Sport Opinion

BEFORE ENGLAND secure exclusivity on the moral high ground following Monday’s vile events in Sofia, it is worth remembering this.

THERE can be no complaints about St Helens being Super League champions: now the rest of the competition has to try and catch up.

BACK in the summer, if someone had said to Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder that his side would be level on points with Manchester United going into the October international break, then he would have gladly snapped that person’s hand off.

IT WAS around three years ago I remember attending a dinner and hanging onto the words of its guest speaker Brian Noble.

It’s great for the game that Salford Red Devils are at a first Super League Grand Final – and I hope we’re hammering down the throats of everyone this week just how good it is to have them at Old Trafford on Saturday.

THE breaking news flashed across the television screen during the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford last month.

It’s brilliant to see so many English lads set to play in the NRL Grand Final – the showpiece event of rugby league.

Usually it is when the dust settles that stock is taken and perspective is given, but as the UCI Road World Championships drew to a close last night, a more apposite saying would be when the waterproofs dry out.

TAXI FOR Ed Smith. Why, I’ll even pay for it myself after the decision to leave Jonny Bairstow out of the England Test squad to tour New Zealand.

The clocks will have changed but will it be one of those ‘where were you’ moments on the morning of Saturday 
November 2?

I WAS very interested in the remarks Robert Elstone made the other day, reviewing the current season and looking ahead to 2020.

THE Ashes are now over and there will probably be a few surprises in my best England and Australia line-up from the series.

Today I was reminded of the difference between the kind of journalism I have spent the last 20 years of my life producing, and the kind that poisons the public against what was once considered - across the board - an honourable profession.

HEADINGLEY cricket ground looked glorious on Tuesday in the soft September sunshine.

IT’S the start of Super League’s play-offs this week – but it would be wrong not to start with that dramatic relegation battle.

People are questioning Joe Root’s England captaincy after Australia retained the Ashes, but for me, he is still the right man for the job.

“JOE ROOT is such a likeable lad, a quality batsman and nobody wants to hurt or humiliate him but I’m afraid he lacks any feel for captaincy.

If you had gone back three weeks and looked at this scenario and said we needed one win to secure our place in the top-five I’d have been pretty confident we’d do that.