Briers played stand-off outside Langer last season and was man of the match at full-back in the Cup quarter-final victory over Villeneuve on Sunday.Hull’s stand-off, Paul Cook, will be out for up to 12 weeks after breaking his thumb against Leeds last Saturday.. Mike Catt scored a superb hat-trick of tries for Bath to help lift the club into second place in the Zurich Premiership after a seven-try rout of London Irish in Reading last night. Mike Catt scored a superb hat-trick of tries for Bath to help lift the club into second place in the Zurich Premiership after a seven-try rout of London Irish in Reading last night.
It was the second time this season that Bath had stuck a half-century on the Exiles in the league.Catt, who plays centre for England but outside-half for Bath, did not put a foot or hand wrong all night. He kicked beautifully with left or right boot, set up another try, showed pace and power, and passed like a dream.The match had represented a chance for Irish to scrabble into the play-off zone, but too often they looked more at home in the “Oh-zone” as Bath repeatedly punched holes through a dozy defence.Bath’s first two tries were similar in execution. Catt pounced in the 20th minute, his electric speed off the mark taking him through Colin Allan’s half-hearted attempt to halt the England man.Five minutes later centre Shaun Berne dummied replacement prop Simon Halford, slipped past a bewildered lock and touched down under the posts, just as Catt had done.

Jon Preston, who finished with 21 points from a perfect exhibition of goal-kicking, added the conversions.Irish had coped very well with the early loss of their prop Robin Hardwick with an arm injury and even showed bursts of activity throughout the first half, chasing any and every loose ball (not that there were that many) like a pack of rabid hounds, but when they got possession they did not appear to be able to use it that well, not until Bath had given them a demonstration.Then, finally, they managed to sustain a period of serious pressure and were promising to add to Barry Everitt’s two penalties when half-time rudely interrupted them in their efforts. So did Catt when they re-emerged from their break.He received the ball from a line-out, showed the ball, the cover obligingly moved aside and the Bath fly-half spurted through and raced away for fully 50 metres before his second try under the posts. Preston, of course, converted.His third was almost a walk through and before that he had set up Nathan Thomas for his, seen Martin Haag thunder over for a simple one from a line-out. Matt Oliver had by then crossed the Bath line for Irish’s consolation try.

Rob Thirlby wrapped it up in the 80th minute with a try converted by Matt Perry.. The sporting world could look into the near future with a slightly improved demeanour yesterday, when the French Agriculture Minister, Jean Glavany, gave the official go-ahead for Saturday’s Six Nations match between France and Wales and new dates were announced for the Cheltenham Festival. The sporting world could look into the near future with a slightly improved demeanour yesterday, when the French Agriculture Minister, Jean Glavany, gave the official go-ahead for Saturday’s Six Nations match between France and Wales and new dates were announced for the Cheltenham Festival.
The rescheduled three-day Cheltenham meeting will start on Tuesday 17 April while the two day-meeting due to be staged on 18-19 April has been cancelled, although some of the races may be run at the evening meeting on 2 May.The Irish Horseracing Authority has indicated that racing could resume there at Easter There has been no racing since Naas on 25 February. The Australian government has extended its ban on the importation of horses from Britain and Ireland to include the whole of the European Union.As for the rugby, Glavany said, “There is no reason not to play the game. Every day 60-80,000 people cross the border, so there is no reason for us not to allow seven or eight thousand rugby fans to come to France.”.

The leading lights of the Twickenham set have never been particularly popular among the wider Six Nations fraternity: it is not so very long ago that the tournament’s governing body ejected England from the competition, only to be forced into a humiliating retreat when their sponsors, Lloyds TSB, reminded them of the words “commercial” and “suicide”. Old enmities die hard, though, and the two sides are preparing for battle once again as a result of the worsening foot-and-mouth crisis and its effect on this season’s international fixture list. The leading lights of the Twickenham set have never been particularly popular among the wider Six Nations fraternity: it is not so very long ago that the tournament’s governing body ejected England from the competition, only to be forced into a humiliating retreat when their sponsors, Lloyds TSB, reminded them of the words “commercial” and “suicide”. Old enmities die hard, though, and the two sides are preparing for battle once again as a result of the worsening foot-and-mouth crisis and its effect on this season’s international fixture list.
On Tuesday, the Six Nations committee decided to stick to their preferred dates for re-arranged matches: 29 April for Wales-Ireland, 5 May for Ireland-England, 12 May for Scotland-Ireland. Yesterday, the Rugby Football Union indicated that the middle date was a non-starter and flatly refused to countenance any alteration to the domestic schedule. Once again, the Celts and the English are at each other’s throats.When the tournament organisers suggested 5 May as a fall-back, despite the fact that the semi-finals of the Premiership play-offs had long been fixed for the same weekend, England’s leading professional clubs hit the roof.