Following his retreat from Edinburgh, the cry for the head of the New Zealander who coaches Ireland rose in a crescendo and yet within a month he was enjoying his finest hour and a half as the head of Wood, the boot of O'Gara and the fingers of Stringer condemned England to a recurring nightmare.Ireland, who take on Samoa at Lansdowne Road a week today before meeting the All Blacks the following Saturday, have added four players to their party, Gary Longwell, the Ulster lock, and the threequarters Jeremy Staunton, Gordon D'Arcy and Jonathan Bell. Gatland finally has some strength in depth – not that it enhanced his selection against Scotland – and has managed to conjure two performances of note in a row. Now he must ensure that Ireland go into the game against New Zealand as complete no hopers. Anything else and the Irish cease to function.South Africa play France in Paris on Saturday, and Italy in Genoa the following weekend before arriving at Twickenham.
The French have suffered a marked decline since being Europe's leading standard bearers in the last World Cup and, typically, they have jettisoned some big names – Sadourny, Bernat-Salles, Benazzi – while including eight uncapped players in the squad for the Springbok Test.Meanwhile, the Rugby Football Union has been toasting an exclusive five-year agreement with Bollinger, who will launch their association in Twickenham's West car park on Saturday. The Wallabies will give some indication of whether we are talking about the Brut strength of the England yeomen or Champagne Charlies. Either way the rare vintage will expect something more up market than fish and chips.. Sebastien Grosjean's dream is to emulate what his French team captain, Guy Forget, achieved 10 years ago by winning the Paris indoor title to qualify for the what is now the Masters Cup in Sydney and then end the season with a Davis Cup triumph. Sebastien Grosjean's dream is to emulate what his French team captain, Guy Forget, achieved 10 years ago by winning the Paris indoor title to qualify for the what is now the Masters Cup in Sydney and then end the season with a Davis Cup triumph. To achieve the first goal, the 23-year-old from Marseille must overcome Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Russia's Olympic champion, in today's final at the Palais Omnisports de Bercy.
That will not be easy given that Kafelnikov has won their three previous matches and is keen to win his first Masters Series title after failing in four finals.Grosjean, who has displayed greater upper-body strength and power of shot after working hard in the gym during the summer while recovering from an ankle injury, continued an impressive run of form yesterday in defeating Tommy Haas, of Germany, 7-5, 6-4, in the semi-finals. Grosjean, 2-5 down in the opening set, won five games in a row.Haas, who twice had treatment for an injury to his right wrist during the second set, will take the last remaining place in the eight-man draw for the Masters Cup in Sydney in nine days' time if Grosjean fails to win the final today. Otherwise, Grosjean will qualify and Haas will replace the Frenchman on the bench as a substitute.Kafelnikov, who has already qualified for the Masters Cup, defeated Andreas Vinciguerra 6-1, 7-6, in the first of yesterday's semi-finals. Kafelnikov's domination of the Swede in the first set was almost embarrassing, the 20-year-old double-faulting to lose the second game and having difficulty interrupting the Russian's flow of shots as the next four games flashed by.Vinciguerra was unable to make a respectable contribution to the action until taking Kafelnikov to deuce at 0-4, the Russian winning the game by hitting two aces. Vinciguerra held serve to love for 1-5, only to see Kafelnikov win the next four points to serve out the set after 24 minutes.After Kafelnikov broke in the opening game of the second set, the pattern of the match seemed indelible. Kafelnikov did not show any sign of frustration with his game until leading 3-2 in the second set.