Bill Bridge: Hetherington deserves Yorkshire-wide acclaim as Leeds defy odds to stay up

Yesterday's 1m match confirmed that Leeds would stay in the Premiership and that Worcester's six-year residence was over; director of rugby Andy Key, coach Neil Back and all the players deserve the greatest credit for the former.

At the start of the season there appeared two certainties in this rugby season: that France would win the Six Nations' title and Leeds would be relegated. Thankfully the odds against the double were so cramped no investment was made.

It was, though, desperately close; had Matt Jones succeeded with either his penalty or drop-goal attempt in the final minutes Leeds would today be pondering a daunting visit to Bath in the last game of the season knowing that nothing less than victory would suffice. Now they can go there totally relaxed and, rugby being the infernal game it is, will probably win anyway.

They will then begin to look ahead to next season when they will be able to match the financial muscle of such as Leicester and Northampton without having one hand tied behind their back. For that, as well as having the foresight to give Key and Back his full support, Hetherington deserves the thanks of everyone in Yorkshire rugby.

Key's optimism has shone through the darkest days of a long winter. He spoke at our rugby club – along with his great mate and product of the Leicester production line of winners Dean Richards – and had even the most cynical of Keighleians taking the taxi home certain that Leeds would stay up.

He obviously had the same effect in the dressing room as a series of splendid victories turned the tide.

With a decision likely to be made shortly to enlarge the Premiership to 14 clubs – one of whom will undoubtedly be Worcester – Leeds have earned their place at the top table for the foreseeable future. Presumably they will not be joining the camp of those who wish to see the competition ring-fenced, without promotion and relegation, for without that access Leeds Carnegie's party would not have been so memorable last night.

THE passing of Juan Antonio Samaranch brought contrasting comments from across the globe, putting into public awareness the strengths and faults of the man without whom the Olympic Games would not be the sporting colossus which will transfix the world come London in 2012.

Lord Coe led those who sought to praise Samaranch, lauding him as a visionary with an encyclopaedic knowledge of sport and the people involved in it. He was also, as Coe readily admits, a friend and ally when Sheffield's finest athlete hung up his spikes and moved seamlessly into sporting politics.

"He led from the front and unquestionably challenged us all," concluded Coe in a remarkable tribute to the Spanish aristocrat who modernised the Olympic movement following the Eighties boycotts of Moscow and Los Angeles, transformed Olympic finances with his sale of

TV rights and joined wholeheartedly in the commercialisation of the movement as he hand-picked the sponsors who would be allowed – for huge fees – to use the Olympic rings in their advertising.

But Samaranch was not the beacon of celestial light his favourites – like Jacques Rogge, his successor as president of the IOC, and Coe – would have us believe. He rose to become president of the International Olympic Committee on the back of service to Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator of Spain for over 30 years, and was governor of his native Catalonia at a time when garrotting was the preferred method of capital punishment.

He signally failed to prevent the Olympics being tarnished by the bribery scandal surrounding the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, escaping without even a hint of a stain on his character, he was utterly ruthless with those who sought to oppose his domination of the IOC, and he was slow to react to the threat of performance-enhancing drugs.

He insisted on having the best hotel suites wherever he was in the world and on being addressed as "Your Excellency" despite having no title which earned him that right.

Haughty, nepotistic, unshiftable from his unique position of power, Samaranch was many things to many people but it is beyond question that he is the man who carried the Olympics to their present pedestal.

Whether Baron de Coubertin, the inventor of the modern Olympics, would have applauded his achievements is not so clear-cut.

NOTHING has been put in writing yet, but there is more than a possibility that professional golf will be returning to Yorkshire, perhaps as soon as next season.

Fulford is the likely venue for the return of the great names to Yorkshire and negotiations are under way with a view to securing a date if not for this season then almost certainly for next.

and another thing...

A FEW days of blue skies without the criss-cross of vapour trails may have caused havoc to the travel plans of many and cost airlines millions but there was one useful side-effect.

That was the upsetting of Liverpool's travel plans to Madrid to face Atletico in the semi-final of the Europa Cup. Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Co had to undertake the strain of going first-class by train from Runcorn to Euston which, while it might not have been anything like being sardined into the train into Leeds or Sheffield of a morning, will have offered a rare glimpse of how normal people live to the cosseted footballers.

They were spared the 10-minute walk from Euston to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar – we couldn't do with them actually mixing with the plebs, could we? – and then, poor things, had to take the TGV from Paris to Bordeaux.

No wonder they performed so badly during the match; they were obviously mentally and physically shattered by getting to work. It's a tough life.