A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Smith hails South Africa victory as most rewarding of captaincy

CRICKET:Graeme Smith described South Africa's four-wicket victory over Pakistan in the second Test yesterday as one of the most rewarding wins in his 100 matches as captain of the side.

It gave South Africa an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series and was achieved in conditions more suited to the tourists on a turning Newlands wicket, with Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal completing match figures of 10 for 147.

“It is one of the more rewarding victories we have had, a really good Test win,” Smith said. “We were under pressure on day three and we needed two days of big performances and to get that from the guys was special.”

Smith and Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq said the 84 scored by man-of-the-match Robin Peterson in South Africa’s first innings was the turning point of the game. Peterson came to the wicket with South Africa on 164 for six, still 174 behind Pakistans first-inning total. By the time he was the last man out, they had closed the gap to just 12 runs.

Pakistan were crushed by 211 runs in the first Test, a game in which they were never really in the hunt.

The third and final Test starts at Centurion on February 22nd.

Roche continues to show form with 11th-place finish

CYCLING:Nicolas Roche followed up his fifth overall in the recent Tour of the Mediterranean with another encouraging early-season performance, with the Irish pro netting 11th overall in the two-day Tour du Haut Var yesterday.

Roche was eighth on Saturday's opening stage behind the sprint winner Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing Team), then finished 14th on yesterday's concluding leg of the race. He was in a large group which was again led home by Hushovd, but these riders were 14 seconds behind the stage winner Lars Boom (Blanco Pro Cycling) and the overall victor Arthur Vichot (FDJ).

Meanwhile, Roche's fellow pro Philip Deignan was seventh on Saturday's mountain stage of the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal, 18th in yesterday's final time trial and a very solid 14th overall in the race.

Queen's lose out to Neptune in Lagan Head

ROWING:Neptune crews won in the morning and afternoon sessions at Lagan Head of the River in Belfast on Saturday. The second "head" had a dramatic pre-race incident when the Queen's University senior eight and the Portadown intermediate four clashed, causing enough damage to both boats to rule them out of racing. One of the Portadown crew was treated in hospital.

Queen's, who were the top-ranked crew on the day, lost their chance of taking on the Neptune juniors, who seized the opportunity to take pennants as fastest crew, fastest junior crew and fastest junior 18 eight.

It was a good day for Dublin raiders as Trinity's two senior women's eights placed well in the second head and Neptune's two junior men's quadruples were the fastest crews in the first head. Schools' crews from Scotland were withdrawn.

LIAM GORMAN

Egan and Ward to meet again in final

BOXING:Ken Egan and European champion Joe Ward will meet in their third successive Elite Championships light-heavyweight final - Ward won the previous two head-to-heads - at Dublin's National Stadium on Friday. Egan had a controlled victory over Davey Joe Joyce at the Stadium on Saturday night, the Neilstown BC clubman nailing all three rounds to post a 13-7 decision. The win was 31-year-old Egan's 25th from 27 outings at Elite level since 2001. His only reversals were to Ward.

Meanwhile, Willie McLaughlin edged out Beijing Olympian John Joe Joyce (16-14) on Saturday to set up Friday's welterweight final with defending champion and 2012 Olympian Adam Nolan.

Katie Taylor will meet Poland's Karolina Gracyzk in a support bout on finals night in her first outing since winning gold at London 2012.