Newlove went off with a suspected broken thumb on Sunday, but passed an examination yesterday. Simon Booth, however, is out for at least three weeks with medial ligament damage, putting his Wembley place in some doubt. Derek McVey is under consideration as his replacement against Wigan.McRae is asking the Rugby League whether four replacements will now be allowed at Wembley, in line with the other rule changes introduced for Super League which will also apply for the final. “As I understand it, all the other new rules will be in use, so I can’t see why we should be limited to two substitutes,” McRae said.Wigan are to sign Chris and Phil Farrell, the 15-year-old twin brothers of their Great Britain loose forward, Andy.Maurice Lindsay, the European Super League chief executive, hailed the attendances on the first weekend of summer rugby as a triumph. The average of more than 9,000 for the opening matches in the top division was the best since the one division system was scrapped in 1973..

Football

Ruud Gullit yesterday dried Chelsea’s tears after the heartbreak of FA Cup semi-final defeat and said: “Wembley can wait – there are bigger goals to achieve.”
The mercurial Dutchman’s header, which put the Blues in front after 35 minutes and seemingly on their way to the famous twin towers, counted for nothing after Manchester United turned the game on its head with a pair of goals in the space of four second-half minutes through Andy Cole and David Beckham.But Gullit refused to toe the party line almost all foreign players tread when they come to play in England. He insisted: “Just one match at Wembley is not so important to me as seeing this Chelsea team develop and taking shape in the way we want.”I’m disappointed we got so close and didn’t make it to Wembley but playing in the FA Cup final was not a particular goal of mine. I have sympathy for the players but you can’t afford to have just one goal to achieve.”I said this even before the semi-final and I feel no differently now. I’m looking to achieve much more with Chelsea and I’m happy with the way we are going.”There can be too much attention on one match and it can affect your overall aim. That was the case against Manchester United and we lost because of two points – injuries and the fact that we created two goals for them that they didn’t create themselves.”It was a pity but we will be better for the experience.

Those are the sort of non-contests that Super League is supposed to abolish. No sign of that on the first weekend.There were mixed signals, as well, from the way in which clubs presented their games. Much emphasis has been put on the importance of pre-match entertainment, but the signs on a chilly March weekend were that nobody in the crowd cared very much about that aspect.Even in Paris, the presence of “France’s top rap band” attracted few into the stadium early. Many came in after the start of the main match, in fact.Oldham had a Tina Turner lookalike – an admission of the derivative nature of much of the thinking, if ever there was one – Leeds and Halifax had sky-divers who failed to dive out of the sky. The attendance at Halifax on the Saturday night was less encouraging, but London’s victory was another unexpected bonus. Teams from the two capital cities which are capable of winning matches against opposition as competent as Sheffield Eagles and Halifax would be a genuinely new and exciting element in the game and many will be willing them to continue their good work.Unfortunately, there was too much elsewhere that was all too familiar. There were two hopelessly uncompetitive sides – Oldham and Workington Town – incapable of making Wigan and St Helens raise a sweat.

They showed that whatever might be wrong with Super League as a concept, it is not the inclusion of London and Paris.The atmosphere at the Stade Charlety on Friday night was different from that at any game I have seen in France. The crowd was younger, more cosmopolitan, infinitely more sustained in its enthusiasm.Agreed, more than half that crowd had got in by applying for, rather than paying for, tickets But that is beside the point; the key was to get them there. Whatever else they might achieve in this and subsequent summer seasons, they got the Stones Super League away to a start that ensured that the first weekend of the new competition would go down as a success.
The fact that both sides won – and that Paris did so before a crowd of nearly 18,000 – undermined some of the prevailing prejudices against the new shape of the sport. It would not be exaggerating the value of the opening performances of Paris St-Germain and London Broncos if their players were to be given medals before their match at Charlton on Thursday night. But I realise that the next couple of years could be my best years in tennis.”I have changed my attitude I am more calm on the court. I lost my mind a little bit in Milan a couple of weeks ago, but that was just for a couple of seconds.”There is evidence, too, that Ivanisevic is liberating shots which have lain dormant behind a serve which has set records for aces that will stand, he says, “for 200 years, until robots come along”.In particular, he is executing the forehand down the line to good effect.