FOOTBALL – On Saturday 7 players were sent off in the German Bundesliga. This is a new Bundesliga record for most red card on a single day.
> The previous record of 6 red cards on a single day was first set on 10 June 1995 and then equalled on 12 December 1998, 10 March 2001 and 3 April 2010.
> In two of today’s six matches three red cards were shown: Hoffenheim – SC Freiburg and Hannover – Schalke.
FOOTBALL – On Saturday, August 24, all 20 Champions League qualifiying teams played their league match. Only seven won their match. See below against who they played and if the team won (green), drew (black) or lost (red).
FOOTBALL – Today’s question: QUIZ – Which club won its last Spanish domestic league in the 1995/1996 season?
Today’s answer: Atlético Madrid
Association quiz answer: Brought up in Australia and born in 1973, he played for among others AS Monaco, Internazionale and Atlético Madrid.
Points earned in today’s quiz:
5 – @sportzeloot
4 – @patfenelon6
3 – @Jasper_
2 – @SteveShea
1 – @catchvijju
Weekly final standings:
10 – @sportzeloot
8 – @Adriaan (8 bonus points via association quiz)
6 – @poirot986
6 – @RichardAgung
6 – @Eric_Stok (6 bonus points via association quiz)
5 – @Al_ritale
5 – @n_paloff
4 – @cyberslowpoke
4 – @swirou
4 – @ham_donald
4 – @patfenelon6
4 – @Yusuf_Official (4 bonus points via association quiz)
3 – @Erwingol
3 – @G_o_s_h_a
3 – @JBroend
3 – @Mark_Halliwell1
3 – @Jasper_
2 – @Aakynzomatic
2 – @natfisher
2 – @SteveShea
1 – @kangjalu
1 – @jonwynedwards
1 – @catchvijju
CYCLING – The 68th Vuelta a España will start with a Team Time Trial in Vilanova de Arousa on Saturday. Alejandro Valverde has been on the podium in the final classification four times and can equal the record of five podiums finishes if he finishes in the top-3 in the final classification in Madrid on September 15. Valverde finished third in 2003, second in 2006, first in 2009 and second in 2012.
The following is a preview on Week 2 of the 2013 season of The Rugby Championship. Australia travel to New Zealand and Argentina host South Africa
New Zealand – Australia (Westpac Stadium, Saturday, 24 August)
Head-to-head
> Last Saturday, the All Blacks recorded their 100th Test victory over the Wallabies, becoming the first national side to inflict 100 defeats upon another team.
> New Zealand are undefeated against Australia in their last five Test encounters (four victories, one draw) since a 25-20 Tri Nations defeat in Brisbane on 27 August 2011.
> Australia have not beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand in more than 12 years. Their 11 August 2001 triumph in Dunedin (23-15) was the Wallabies’ last away victory over their Trans-Tasman rivals. It was exactly one month before 9/11 happened and the Wallabies were still reigning world champions.
> Since that day, the Wallabies have vanquished the All Blacks once outside Australia. On 30 October 2010, the Australians emerged victorious 26-24 in a Test match in Hong Kong.
> Last season’s TRC match between New Zealand and Australia in New Zealand resulted in a 22-0 whitewash at Eden Park, marking the only time the Wallabies have been blanked in any match in this competition.
> Since Westpac Stadium in Wellington opened in 2000, the All Blacks have compiled a track record of 15 wins and two defeats at this venue. Their first Test match at this stadium (5 August 2000) resulted in a 24-23 defeat at the hands of Australia. England were the last visiting side to beat the All Blacks here, more than 10 years ago (15-13 on 14 June 2003). The All Blacks have won their last 12 Test matches played in this stadium.
> Since a 32-29 defeat to South Africa in Hamilton on 12 September 2009, New Zealand have not lost a Test match on home soil. In fact, the All Blacks have racked up 26 consecutive wins before a home crowd since then.
> By avoiding defeat, the All Blacks will retain the Bledisloe Cup, a trophy they have held ever since 2003. It is the longest stranglehold on the cup by any team since New Zealand won it in 1951, only to surrender it in 1979. Should the Wallabies win, the Bledisloe Cup decider will take place in Dunedin on 19 October.
New Zealand
> The All Blacks have won their last seven TN/TRC matches. The record in this competition is nine successive victories by the All Blacks from September 2009 to August 2011. A victory over Australia will move them within one of the record with a chance to equal that mark in the home match against Argentina on 7 September.
> The All Blacks have won all seven TN/TRC matches with Steve Hansen as their head coach.
> Tony Woodcock can make his 100th international Test appearance and can become the fourth All Black centurion behind Richie McCaw (117), Keven Mealamu (105) and Mils Muliaina (100). McCaw will improve to 118 Test appearances, tying him for fifth place all-time with France’s Fabien Pelous.
> Australia is the only team that has produced more than four Test centurions, in their case five.
> Woodcock made his All Blacks debut in a 43-17 triumph over Wales on 23 November 2002.
> Woodcock’s 99 Test matches have resulted in 84 All Blacks victories, one draw and only 14 defeats. Australia are the opponents which he has faced most often – on 24 occasions. He will become the first Prop to a quarter century of Tests against Australia.
> Richie McCaw has captained the All Blacks in 80 of his 117 Test matches. The only two players that have captained their team in more Test matches are Ireland’s Brian O’Driscoll (84) and South Africa’s John Smit (83).
> Richie McCaw can play in his 47th career Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship match. This would see him equal Australia’s Nathan Sharpe in joint second place in the competition and one shy of the competition record of 48 by the Wallabies’ George Gregan.
> McCaw will feature in his 31st Test against the Wallabies, establishing an international record for for most Test matches by one player against another country. Australia’s George Gregan faced South Africa in 30 international Test matches. McCaw’s track record against his Trans-Tasman rivals is 24 wins, one draw and five defeats.
> By starting, Tom Taylor is the ‘de facto’ fourth choice Fly-Half for the All Blacks, behind the injured Dan Carter, Aaron Cruden and Beauden Barrett.
> Taylor is the son of Warwick Taylor, who represented the All Blacks in 24 Tests from 1983 and 1988 and featured in the All Blacks’ World Cup winning campaign in 1987. He is also the nephew of Murray Taylor, who played in seven Tests for the All Blacks from 1976 to 1980.
> Taylor is the 14th player to make his All Blacks Test debut in a Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship match, but only the third to actually start behind second rowers Royce Willis (15 August 1998) and Tom Donnelly (19 September 2009).
> Taylor’s inclusion is one of two changes to the starting XV that defeated Australia last Saturday. In the forwards, Brodie Retallick steps in for the injured Luke Romano.
> Ben Smith scored a hat-trick of tries against Australia last Saturday, equalling a team record in the Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship. Three tries were also scored by Joe Rokocoko (26 July 2003), Doug Howlett (3 September 2005) and Cory Jane (29 September 2012).
> New Zealand have scored at least one try in their last 44 TN/TRC matches, since failing to cross over in a 23-18 defeat against Australia on 7 August 2004.
> Ma’a Nonu and Julian Savea are Wellington natives.
Australia
> Ewen McKenzie was on the losing side in his opening match as a head in The Rugby Championship. Only four coaches lost their first two in this competition (TN/TRC) and they were all in charge of South Africa.
> In spite of defeat last weekend, the Wallabies have issued only one change to their starting XV. Scott Fardy steps in for the injured Hugh McMeniman.
> For the first time in team history, the Wallabies have conceded 40+ points in successive Test matches, allowing the British & Irish Lions to amass 41 on 6 July 2013 and giving up 47 points to the All Blacks last Saturday. None of the teams that currently make up The Rugby Championship have ever surrendered 40+ points in three successive Tests.
> Christian Leali’ifano and Quade Cooper were both born in New Zealand. Last week, Leali’ifano set a record for most points (19) by a New Zealand-born player against New Zealand in a TN/TRC match.
> Australia have won the Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship on three occasions: in 2000, 2001 and 2011. Their 2000 and 2001 campaigns started with an opening round defeat.
Argentina – South Africa (Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Saturday, 24 August)
Head-to-head
> The Springboks have won 15 of their 16 Test matches against Los Pumas, their only failure to achieve victory coming in their last visit to Argentina, their 16-16 draw at this venue in last season’s The Rugby Championship. That was also the only Test match thus far played by Argentina at this venue, Mendoza’s Estadio Mundialista Malvinas Argentinas.
> That 16-16 draw also marks the only time Los Pumas have managed to stave off defeat in a TRC match.
> In that match, South Africa failed to record at least 26 points against Argentina, a feat they never failed to achieve before or after this encounter. The Boks trailed by 10-0 and 13-3 before salvaging the draw.
> The Boks responded by crushing Argentina 73-13 in last week’s 2013 TRC opener, the largest ever victory in a Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship match by any team and also South Africa’s biggest ever triumph over Argentina.
> The 73 points put up by South Africa were also the most by any team in a TN/TRC match.
> Sixteen is the most times South Africa have faced a specific adversary without ever losing to them.
> Since the aforementioned 16-16 draw between these two, Argentina have lost four from five on home soil, but won their last, a 29-18 triumph over Georgia on 22 June of this year.
Argentina
> None of Argentina’s first seven matches in The Rugby Championship have resulted in a victory. Their seven match winless streak is already a record for the competition.
> Argentina’s 73-13 defeat last Saturday was the second biggest ever Test defeat for the Pumas. It was only trumped by the 85 point margin (93-8) by which the All Blacks brushed them aside on 21 June 1997.
> Felipe Contepomi scored all 13 of Argentina’s points in their 73-13 defeat last weekend in Johannesburg. Contepomi’s try made him the oldest Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship try scorer. Contepomi at 35 years and 362 days took the record from teammate Rodrigo Roncero, who had established it at 35 years and 204 days on 8 September 2012.
> Contepomi’s 13 points were the second most by a captain in a Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship match. Australia’s Stirling Mortlock registered 14 against South Africa on 16 June 2007.
> Last Saturday, Contepomi collected his 82nd Test cap for Argentina. If he appears in the remaining five 2013 TRN matches for Los Pumas, he will set a record 87 Test appearances for Argentina. At present, the high mark of 86 is shared by Lisandro Arbizu and Rolando Martín.
> Contepomi turned 36 last Tuesday and can become the fourth player over the age of 35 to feature in a Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship match, following South Africa’s Johan Ackermann, New Zealand’s Brad Thorn and Australia’s Radike Samo. Contepomi is the oldest back in the history of the competition.
> Nine Pumas have appeared in all seven TRC matches for Argentina and six of them have started in all of them: forwards Eusebio Guiñazú, Juan Figallo, Manuel Carizza and Patricio Albacete and backs Gonzalo Camacho and Marcelo Bosch.
> Argentina’s eight tries in The Rugby Championship (both this season and last) have been recorded by eight different players.
> Eusebio Guiñazú and Matías Díaz are both Mendoza natives.
> The 13 points scored by Argentina last week is exactly what they have averaged in seven TRC matches. They are now conceding on average 34 points in those matches.
South Africa
> Last Saturday, the Springboks established Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship records for biggest margin of victory (by 60 points), for most points in a single match (73) and for most tries in a single match (nine).
> The Boks have not won successive TN/TRC matches within the same season since 2009, the last year they won the competition.
> South Africa have named an unchanged starting XV to resume their rivalry with Argentina. Last season, Heyneke Meyer also named an unchanged starting lineup to face New Zealand after his team had defeated Australia 31-8.
> Morné Steyn produced 28 points in South Africa’s opener against Argentina, accounting for the third highest individual score in a TN/TRC match. Steyn himself holds the record with 31 points in a 31-19 victory over New Zealand on 1 August 2009. That broke the record of South African-born All Black Andrew Mehrtens, who tallied 29 points against Australia on 24 July 1999.
> Steyn set a competition record by registering eight conversions. No other player had even booted more than six in a single match before last Saturday.
> Steyn finished as TN/TRC top scorer in both 2009 and 2010. If he scoops up these honours again, he will set a Springbok record, as he would surpass Percy Montgomery, who has the competition’s top scorer in two different seasons.
> Bismarck Du Plessis can become the 24th player to amass a half century of Test appearances for his country, should he come on as a substitute. The veteran Hooker made his Boks Test debut on 7 July 2007 in a 25-17 defeat against Australia.
> Last Saturday, Bryan Habana established a competition record by recording a try in five successive TN/TRC appearances, improving on the mark of four he shared with New Zealand’s Christian Cullen (2000) and Australia’s James O’Connor (2010-2011).
> Habana’s try last week was his 15th in the competition, tying him for second all-time with New Zealand’s Joe Rokocoko. He needs one more to equal the record of 16 by New Zealand’s Christian Cullen.
> Habana has 51 career Test tries to his name and is one of only five players that have scored more than 50 career Test tries. The other four are: Japan’s Daisuke Ohata (69), Australia’s David Campese (64), Wales’ Shane Williams (60) and Japan’s Hirotoki Onozawa (55).
> JJ Engelbrecht has so far copied the start of Jean de Villiers’s Test career by scoring no try on debut and then recording precisely one try in each of his next four Tests. Only two South Africa players have recorded at least one try in five successive Test matches in the professional era: Pieter Rossouw (1997) and Bryan Habana (2012-2013). In Springboks history two players have recorded at least one try in a record six successive Tests: Danie Gerber (1982-1984) and Chester Williams (1994-1995).
> South Africa’s starting XV accounts for exactly 500 Test matches worth of experience.
FOOTBALL – Today’s question: QUIZ – Which country’s national football team holds the record for the greatest ever victory in an international match?
Today’s answer: Australia (31-0 v American Samoa)
Want to guess the association? Click this Link.
Points earned in today’s quiz:
5 – @n_paloff
4 – @ham_donald
3 – @Mark_Halliwell1
2 – @natfisher
1 – @jonwynedwards
Weekly standings:
6 – @poirot986
6 – @RichardAgung
5 – @Al_ritale
5 – @sportzeloot
5 – @n_paloff
4 – @cyberslowpoke
4 – @swirou
4 – @ham_donald
3 – @Erwingol
3 – @G_o_s_h_a
3 – @JBroend
3 – @Mark_Halliwell1
2 – @Aakynzomatic
2 – @natfisher
1 – @kangjalu
1 – @jonwynedwards
FORMULA 1 – In the forthcoming Grand Prix of Belgium, Fernando Alonso can pick up his 1,500th career drivers’ championships point if he finishes in eighth place or better. The only other driver to have breached this barrier is Michael Schumacher. Alonso is one of five drivers with at least 1,000 points to his name.
FOOTBALL – Today’s question: QUIZ – In which year did Liverpool win their first major European trophy?
Today’s answer: 1973
Want to guess the association? Click this Link.
Points earned in today’s quiz:
5 – @sportzeloot
4 – @poirot986
3 – @JBroend
2 – @Aakynzomatic
1 – @RichardAgung
Weekly standings:
6 – @poirot986
6 – @RichardAgung
5 – @Al_ritale
5 – @sportzeloot
4 – @cyberslowpoke
4 – @swirou
3 – @Erwingol
3 – @G_o_s_h_a
3 – @JBroend
2 – @Aakynzomatic
1 – @kangjalu
ATHLETICS – An entire World Championships have gone by without producing a single World Record improvement. Our friend Slavko Jeric (find him on Twitter @SportniSOS) has analysed how many improvements there have been in each Olympiad. He notices a downward trend, even in spite of the fact that there are three years left in the current Olympiad (2012-2016) for world records to be broken.
FOOTBALL – Today’s question: QUIZ – In the Benito Mussolini era, which current Serie A club was known as ‘Ambrosiana’?
Today’s answer: Internazionale
Want to guess the association? Click this Link.
Points earned in today’s quiz:
5 – @RichardAgung
4 – @swirou
3 – @G_o_s_h_a
2 – @poirot986
1 – @kangjalu
Weekly standings:
5 – @Al_ritale
5 – @RichardAgung
4 – @cyberslowpoke
4 – @swirou
3 – @Erwingol
3 – @G_o_s_h_a
2 – @poirot986
1 – @kangjalu
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