2013 British & Irish Lions Squad Announced!

The 2013 British & Irish Lions tour party to Australia has just been announced. As expected, Welsh Richie McCaw wannabe, Sam Warburton, has been named captain and there is no place for the etheral Jonny Wilkinson or England captain, Chris Robshaw and experienced Lions campaigner, Rory Best.

The full squad is as follows -
Backs: Leigh Halfpenny (Wales), Stuart Hogg (Scotland), Rob Kearney (Ireland), Tommy Bowe (Ireland), Alex Cuthbert (Wales), Sean Maitland (Scotland), George North (Wales), Jonathan Davies (Wales), Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland), Jamie Roberts (Wales), Manu Tuilagi (England), Owen Farrell (England), Jonathan Sexton (Ireland), Conor Murray (Ireland), Mike Phillips (Wales), Ben Youngs (England).

Forwards: Dan Cole (England), Cian Healy (Ireland), Gethin Jenkins (Wales), Adam Jones (Wales), Matt Stevens (England), Mako Vunipola (England), Dylan Hartley (England), Richard Hibbard (Wales), Tom Youngs (England), Ian Evans (Wales), Richie Gray (Scotland), Alun-Wyn Jones (Wales), Paul O'Connell (Ireland), Geoff Parling (England), Tom Croft (England), Toby Faletau (Wales), Jamie Heaslip (Ireland), Dan Lydiate (Wales), Sean O'Brien (Ireland), Justin Tipuric (Wales), Sam Warburton (Wales, captain)

Coach: Warren Gatland

Here's to an exciting series down under and it should be a competitive one given the form of the Australians in Super Rugby this year. One interesting selection is that of Sean Maitland of course who will be the one player the Aussies would be familiar with through his time with the Crusaders.

The Final Countdown - npower Championship Final Day

It's been an engrossing season in the best second - and third and fourth, etc. - tier football competition in the world. In fact, the Football League has probably provided more excitement and drama than many of the top leagues in Europe this season.

Yes, Cardiff City may have won the Championship at a canter but the race for the other promotion spots has been very tight and exciting as has the battle at the bottom. And Leagues One and Two which concluded last week witnessed thrilling finales - those last minutes at the Brentford v Doncaster game will live long in the memory of both supporters, with Doncaster stealing victory - and the League One title - at the death after Brentford had a penalty - and their automatic promotion chances - stopped by the keeper.

The Championship concludes on Saturday with all games kicking off at lunch time. Most games have plenty writing on them but Nottingham Forest v Leicester is the one to watch with the winner quite probably going into the playoffs for a place in the Premier League. There is plenty of rivalry between both Midland clubs who have experienced the Premier League in their history and were expected to challenge for the automatic spots at the start of the season - Leicester at one stage seemed to be cruising to promotion like Cardiff on the back of Kiwi Chris Wood's goals.

Forest v Leicester will be  feisty - and possibly decisive

The Foxes and Forest will be heavily dependent on events at the Reebok Stadium and Selhurst Park - victory to the home sides, Bolton and Crystal Palace respectively will render events at the City Ground meaningless. But a slip up for one of them will open the door for the winner of the game at the City Ground.

Can Hull make a return to the Premier League for the first time since 2010?

And then there's the issue of 2nd place and automatic promotion to the Premier League with champions, Cardiff City. Hull are the current incumbents of that spot but after defeat to Barnsley last week and with a game against the champions at home, they are quite vulnerable to the advances of Gianfranco Zola's free-scoring Watford who host a Leeds side with nothing to play for. Yes, Cardiff may have nothing to play for like Leeds but the fact that they will be quite keen to finish the season on a high means that the pressure is off them in a game that will mean everything to Steve Bruce's Hull City.

Hull win and they're back in the Premier League - anything less and they must hope that events at Vicarage Road are in their favour or face the lottery that is the npower Championship playoffs - the huge gap between Hull and Watford and the likes of Brighton, Crystal Palace, Bolton, Leicester and Nottingham Forest will mean nothing - form is the key in successfully navigating the do-or-die nature of the playoffs which take on the nature of a season of its own.

Will Barnsley join Wolves in League One?

Finally, there's the battle at the bottom. Bristol City are already down but who will join them will only be decided on Saturday - it looks like Wolves will be relegated just 12 months after they were playing the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal in the Premier League, as they not only must win at high-flying Brighton but hope clubs above them must lose. A rejuvenated Barnsley who occupy the 3rd relegation spot at the moment, must go to fellow strugglers, Huddersfield Town to get a result. However, a draw at the McAlpine Stadium could be enough if Peterborough fail to beat a Crystal Palace who are looking to secure a playoff spot or Millwall fail to beat Crystal Palace and Derby in their last two games (Millwall play their final home game against Crystal Palace in midweek).

Sheffield Wednesday, the other side at risk of going down, host Middlesbrough but given the form of both sides, you'd think Dave Jones' side has probably done enough to stay up as have Blackburn (goal difference) and Huddersfield (at home against Barnsley) who sit on 57 points, 3 points ahead of the drop zone.

So come 12:45pm, all eyes will be on the most fascinating finish to England's second tier. For once, the Championship might be a bit more exciting than the world's most exciting league.

CPR for QPR? Can Villa Survive the Drop?

Just before 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, QPR and Reading's relegation from the Premier League was confirmed after a 0-0 draw at the Madejski Stadium meant that both sides were too far from safety - Aston Villa's 6-1 trouncing of Sunderland merely was the icing on the cake if you can call it that as that 17th place was definitely insurmountable for both blue and white sides with just 3 games to go in the season.

To be fair, Reading and QPR had been down for a while now. Having just been promoted last season, Reading were expected to struggle - which they did and Brian McDermott's sacking really was the flying of the white flag from the Madejski Stadium.

On the other hand, wealthy QPR with Mark Hughes at the helm had been expected to at least be a mid-table team. Alas, a dreadful start to QPR's season meant that the West London side were always up against the wall and they failed to recover from the drubbing at home at the hands of eventual high flyers Swansea City on the opening day even with Harry Redknapp called on by owner, Tony Fernandes, to perform the latest of his magic tricks.

QPR must now contemplate life in the Championship and plenty of changes will have to be made to a squad that has too many bells and whistles that  don't appear to work and will weigh down the club away from the Premier League of milk and honey. Like other clubs who have signed big like Leeds, West Ham and Newcastle and ended up being relegated, QPR must prepare itself for the fire sale of the century - something which the remaining Premier League clubs will pounce on.

Robert Green, Julio Cesar, Christopher Samba, Park Ji-Sung, Andrew Johnson, Bobby Zamora, Adel Taraabt, Esteban Granero, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Tal Ben-Haim, Junior Hoilett (second relegation in 2 seasons), Loic Remy, Jermaine Jenas, Jose Bosingwa, Arnand Traore all have question marks on them, all uncertain if they would stay at what is now a Championship club.

The quality of players listed before just shows you how massively disappointing QPR have been this season. I'm certain half of those players will be gone having been told by Arry that they don't fit in his plans for the club next season. And that is exactly what QPR need to do if they are to have any chance of a quick return from what is now a very tough league.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa's squad of skin and bones appears to have finally found some meat and substance at the right end of the season. It appears that Paul Lambert's message has finally come through to his young charges at Villa Park and the team that we had been waiting all season finally showed up in their relegation 6-pointer against Sunderland on Monday night.

Villa were fantastic throughout even if they were still naive as they have been all season - they conceded just over a minute after taking the lead, something that has been part of their downfall this season thus far. However, for the first time, rather than lie down, they responded and boy did they respond with 5 unanswered goals including 1 before half-time for the consistent Andreas Weimann and a hat-trick for dangerous talisman, Christian Benteke. It was very reminiscent of Paul Lambert's Norwich the season before - bright and enterprising - and it left Paolo di Canio scratching his head at what now for his Sunderland side, still not safe from the drop.

Is Christian Benteke now one of the Premier League's most wanted strikers?

As for Villa, their reward could possibly come at the end of the season with survival against the odds. They are now 5 points ahead of 18th placed Wigan Athletic and for a side scrapping against relegation, 5 points is quite a lot of points to get from 4 games (Wigan of course have a game in hand due to their FA Cup exploits but those exploits itself could hurt Wigan's chances of survival in the Premier League especially since two of those games are away to West Brom and Arsenal) and they also rely on Villa slipping up.

One thinks now that even if Villa can only get 2 points from their next 2 games against Norwich and Chelsea, they should be okay going into their final game against Wigan - which could still yet be a shootout for survival.

But this has been a season where mid-table teams appear to have been dragged into the whirlpool of relegation and Newcastle and Sunderland are very much in danger and with some tricky games ahead. However, Villa appear to be heading upwards at the right time - and one wonders what Villa will be like next season if they do dodge the drop against all odds.

   

What Happened to the Wolf Pack?

18 months ago, things were looking bright for Wolverhampton Wanderers FC. Wolves were in the middle of their third successive campaign in England's top flight - their longest spell since the 1980s, and were embarking on a massive redevelopment project of their longtime home at Molineux Stadium.

Sadly, things had already begun to go downhill at that point. Wolves' Premier League status was quickly deconstructed like the now redeveloped Stan Cullis Stand, long time manager, Mick McCarthy was sacked late in the campaign and the Black Country side were the first side relegated from the Premier League in 2012.

Wolves were amongst the favourites for a quick return to the Premier League at the start of the season. Alas, quite the opposite is likely to happen - a second relegation in two seasons. This is a decline to ignominy many would not have believed yet after the season they've had, is probably of no surprise.

The sacking of Mick McCarthy was a big mistake right from the off - the club had thrown the white flag to their Premier League survival hopes and the club's fighting spirit which had seen them survive two seasons in a row evaporated into history and has failed to be rediscovered.

The selection of Stale Solbakken last summer was a strange and uninspiring move and despite a strong run at the start of the season, a rapid decline of Wolves' form saw the Norwegian sacked and replaced by Dean Saunders at the start of the new year; Wolves had plucked the former Welsh international from Doncaster Rovers who will probably replace Wolves in the Championship next season.

However, the turnaround for Wolves hasn't quite materialised - injuries to players like Bakary Sakho and loss of form of former Premier League calibre players like Stephen Doyle and Jamie O'Hara have meant that Wolves's first win of 2013 only came in March and placed them in a scrap for survival with the likes of Peterborough, Barnsley, Bristol City and Huddersfield Town.

A failure to keep any sort of winning run has meant that against the odds, Peterborough and Huddersfield Town - sides who only came up from League One at the same time that Wolves have been flying in the Premier League - are set to stay up ahead of the previously highly rated Wolves side.

What now for former Liverpool chairman, Morgan?

A home defeat to Burnley in their final game of the season has seen fans turn against what was once considered a model management led by former Liverpool chairman, Steve Morgan and Wolves must now travel to Premier League chasing Brighton for a win which probably still won't be enough to stave off a second successive relegation.

It just shows you that the Championship is no longer easy fodder for former Premier League sides with the competition tougher  than ever - the plight of Leicester, Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest and Leeds United are testament to this while now Premier League incumbents, Norwich and Southampton were playing in League One only two seasons before their ascent to the top flight.

Unfortunately for Wolves, the malaise that followed them throughout their last Premier League season was never shaken off and has left them staring at a season where they will play against the likes of Milton Keynes Dons, Coventry and Stevenage rather than Manchester United and Arsenal.

Achtung! Achtung! The Germans Have Arrived

It appears that Wembley is set to host the first all-German final in Champions League history next month after Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund appeared to gain massive advantages in their semifinal ties against mighty Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.

Yes, there are 180 minutes to play yet but even with the amount of quality in the Spanish sides, it is quite a tough ask to claw back a 3-4 goal deficit, let alone in a semifinal scenario.

Real Madrid probably have some hope yet with that 1 away goal - but one would be clutching at straws to expect Real Madrid to win 3-0 at home against a Borussia Dortmund side who have visited the Bernabeu already this season and know what to expect.

I suspect that both German sides will be setting up their gameplans to score that killer away goal on the counter attack when they head to Spain next week. One reckons that if the Germans get the early away goal, Barcelona and Real Madrid will deflate quickly like a punctured balloon - they will be forced to go for all out attack and against two very efficient German sides, the result is unlikely to be 5 or 6 goals to the home team.

From the moment, the draw was announced, you had the feeling that the Germans would seize the initiative when they hosted the first leg even against two of the world's best clubs and sure enough, they did. But the clinical nature of their victories has been quite a surprise. Most pundits were tipping 2-0 victories to the Germans so for one of them to score 4 goals, let alone both, it has been quite a shock of massive proportions to the footballing world.

Or is it?

The fact is that in the last few seasons, the Bundesliga has made huge strides, knocking off the Serie A from the podium of top 3 leagues in Europe - testament to this is the Bundesliga nabbing what was Italy's 4th Champions League spot. The Bundesliga has some of the highest attendance records in world football and those numbers have continued to rise - this may attributed to the fact that the Bundesliga has a very high goals per game average.

While Bayern Munich have always been the side to beat in Germany and this season have clearly been the best side in the league, the trend in the Bundesliga in recent times has seen as many as 10 clubs in contention for the league title - Borussia Dortmund rose from a slump in the last decade to return to their place amongst Germany's elite clubs, Wolfsburg, Stuttgart, Werder Bremen, Schalke, Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburg and even Hertha Berlin who have been relegated twice in the last 3 years have all competed late into the season for the Bundesliga title.

One wonders, if Germany's fairly strong and stable economy has meant Bundesliga clubs are in financially stronger shape than their Italian and Spanish counterparts. However, the academy systems at club level are also amongst the world's best, built on a philosophy to play football the way it should be played.

Hence, why the dour, efficient football we have come to expect from the Germans has long been buried into the book of myths and legends and why it has actually been rather pleasing to see Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund beat the supposed artisans of world football at their own game.  Of course, it remains to be seen if the Final will be a full-blown attacking affair - the trouble when the Final is contested by two clubs from the same league is that both sides know each other so well, that in a big game situation, they tend to neutralize each other.

For German football, the future is bright and certainly for Bayern Munich who appear to have scored a coup with the signing of Pep Guardiola as manager from next season, and another in signing German starlet, Mario Gotze from their potential finalists - another ammunition to fire up the club from Germany's industrial Ruhr valley.

So El Derby it probably won't be in North London this time next month. But Nord v Sud, FC Hollywood v the coal miners from the Ruhr Valley should not be a bad substitute even if it is two Germans at the home of English football.

At least we don't need to worry about the English losing to a German side again here.