Rugby World Cup 2011: New Zealand v France … the All Blacks to shake off their French choking syndrome

New Zealand v France, it’s probably fair to say it’s all Kiwis versus the rest of the world, such has the fascination become with the All Blacks’ famous ‘choking’ at World Cups.

And it's comforting to see that there appear to be tens of thousands of Frenchies in town, kitted out in berets and yelling 'Allez Bleus' at anyone who cares to listen.

So, to ease my own anxieties I turned to the stats guru  to see if facts and figures can provide some comfort – and yes, they do (at least regarding the overall picture)

First the good stuff. Consider that over the years New Zealand and France have faced each other 49 times, the All Blacks winning 36, losing only 12 with one draw.

Consider too the ‘fortress’ that’s Eden Park. Played 67, won an impressive 55, with 10 defeats and two draws.

And break that down to these two teams playing at Eden Park, and New Zealand lead 6-2 from their eight encounters.

But then comes the sobering stuff… In RWC clashes they’ve both won two matches – who could forget France reducing the All Blacks to quivering wrecks in 1999 and 2007, .while NZ emerged on top in 1987 and 2003.

And then there’s the Eden Park omen. While NZ have been unbeaten there in the last 24 tests (23 victories, one draw), their last defeat – in July 1994 – was against, well, none other than the French. Who then, just for good measure, proved they like facing the ABs in New Zealand by beating them in Dunedin in 2009.

Thankfully, much as stats can be interesting, they can also be lies and damn lies. And Saturday night will all come down to what makes rugby the spectacular game it is… Mighty collisions upfront, clever running lines at the back, heroic defence, the odd lucky bounce of that strangely shaped ball, the passion, the grit (and hopefully not a single contentious decision by a match official).

Time to stick my neck out again. The All Blacks to rip that RWC hand from around their throats and deal to the French true and proper. Something like 34-14.

What do you make of it? And predictions please.

This blog is supported by Maximuscle, the sports nutrition choice of Courtney Lawes, Joe Simpson and the Welsh team. For more information on how Maximuscle is the Team Behind the Team go to www.maximuscle.com/tbtt

Former King Wayne Simmonds is target of racist gesture

You see the words, but you don't want to believe them.

Frank Seravalli, who writes about the Flyers for the Philadelphia Daily News, said via Twitter that he saw someone throw a banana at Wayne Simmonds as the former Kings winger was taking a shot during the  shootout in an exhibition game at London, Canada.

Simmonds ignored the distraction and scored; Seravalli said he would check with Simmonds -- one of the NHL's few black players -- when he got to the locker room.

Sad to say, it was true. And another fan who said he was at the game said another banana was launched toward Simmonds before that but landed short of the ice.

Simmonds reacted with class, downplaying the incident. But it's not the first time he has experienced racism in the rink and it would be idealistic to think it will be the last.

Angels lose a game and some ground in Toronto

The Angels, chasing teams in two separate playoffs races, had a chance to pick up ground in each Thursday in Toronto.

The Boston Red Sox, who lead the wild-card race, were idle Thursday. And the Texas Rangers, who lead the American League West, had already lost in Oakland by the time the Angels took the field.

But instead of gaining, the Angels lost twice -- dropping a game to Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, in 12 innings and a losing half a game in the standings to the Red Sox. As a result they'll begin their final homestand of the season Friday trailing the Red Sox by three games and the Rangers by five with six to play.

That leaves little room for error for a team that looked anything but sharp in a game they had to win Thursday, giving up the tying run on a wild pitch and losing on Edwin Encarnacion's walk-off homer to start the 12th inning.

The homer, Encarnacion's 17th, came off rookie Garrett Richards, who came on to face big league home run leader Jose Bautista with one out in the 11th inning and got him. But he couldn't get Encarnacion an inning later. 

Kings update: New off-season approach helps Thomas Hickey

Keeping it simple, unfortunately, isn’t always so simple.

Just ask any young defenseman trying to make an NHL roster or navigating the league for the first time. Thomas Hickey, a first-round draft pick (fourth overall) in 2007, opted for a new approach to prepare for what could be a make-or-break Kings’ training camp.

He stayed home in Calgary and decompressed with family and friends, taking his skate off the all-hockey-all-the-time pedal.

“I was down here all last summer [in 2010]; the strength coach here is very good,” Hickey said after practice in El Segundo on Thursday. “He knows what he is doing. But, for me, I felt I needed to be home and refresh the mind. The work load was the same, but it’s just a different style of doing it.

“I love playing hockey and being at the rink. But to really appreciate it, you’ve got to take time away. Before too long, you’re hungry to get back to the rink and you wish training camp was a week away. I felt that way quite early in the summer.”

Angels look to end regular-season road campaign on an upbeat

The Rogers Centre's retractible roof with be open Thursday night when the Angels take the field in Toronto for their final road game of the season.

The regular season, that is. Because the Angels begin play just 2 1/2 games behind Boston in the American League wild-card race with seven games to play.

The division race is pretty much over. The Angels trail the Texas Rangers by five games and would have to go unbeaten the rest of the way while hoping Texas loses twice just to force a tie atop the American League West. That's not likely to happen.

But the Red Sox have been coming back to the Angels for quite some time. While Mike Scioscia's team was winning 12 of 19 in September, Boston was losing 15 of 21. The Tampa Bay Rays are also tied with the Angels, 2 1/2 games behind the idle Red Sox, with seven to play. Tampa Bay plays the Yankees on Thursday in New York.

The Angels will be glad to get home no matter how Thursday's road finale goes. That's because they have gone 11-15 in their last 26 road games and are just two games over .500 on the road overall. At Angel Stadium, however, they've gone 44-31.

Ervin Santana will take the ball for the Angels hoping to snap a personal three-game losing streak. He's gone 19 innings, giving up 13 runs -- 10 earned -- in those three starts.

The lineups:

Angels

SS -- Erick Aybar

2B -- Howie Kendrick

DH -- Bobby Abreu

RF -- Torii Hunter

1B -- Mark Trumbo

3B -- Alberto Callaspo

LF-- Vernon Wells

CF -- Peter Bourjos

C -- Bobby Wilson

P -- Ervin Santana

Toronto Blue Jays

SS -- Mike McCoy

LF -- Eric Thames

DH -- Jose Bautista

1B -- Adam Lind

3B -- Edwin Encarnacion

2B -- Kelly Johnson

CF -- Colby Rasmus

C -- Jose Molina

RF -- Adam Loewen

P -- Henderson Alvarez

MORE:

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-- Kevin Baxter in Toronto

Photo: Manager Mike Scioscia celebrates an Angels victory on September 18. Credit: Steve Ruark / Getty Images.

No breakthroughs in NBA contract talks; sides to meet again

NBA Commissioner David Stern told reporters "the calendar is not our friend," at the close of a Thursday meeting in New York with the National Basketball Players Assn. that ended with no significant announcement other than the promise to meet again next week.

Stern didn't discuss the tone of a reported five-hour bargaining session that came nearly three months into the owners' lockout of players and less than two weeks before the scheduled start of training camp.

"My only concern is trying to make a deal that's fair to both sides," Stern told reporters.

Lakers guard Derek Fisher, the president of the union, said the parties were not closer to a deal than they were after last week's meeting.

"Obviously, we're not walking out of here with a deal right now," Fisher told reporters. "We'll keep working at it until we figure this out, but right now there isn't anything to report."

The union last week strongly hinted that it had agreed to take 4% less in basketball-related income after the league claimed that 23 of 30 teams were losing money.

The players are resistant to a hard salary cap. Owners have most recently proposed $2-billion salary cap for five years, after they spent $2.15 billion last season.

"We need an economic system and a system where teams can compete, and fans know their teams can compete," Stern told reporters. "That's where we're at."

MORE:

NBA labor negotiations to continue next week

Poll: Which side do you agree with more in the NBA lockout?

-- Lance Pugmire

Twitter.com/latimespugmire

 Photo: David Stern. Credit: LM Otero / Associated Press.

Miguel Cotto embraces cash for Antonio Margarito rematch

 

Miguel Cotto once said he'd never let Antonio Margarito earn another penny off him.

For more than two years, Cotto has harbored resentment that Margarito handed the Puerto Rican his first loss in July 2008 by wearing "loaded" gloves into the ring -- a claim strengthened by the fact California boxing regulators in January 2009 secured plaster-hardened pads from inside Margarito's hand wraps before his scheduled Staples Center fight against Shane Mosley.

Even on Thursday, Cotto pulled out his iPhone and showed reporters a photo showing a joyous Margarito celebrating the Cotto victory with the gauze over his hand wraps torn in the knuckle area.

"You ever see a hand wrap like that?" Cotto asked. "Gauze is not supposed to break. You be the judge."

(Perhaps more sinister, the hand wraps pulled off Margarito before the Mosley fight appeared to be stained with blood in the same spot they were when photographed in the Cotto fight aftermath.)

Yet, Cotto, 30, has decided to give Margarito, 33, another bout -- a 153-pound catchweight fight for Cotto's World Boxing Assn. light-middleweight belt.

"What other names are out there for me to make money against?" Cotto asked. "Floyd [Mayweather, who just fought Saturday], Manny [Pacquiao, who defeated Cotto in 2009], and Antonio."

Someone mentioned middleweight champion Sergio Martinez's name.

"You think Sergio Martinez will make me this kind of money?" Cotto asked.

Promoter Bob Arum revealed Cotto (36-2, 29 KOs) will be paid $5 million plus a larger percentage of the $54.95 pay-per-view sales for fighting Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs) on Dec. 3 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where Cotto is 6-0 and will draw a heavy crowd of supporters.

Margarito, said Arum, will be paid $2.5 million plus a smaller pay-per-view percentage than Cotto.

"I've accepted my defeat like a man, and kept walking with it," said Cotto, who will begin training camp in Orlando, Fla., under trainer Emanuel Steward next week. "I'm going to put clear a lot of things people won't have to hear anymore once I win.... I'm a more mature, more focused boxer than I was three years ago."

Margarito will train in the mountains above Mexico City for the bout with his Oxnard-based trainer Robert Garcia.

The former world welterweight champion from Tijuana was knocked out by Mosley in the 2009 bout, then suspended from the sport before returning to a prominent bout in November 2010, and getting battered in Texas by Manny Pacquiao.

Margarito's career was jeopardized by an eye injury in the bout but he underwent cataract surgery this year and declared "everything good" Thursday at the Wilshire Grand Hotel, where the fighters conducted a news conference.

Arum said 65% of the tickets at Madison Square Garden were sold out during the first day of sales.

Arum said the sides have agreed to minimize the hand-wrapping discussions by turning in to the New York State Athletic Commission all tape, gauze and bandages to be used in the fight one day before the bout in a sealed envelope.

"When Cotto feels my first punch, he can say, 'Man, I take my words back,' " Margarito said.

The fighters have been icy toward each other throughout the press tour, publicist Lee Samuels said.

"The key to my victory is preparation," Margarito said, a nod to his insistence that Cotto was worn down by Margarito's power punching in the first bout. "Fights like this are won in the gym."

Cotto embraced the challenge.

"Last time, I left the ring without my belt," he said. "This time, I will climb out of that ring with my belt."

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--Lance Pugmire

twitter.com/latimespugmire

Photo: Miguel Cotto, left, Antonio Margarito. Credit: Reed Saxon / Associated Press.