It is being paid for by the Rugby Football Union and, as a final act of reconciliation, was booked by none other than Dennis Easby, the RFU president who last month sacked and reinstated Carling.The selection, certain to be unchanged, for Sunday will probably be made when the party comes back to Johannesburg, though until they move on to Cape Town on Friday they will be in the pleasant northern suburb of Sandton rather than Parktown, uncomfortably close to the centre of this crime-ridden city, where they passed last week.Considering the intensity of the physical demands that have been placed on them, the players are in remarkably good shape, with Dean Richards the only casualty of the quarter-final, when he had six stitches in his forehead. Kyran Bracken’s heel and ankle have now fully recovered, meaning a departure for home last night by Andy Gomarsall, who had flown from the England XV tour of Australia to provide temporary cover.Meanwhile, the utopian idea that minds – not least Carling’s – might be taken off the semi-final by disappearing to Sun City has already broken down, because the captain is not being allowed to think of anything else. “It is a measure of our task that we will have to play better than we did against the Australians – and that was quite a performance,” he said “It will have to be far more disciplined We gave away too many penalties, stupid penalties. Also, our use of the ball will have to be better in certain areas of the pitch. My kicking duel with Campese wasn’t particularly intelligent.”All of which, so Carling assures us, will be done.
The thought that, after one momentous victory, they may undergo the same fate as the last time they were in South Africa has not entered his head. “It may sound crazy but if it was Australia again next week it would be very different. It’s a very English thing: it’s not in our character to beat a side twice.”. Athletics
MIKE ROWBOTTOM
Linford Christie, who is in dispute with the British Athletic Federation over payment, said yesterday that he will not run in the season’s first televised domestic meeting at Gateshead on 2 July.
His appearance in any of the major home meetings remains in doubt unless negotiations, which have broken down, can resume in earnest.Christie, who was named yesterday in a European Cup team from which Sally Gunnell and John Regis are both absent with injury, says he has been asked to take a pay cut from last season, something that he maintains has not been asked of Britain’s two other world champions, Gunnell and Colin Jackson.”It isn’t just a case of money,” he said. “I ran at Crystal Palace in the rain and cold for my club the other week for free I ran the World Cup for free. I will be running this European Cup for free, and they are asking me to do 100, 200 and the relay.”For me it is a principle more than anything else If everybody has to take a pay cut, that’s fair enough But if I’m the only person to take a cut, that isn’t kosher. At the end of the day, regardless of what the Federation say, I put the bums on the seats Gateshead is my place I pack out Gateshead. But I’m not running it.”The world and Olympic 100 metres champion is upset that reports of negotiations – which have taken place between his agent, Sue Barrett, and the head of the Federation’s promotions section, Ian Stewart – have leaked out. Sources within the Federation say he has asked for pounds 250,000 as a complete package for the season. He is reported to have been offered between pounds 35,000 and pounds 45,000 for each major domestic meeting.Although Christie has confirmed his presence for the European Cup at Lille on the weekend of 24-25 June, he has not yet been nominated in his usual position as the team captain.
Two factors appear to be at work here – the impasse over payment, and Christie’s intention to fly to Lille directly from Oslo, where he has a business appointment, rather than travelling with the team through the Channel Tunnel. An announcement is expected later this week.Britain will miss the inspirational figures of Regis and Gunnell, whose defence of her world 400m title this summer is now in serious jeopardy.Her coach, Bruce Longden, said she would not resume competition until the second half of July, when she would be looking for some flat races. He then foresaw her running “one or two” hurdles races before Gothenburg, rather than the usual five or six she requires before major championships.Gunnell had resumed training with the intention of running a flat race in Nuremburg tomorrow, but was still experiencing pain in her heel. On Friday she travelled to a specialist in Zurich who recommended further rest. The exact nature of her injury is still something of a mystery. Longden said it was a recurrence of an old heel problem while her agent, Jonathan Marks, said she had been told it was an Achilles tendon injury.Mark Richardson, who returned after a year out with injury last month, has deservedly been awarded the individual place.