for the first time you knock Dennis Lillee out of the ground.
P45 rating: ****

Slog Cricket: You are the bat! Pretty simple. Until it gets quite hard.
P45 rating: ***

Ashes2Ashes zombie cricket: This game has entertaining graphics as Ricky Ponting-lookalike zombies limp towards the batsman whenever he fails to crack a six. But the dimensions are not quite right, making it really tricky to judge when to hit the ball. Or maybe we're just bad at cricket.
P45 rating ***

FOOTBALL

Gaelic Football Challenge: Take on a quick seven-a-side game, or register for the All-Ireland Championship mode for a more immersive experience. Shades of Sensible Soccer give this decent playability, though you may need some serious interest in Gaelic Football to get the most out of it.
P45 rating ***

Jumpers for Goalposts: Start from the bottom and work your way up, gaining contracts, international honours and, most importantly, girls along the way. Surprisingly addictive for an abstract football-based RPG.
P45 Rating ****

Goal Street: Have you ever tried to breakdance and strike a ball at the same time? Get down with a load of no good punk kids in this street football game that frankly makes it all a bit too easy.
P45 Rating ***

Bumperball: "It's football, but in bumper cars, on an ice rink," writes Nathan Jones. "What is there not to love?" Erm ...
P45 rating: ***

Football Agent: Buy! Sell! Be the Mr 10% and rake in enough cash to buy a mansion. Tough, but in a good way
P45 rating: ****

Roby Baggio's Free-Kick Game: An old classic. We've found the trick is swinging the ball in Bolton-style for the onrushing centre-forward, rather than going for spectacular Baggioesque finishes.
P45 rating: ***

Super Soccer: Finally a football game which doesn't involve posing as a faded star playing keepy-uppy. Sadly, despite reading the instructions three times, we're rubbish at it. Hours must be spent perfecting our skills, clearly.
P45 rating: ***

Hat-trick: This is a slow burner - register your team, develop your youth squad, make transfers, all in aid of winning the 16 week league. Could cut your working day by hours.
P45 rating: ****

Volley Challenge 07/08: Pick your team, play a season, and make your striker hump the ball over the crossbar. Over and over again.
P45 rating: ***

Free-kick Fusion: As suggested by Zach Parrott: "This game ruined my summer job during WC 2006. It's amazing because you compulsively seek a higher and higher score. You're only inches away from the next level each time!"
P45 rating: **

RUGBY

Flick n Kick rugby: A peculiar little game, this is a combination of digital Subbuteo and rugby. Of course, it's so obvious. Pick up points for avoiding tackles, collecting power-ups (if you're playing Wales you can turn into a dragon, no less), and of course scoring tries and conversions. Won't get you the sack, but will amuse for a few minutes.
P45 rating: **

Game of 3 Halves: A kind of Sensible Rugby, but with three of your fellas taking on an entire team of opposition. And a streaker. And a sheep.
P45 rating: ***

GOLF

Lumix World Golf: Travel the world, see the sights ... play crazy golf. Negotiate courses based around Easter Island, Sydney harbour, and the Big Apple, among others, all with just your putter and a keen appreciation of angles.
P45 rating: ****

Office Minigolf: "That's the game that you really play in the office - for sure after your colleagues have gone," chuckles someone called simply 'Joe', before adding: "nice dice". We're not sure what he means but this is a quirky, very playable effort.
P45 rating: ***

Cat with a bow golf: Ah, golf. Funny trousers, silly terminology and a cat firing itself at a target with a bow and arrow. A good walk ruined.
P45 rating: ****

Golf Drive: Apparently it's a "relaxing game of golf the prehistoric way". Very tricky, but very nice graphics and takes a bit of thought.
P45 rating: ****

Mini Putt 2: The graphics on this aren't as good as Electrotank, but the gameplay is better. We suggest organising an office championship (our best score is 33, by the way)
P45 rating: *****

Crazy Golf: See if you can resist the temptation to give it a whack and hope for the best.
P45 rating: ***

Driving Mad: Driving in the Tiger Woods sense, not Kimi Raikkonen, this is another game which sets you simple targets and even tells you you're great when you're not [like us]. Bonus points for taking down the odd pigeon, too.
P45 rating: ***

Pandaf Golf: Slightly insane, very annoying sound effects, but rather addictive all the same. "This one is a definite candidate for rapid P45 delivery. Once you have finished the 100 or so levels you can make up your own layouts!" squeals Mark Bermingham, probably clapping his hands, too.
P45 rating: ****

Line Golfer: As much Tony Hart as it is Tony Jacklin, you can design your own course using virtual crayons (the dafter and more complex the better), set your own par, play other people's courses and – you never know – you might even make the leader board. It's unlikely though. Courses designed in the shape of appendages will be frowned upon.
P45 Rating ***

World Golf Tour: Very impressive graphics for a free online game and pretty playable too. "This one cost me a pay rise last year," writes Neil McCallum. "A quick nine without the boss noticing is as much a challenge as the game itself."
P45 rating: ****

Galactic Gravity Golf: Based on the admittedly flimsy premise that golf in space would be made more difficult by planets' gravitation pull it proves fiendishly addictive if a little unrealistic.
P45 rating ***

Tiger Woods Outrun: Imagine you're a golfer being chased by a golf club-wielding blonde and you must avoid a series of obstacles including trees and fire hydrants. It would never happen in the real world, of course, but it's fun to pretend. P45 rating ***

TENNIS

Table Tennis: Rob Bentham reckons "it's really addictive, and sounds great as well". We reckon it might be a little infuriating.
P45 rating: If self-confessed temp Rob is anything to go by, ****

Tennis Ace: "I think this is the best tennis game - it has a practice option and three levels of difficulty too. Nice umpiring too!" says Bryan Coleman. Be warned, you'll be a lot better in training than in the match ...
P45 rating: ***

Rong: It's ping-pong Jim, but not as we know it. Rather ridiculously addictive
P45 rating: *****

The Optus tennis challenge: Keepy-uppy with a tennis ball, essentially - but pity the poor souls with time enough on their hands to notch up high scores of close to 2000.
P45 rating: ***

BOWLING

League Bowling: Enjoyably retro.
P45 rating: ***

Super Bowling: Ego-boostingly simple to play. Get that swerve on
P45 rating: ****

WINTER SPORTS

Horace goes skiing: Not big or particularly clever, but it's a trip down memory lane for anyone who once owned a ZX81.
P45 rating **

Snowboarding: We would like to say this game is, like, totally rad dude. But we've no idea how to retain control.
P45 rating: ***

PUB SPORTS

English Pub Pool
Cracking physics, plenty of options so you can keep the rules exactly as you have them when at the pub, and includes the tear-inducing moment as you realise you've accidentally knocked in the black. All that, and opponents with low rent names.
P45 rating ****

Let's Play Darts: Mark Ingle suggests this little beauty from Holland. "The best bit (other than hitting multiple 180s) is the sound effects, delivered by a genuine dart scorer legend," says Mark. There's also a daily Top 100 score board. Our best? 22.2sec. Oh yeah.
P45 rating: ****

Lightning Break: Easy controls, simple objectives, endlessly entertaining.
P45 rating: ****

First2zero virtual darts: Pick an overweight, cartoon dartsmith and toss your 'arras at the treble 20, simple. The only game that involves less effort than real darts.
P45 rating: ***

Blast Billiards: Ian Gale calls this "a fiendishly addictive way to waste an hour or three at work." Even though we're shamefully useless at this game, we're inclined to agree. And they've added side spin options in the later versions, for anyone who just needs more control
P45 rating: *****

AMERICAN SPORTS

Candystand Baseball: Takes a few innings to get used to the controls, particularly when you are the fielding team. But it's worth the 10 minutes of head-scratching and running in the wrong direction when you do get the hang of it. Surprisingly representative, very playable, and includes some nice details, such as the pitcher mocking you when you swing and miss. Goodbye Mr Spalding and other such hackneyed phrases.
P45 rating: ****

Three point shootout: Another in the 'simple but addictive' category. Attempt three point shots from all around the basketball court with nothing more than a swish of your mouse, just like they do in the NBA's All-Star weekend. Well, kind of. It's easy to learn, but tough to master. Once you get in the zone you'll be hitting nothing but net, and inner monologuing 'LeBron from way downtown', in a rather pathetic way.
P45 rating ***

Pinch Hitter 2: Take a strange large-headed boy from hitting balls in his backyard to the major league. With hour upon hour of practice of course.
P45 rating: ***

Trick hoops challenge: This one is all about showing off with the most outrageous attempts at the basket, if you can get it in off the wall you are far better than us.
P45 rating: ***

Baseball: Badda-badda…..Shwiiiiiiiiiiiing…..badda-badda. It's the bottom of the ninth, you need two runs for victory and there's a gum-chewing schmuck on the pitching mound with some curve-balls up his sleeve. Swing for the sweet-spot.
P45 Rating ****

HORSES AND DOGS

Steeplechase Challenge: There's something deeply retro about this one. The secret is in judicious use of the whip and perfect timing in the jump.
P45 rating *** (***** if your betting syndicate is rumbled)

Greyhound Racer Rampage: Greyhound training crossed with Guitar Hero doesn't sound the most thrilling combination, but the pride we felt when our dog - Carl - finally crossed the finish line first ... well, it was emotional, put it that way. Quirky, clever and made with a bit of love.
P45 rating ***

MOTOR SPORTS

Stick Rally X: Despite the name, this very playable top-down rally romp is about as un-'sticky' as they get. Like a more sober version of Micro Machines, you get to whizz around various dirt tracks, unlocking new circuits and cars along the way. Want to go faster? Then hit that nitro boost button, baby!
P45 rating: ***

Stunt Dirt Bike: A mix of impressive acceleration and chronic problems with staying vertical make this the Didier Drogba of internet sports games. Much more popular around the office though.
P45 rating: ****

Drag Racing: Sadly, no 15st blokes hotfooting it on heels here. But sneaking a win on the line in a Honda Civic is enjoyment enough.
P45 rating: ***

OLD SCHOOL
Sidering knockout: A old style beat 'em up with energy bars and combo moves. Take your humble slugger up through ranks and finally earn a title fight.
P45 rating: ***

Denise Lewis Heptathlon: While it is not the most covert operation (bashing the B and N keys for all your worth) and is likely to cause debilitating finger cramps, this old style arcade game is maddeningly addictive.
P45: *****

3-D Pong: Just when you thought pong couldn't get any better, they go and make it 3D. So hard you will inevitably spend hours of company time playing it.
P45 rating: ****

ATHLETICS

Olympix Summer Games: Suffering from Beijing withdrawal symptoms? Well, fear not. Here you can try your hand at the 100m, the 110m hurdles, the javelin and the long jump. It's pretty straightforward, rather addictive, suitable time-consuming and you can't fare any worse than GB's track and field athletes.
P45 rating: **

QWOP Athletics: From the people who brought you Little Master cricket, here's a game in which you control an athletes calves and thighs. Anyone who can do more than spasm and fall over deserves some sort of prize.
P45 rating: **

Janey Thomson's marathon: This is a finger-clicking nightmare of a game that is likely to reduce your life expectancy. It was removed from arcades after its release in 1984 because kids found it too tiring. You have been warned ...
P45 rating **

WATER SPORTS

Kayak King: "Bad title pun aside, this canoe game is pretty damn addictive," says Jack Iles. We enjoyed the first level. Then found it infuriatingly difficult.
P45 rating: **

CYCLING

King of the Road: This finger-bashing effort tries to recreate the Tour de France. Its replete with photographers and dogs to halt your progress and is reminiscent of Daley Thompson's Decathlon.
P45 rating ****

MISCELLANEOUS

OK, so these are not strictly sports. But they should be.

Ball Blitz: Use your balls to knock the other guys balls out of the ring. It's life in flash game format.
P45 rating: ***

Crash Test Dummy Olympics: There's not much to these events, but getting them right is infuriatingly tough. A guaranteed time-waster.
P45 rating: ***

Escapa: This has got office tournament written all over it. You are a red square trying to escape the accelerating wrath of some blue squares. Get anywhere near 20 and you're doing well. 19.966 since you ask.
P45 rating: ***

Yeti Sports: All the Pingu smacking fun you can handle, on one site. Repetitive, but strangely pleasurable.
P45 rating: ***

Home Run: Admittedly, this isn't strictly a sports game but it can technically be shoehorned into the Pub Sports category. Stop yourself from keeling over as you stagger home after a beer too many. Mindlessly simple and therefore highly amusing. Bet you can't beat 200m.
P45 rating: ***

Click to enlarge, and debate the strip below the line. Keith Hackett's official answers appear in Sunday's Observer and here from Monday.

Keith Hackett's verdict

1) Other than making sure people don't go over the top and lose their tempers, you should let play continue. This is a problem for the manager to resolve. He can remove the player and continue with ten men if he likes – but all you can do is offer some operational advice to both of them to avoid any escalation. Thanks to Michael Jenkins for the question.
2) Allow the goalkeeper to be replaced by a named substitute. It is only the goalkeeper, if injured, who can be replaced in the penalty shoot-out. Thanks to Lloyd Bradley for the question.
3) Play on. You need to think quickly, and your judgment here should be that the defender did not deliberately kick the ball to his goalkeeper. Yes, he may have intended to, but you cannot read the defender's mind and guess whether he intended a back-pass or a corner-kick when under pressure: you must base your decision on the facts in front of you. Howard Saunders wins the shirt for this question.

Competition: win an official club shirt of your choice

For a chance to win a club shirt from the range at Kitbag.com send us your questions for You are the Ref to you.are.the.ref@observer.co.uk. The best scenario used in the new Observer YATR strip each Sunday wins a shirt of your choice from Kitbag. Terms & conditions apply.

For more on the fifty year history of You Are The Ref, click here.

Winning the Super Bowl has given the city wrecked by Hurricane Katrina reason to smile again

Standing on the podium at Miami's Sun Life Stadium and clutching American football's greatest prize, the New ­Orleans Saints owner, Tom Benson, found the appropriate words. "We're back," he yelled towards the black-and-gold clad horde that had descended from all over the stadium to squeeze into the front few rows. "We're back! We're back!"

Benson was speaking not just for his team but for the whole city of New ­Orleans. Five years on from Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is still working to undo some of the damage caused by flooding that touched more than 80% of the city, but the people who live there are now back on their feet. For them, a 31‑17 win over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV was symbolic of that fact and deeply cathartic.

"It means everything," said the Saints quarterback, Drew Brees, after collecting the game's Most Valuable Player award. "We're here because of [the people of New Orleans's] strength and everything they fought through over the last few years. They've given us so much support, and so we owe it all to our fans."

When Brees joined the team in 2006, the Saints were a homeless team having spent 2005 in San Antonio while the Louisiana Superdome, itself heavily damaged by the hurricane, was used as shelter for people whose houses had been destroyed. There was talk of the team relocating permanently to another state, but the decision was taken to return, and to try to offer something positive for the community to rally around.

The team's first game back in New ­Orleans at the beginning of the 2006 ­season drew a capacity crowd of more than 70,000, and ESPN's best-ever TV audience, but few could have envisaged that a victory like Sunday's would be possible in the proceeding few years. The Saints had finished their season in San Antonio with the NFL's second-worst record, winning just three of 16 games.

In fact, the Saints, formed in 1967, had never even gone to a Super Bowl before this season. Once there, few outside of New Orleans gave them much chance of success against a Colts team whose only previous defeats had come in the last two games of the regular season, when key starters were rested in order to avoid sustaining any injuries. The game was billed as a shoot-out between Brees and the Colts' quarterback, Peyton Manning, and few expected the Saints' signal caller to prevail. Though Brees had posted the league's best passer rating in the regular season, Manning already had one Super Bowl victory to his name and this year claimed the league's Most Valuable Player award for a record fourth time.

It was Brees, however, who wound up equalling a Super Bowl record with 32 completions and, crucially, ­throwing for two touchdowns. He had looked anxious early on, missing open receivers more than once, but finished with 10 successive completions. Manning, whose lone touchdown came in the first ­quarter, effectively sealed his team's fate by ­throwing the game's only interception – returned 74 yards for a score by Tracy ­Porter – to leave his team down 14 points with less than three and a half minutes remaining.

"We've had plenty of games this year when we've gone down at some point in the game – early, fourth quarter, ­whatever it might be," said Brees, reflecting on his team's recovery from an initial 10-0 deficit. "We just continued to believe in ourselves and, sure enough, we trusted in one another and our offence got it going."

The defence had done their part too, keeping the Saints to just one second-half touchdown and scoring one back through Porter's interception. While that defence had ranked 25th in the league for yards surrendered during the regular season, they played a critical role in the Saints becoming the only team ever to beat three Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks during one postseason. Before Manning was Brett Favre of the Minnesota Vikings, and before him the Arizona Cardinals' Kurt Warner.

But the greatest accolade should perhaps go to the head coach, Sean Payton, whose bold decision to attempt an onside kick at the beginning of the second half was the game's defining moment. The kick was recovered by the Saints, who moved swiftly down the field for a touchdown that gave them their first lead of the game. "I think I could kiss him," said Benson afterwards. The rest of New Orleans feels the same.

• Five Catalans players detained after Leeds brawl
• Successful start to season tainted by off-field incidents

The arrest of five Catalans Dragons players for their involvement in a brawl in Leeds city centre in the early hours of Monday morning took the shine off the most successful opening weekend in the Super League's 15-year history.

The Catalans players were unable to fly home to Perpignan with their team-mates following Sunday's 28-20 defeat at Wakefield in their first game of the season after being detained by West Yorkshire Police. They were due to be interviewed this afternoon although no charges have yet been laid.

A police spokesman had earlier confirmed that nine men were in custody following an incident in Boar Lane, near the hotel where the Catalans team were staying, at 2.15am.

It was the second off-field incident to taint the Super League inside a month, following the arrest of six Huddersfield players during a pre-season training trip to Newcastle as part of a police investigation into an alleged rape. They have been bailed until 18 March.

Whatever the outcomes of the two cases, they have brought unwanted publicity to the game at a time when the Rugby Football League would prefer to be celebrating the best-attended opening round of Super League fixtures since the competition was launched in 1996. The weekend's seven matches attracted an aggregate attendance of 78,090, with the prospect of two more gates of at least 15,000 on Friday when Sean Long makes his home debut for Hull against Huddersfield, and Wigan face Hull KR.

The Catalans prop Remi Casty remains in danger of suspension after being put on report in the Wakefield game for an alleged high tackle on Paul Johnson. Casty's case has been referred to the Rugby Football League's disciplinary hearing tomorrow.

Huddersfield's Andy Raleigh has also been referred to the hearing for an alleged late tackle on the Bradford scrum-half Matt Orford in last Friday's televised Yorkshire derby. Any suspension for Raleigh would leave Huddersfield short of props for their trip to Hull, as Keith Mason has been ruled out for six to eight weeks with the chest injury he suffered in the first minute against Bradford.

St Helens will discover on Tuesday the full cost of their 32-12 home defeat by a Long-inspired Hull team on Saturday. Ade Gardner, Sia Soliola and James Graham are awaiting the results of scans on respective rib, ankle and chest injuries, although all three are considered doubtful for next Sunday's trip to Bradford. Francis Meli, the Samoa wing who missed the Hull game after returning home to Auckland for personal reasons, is now back in the country and the Saints coach Mick Potter is confident that he will return at Odsal.

• World No7 undergoes scan at Belfast hospital
• 'It is a problem but it is very manageable'

Rory McIlroy, the young Ulsterman anointed by many as a future world No1, suffered the first injury setback of his professional career yesterday, under­going a scan for a back injury caused by over-practising in his efforts to get ready for the new season.

The 20-year-old, whose long and fluid swing has long given rise to concerns he might put too much strain on his back, underwent the scan at a Belfast hospital last night. "This is something we have been aware about for a long time and we are on top of it. It is a problem, but it is very manageable," a spokesman for McIlroy said last night.

"There is a slight inflammation due to the amount of work Rory put in before the season started, followed by tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Dubai."

McIlroy finished sixth in Dubai on Sunday, a performance that saw him climb to No7 in the latest world ­rankings. According to the spokesman, the long-term prognosis for the problem is good as long as his schedule is handled with care. Nevertheless, there has to be ­concern that McIlroy has been troubled by his back so early in his fledgling professional career.

The Ulsterman's next scheduled start is at the Accenture World Match Play tournament in ­Tucson, where he finished in a tie for fifth last year after losing to Geoff Ogilvy, the eventual winner, at the quarter-final stage.

One player who is unlikely to make the trip to Arizona next week is Tiger Woods, despite reports emanating from Australia at the end of last week that the world No1 would be making his return to the professional game at the matchplay event.

"It's not true, not as far as we are aware," one tournament source said tonight, confirming the opinion of Woods' caddie Steve Williams, who told a news­paper in his native New Zealand, "The story circulating out of a Melbourne newspaper has no fabric to it at all."

Entry for the Tucson matchplay event, restricted to the top 64 players in the world, will close on Friday afternoon. Assuming Woods does not enter before then, attention will then switch to the Bay Hill Invitational in March, a tournament which is held in the world No1's home town of Orlando, Florida, and for which he has long had an affection.

Speculation is beginning to grow that Woods will choose to make his return there.

• Frost covers go down ahead of Newbury's weekend card
• Trainer will give charge racecourse gallop if meeting off

Paul Nicholls, the trainer of Denman, said that he expects champion jockey Tony McCoy to gain "invaluable" experience of the 2008 Gold Cup winner when he partners him for the first time in the Aon Chase at ­Newbury on Saturday.

McCoy will be the fourth jockey to ­partner Denman in his 18-race career, and Nicholls feels it makes sense to give the new partnership racecourse experience ahead of the Gold Cup at Cheltenham next month.

"If you're an owner going for the Gold Cup, you want to give your horse the best possible chance," Nicholls said. "I always felt when I was riding that no matter how many times you ride a horse at home, you don't really know about them until you ride them in a race, so it will be invaluable just for him to have a ride on him. He can be a bit mulish at the start, but it should be a small field and he's very straightforward and dead easy to ride."

Saturday's valuable meeting, which is also set to feature Master Minded, the two-mile champion chaser, is under threat from falling temperatures. Frost covers have been laid over much of the track, but should these fail to save the card, Nicholls main concern is for Master Minded rather than Denman.

"Denman could have a racecourse ­gallop somewhere and Tony could sit on him then," he said. "Master Minded will definitely benefit from the run, he had time off with a rib fracture and we've not been back riding him all that long. The race will do him the world of good. We can manage if it's off, but it would be good for racing and the build-up to Cheltenham if we can be race on Saturday."

Both the Aon and the Game Sprit Chase, Master Minded's target, have been reopened after failing to attract ­sufficient entries, but the Totesport ­Trophy is ­predictably well-subscribed with 28 ­declarations at the five-day stage.

Four of those are trained by Nicky Henderson, including Spirit River, the ante-post favourite with most bookmakers.

"I think you'd have to be impressed with what he did at Cheltenham last time, and it seemed a natural progression to come straight here," Henderson said. "He ­certainly didn't need to do anything else to get any more weight. This has been a lucky race for us, even though it's an unlikely race for us in some ways. But it's our local track and it's very valuable."

Henderson also has the novice hurdlers Bellvano and Oscar Whiskey entered on Saturday's card, while Long Run, a leading candidate for the RSA Chase, is engaged in the two-mile Kingmaker Chase at ­Warwick the same day.

"In a normal year I'd think I had two of the best novices and would be fancying their chances," Henderson said. "They are both trying to get ready to tackle Dunguib [in the Supreme Novice Hurdle] but having seen him yesterday, I can't say I like what I saw. He looked pretty frightening."

Long Run is also entered for a three-mile chase at Newbury, but while he is being aimed at the stayers' event at the Festival, Henderson is keen to try him over two miles. "It's a bit of a fascination really if nothing else," he said, "and going over two should preserve him a bit. He's a very good jumper, but we need to teach him the English way rather than the French."

• Veteran Norwegian crashes on day two of Tour
• Wiggins finishes 112th as seven remaining riders also struggle

Twenty-four hours after winning the opening stage, Team Sky hit the earth with a bump on day two of the Tour of Qatar, literally in the case of the experienced Norwegian Kurt-Asle Arvesen, who crashed in the neutralised zone and fractured his collarbone.

Then, as crosswinds created havoc, the seven remaining Sky riders were scattered asunder. Ian Stannard was the highest placed, in 27th, with the overnight leader, Edvald Boasson-Hagen, puncturing and losing almost ten minutes to the stage winner Geert Steurs.

Two veteran British riders finished in a top 10 dominated by Belgian classics specialists, though Roger Hammond [6th] and Jeremy Hunt [8th] ride for the Cervelo Test Team.

"I'm sorry we lost the lead but sorrier for Kurt," said Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky principal. "It was a tough day."

Bradley Wiggins, who finished 112th, 11 minutes down, added: "We got scattered at a crucial time. Kurt was just bloody unlucky, but it was not a brilliant day for the team."

• Nineteen players sign central contracts
• Those playing overseas are not included

South Africa's Rugby Union has awarded national contracts until the end of the 2011 World Cup to 10 players including the captain John Smit and Victor Matfield, his deputy.

The others are Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Fourie du Preez, Jaque Fourie, Bryan Habana, JP Pietersen, Juan Smith and Pierre Spies.

Nine other players have been handed one-year deals. They are Andries Bekker, Heinrich Brussow, Bismarck du Plessis, Adrian Jacobs, Tendai Mtawarira, Wynand Olivier, Ruan Pienaar, Danie Rossouw and Morne Steyn. Other players will receive pro-rata payments in line with the contracted group.

No contracts have been awarded to overseas-based players, the most notable absentees being the Munster centre Jean de Villiers and the utility-back Frans Steyn, who plays for Racing Métro 92 in France.

Peter de Villiers' team play their first Test of 2010 against France at Newlands in June.

• Kieren Kelly and Jamie Stevenson hit by immediate suspension
• In-form pair yet to respond to charges

UK Athletics has today confirmed that Kieren Kelly and Jamie Stevenson have been suspended from all competition after being charged by UK Anti-Doping with violating anti-doping rules.

The provisional suspension, which begins with immediate effect, follows the refusal of both athletes to undertake out-of-competition tests on 9 January.

The pair will now have the opportunity to respond to the charge, including the right to a full hearing of the case. If found guilty, they may face a two-year ban.

Kelly, 23, competes in the shot put and finished first in the Indoor Championships of Ireland in Belfast at the weekend, just ahead of Stevenson.