Sports Digest/Rugby: Clive Woodward is finally gone, but he will not be forgotten at Twickenham in a hurry after an extraordinary farewell outburst yesterday in which he took deliberate aim at the heart of English rugby, condemning the English RFU as toothless and apathetic and accusing the union of complacency since their World Cup triumph.
Woodward also laid into unsupportive Premiership club owners and directors of rugby for helping to push him into resigning from "the best job in the world" and confirmed he would be leaving rugby after next summer's Irish and British Lions tour to New Zealand.
His immediate plan is to divide his time between preparing for the Lions trip and studying for his English Football Association grade two coaching award, although he will not be taking up any paid role awaiting him at Southampton until his Lions commitments are completed.
According to Woodward, it was the endless club versus country rows and the decision to decrease the number of training days he is allowed with the national squad from 20 to 16 that lay at the heart of his decision to resign after seven years.
"I can't believe we've gone backwards since the World Cup," he stormed yesterday, recounting what he described as "staggering" meetings "with the same old dull people" after the World Cup.
Even more eye-watering was his complaint that prominent Premiership club figures - he named Bath's John Connolly and Wasps' Warren Gatland - had destabilised his regime.
"You can't control your players through 12 directors of rugby when three-quarters are from overseas and the rest want your job anyway.
"They're supposed to be working with me, but there's no one in this organisation with the teeth to sort these people out.
"Gatland made a comment on the last tour. Connolly came out with something against me the other day. When directors of rugby sound off, there's only one person who cops it and that's me."
CYCLING: Yesterday's third day of the Tour of Britain was another good one for Irish riders, with Philip Deignan showing further evidence of his prodigious ability and Ciarán Power and Tim Cassidy taking eighth and 14th respectively in the bunch finish which decided the honours.
First past the line in Nottingham was Belgian rider Tom Boonen, winner of two stages in this year's Tour de France, while Mauricio Ardila (Chocolade Jacques) successfully defended his overall lead.
However, one of the stories of the day was undoubtedly Deignan's performance on the stage, the 20-year-old amateur going clear with Lance Armstrong's Tour de France team-mate Benjamin Noval (US Postal) and Victor Rapinski of the Navigators Insurance squad, and opening up a 13-minute lead over the main bunch. With the young Irishman starting the day just 10 seconds behind overall, he became race leader on the road by a large margin.
However, the ambitions of Noval and Rapinski for a stage win led to them putting pressure on the highly-placed Deignan to drop back - the logic being they would be given more leeway if he was not present.
A frustrated Deignan consulted with Ireland manager Frank Campbell and came to the decision that if the other two were not willing to work with him in the break, it would be better for him to save his energies for today's tough penultimate stage.
Deignan did take a two-second time bonus before dropping back to the bunch and this ensured he would move from 20th to 15th in the overall standings by the end of the day.
Noval and Rapinski were eventually mopped up by the main field on the final run-in to the line. That set the scene for the mass bunch finish and Boonen's sprint win. Both Power and Cassidy nearly came down with 1 km to go, but were able to recover to take their top-15 finishes.
As for Deignan, he finished safely in the main field and will aim to improve on an excellent 15th place amongst the professionals on today's penultimate stage in South Wales.
ATHLETICS: Ireland's Alistair Cragg ran an excellent seven minutes 38.96 seconds to finish eighth in the 3,000 metres Golden League meeting at Brussels last night.
The event was won by Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya in 7:27.72, with fellow countrymen James Kwalia and Boniface Songok finishing in second and third respectively.
Russian Yelena Isinbayeva broke the women's pole vault world record when she cleared 4.92 metres. She improved on her previous mark of 4.91 set at the Athens Olympics.
ROWING: Two more Irish crews moved into A finals of the World University Championships at Brive in France yesterday. Lightweight single sculler Niamh Ní Cheilleachair won her repechage and the double of Danny O'Dowd and Diarmuid Mac Colgain came second in theirs.
Eimear Moran failed to make it through to the A final when she finished fourth in her semi-final in the open single sculls.
SOCCER: Ireland are through to the last 16 of the Danone Nations Cup for the first time, courtesy of a hard won 1-0 victory over Canada in their last group game. Two draws against Germany and Morocco early in the group left the Irish under-12 squad needing a win in their final game.
BASKETBALL: The Irish senior men's basketball team failed to maintain their 100 per cent record last night as they lost to a strong Denmark side, 81-74, in Neptune Stadium, Cork.
