MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2014 SPORTS Stade Francais stay unbeaten

PARIS: Stade Francais maintained their utes later with another try in the corner unbeaten home record yesterday despite a from South African fly-half Meyer Bosman scare and missing out on a bonus point in a (17-6). The Parisians took an 11-point 20-17 victory over Brive in French Top 14 advantage into the break, although Mafi action. came close to scoring Brive’s first try just The Parisians remain third with 35 after the interval but Julien Dupuy defend- points from 12 games, two points behind ed well. reigning French and European champions It was finally Georgian Karlen Ashieshvili Toulon, who defeated arch-rivals Clermont who came through for a Brive try on 74 27-19 to move top on Saturday. minutes with a fourth Germain penalty two Clermont are one point behind Toulon minutes later narrowing the gap and allow- in second with Racing-Metro fourth on 33 ing Brive return home with a point. points after a 14-9 success at struggling On Saturday, in an intense top-of-the- 2013 winners Castres. Brive failed to build table clash at the Allianz Riviera in Nice, on consecutive victories over Castres and Toulon beat Clermont largely thanks to Montpellier, but a bonus point neverthe- three tries-from New Zealand winger David less gives them a two-point margin on the Smith (14, 73) and Maxime Mermoz (37) — first relegation spot. “Today was complicat- with the France centre also instrumental in ed, we lacked rhythm, with the return of two decisive passes. the internationals, we lacked a lot of fluidi- The game lived up to expectations as ty. We couldn’t finish off certain actions,” the champions had trouble pulling ahead said Stade Francais coach Gonzalo of a tenacious Clermont, who scored two Quesada. tries from Fritz Lee (31) and Aurelien “Without being able to do everything Rougerie (60), and only caved in following we planned, we nevertheless scored three the second late Smith try. tries which gave us a good advantage Elsewhere, Grenoble are just one point going into the second half,” he continued. behind Racing-Metro in fourth after a 25-22 “We weren’t able to maintain this slight win ended hosts’ Toulouse’s run of six domination, but we came up against a straight victories in all competitions. good Brive side. These four points mean a Bordeaux, meanwhile, failed to bounce lot in our championship.” back from their first defeat of the season at Quesada called up all his internationals home to Toulouse, losing 28-23 at who had competed in the autumn Tests, Oyonnax, despite leading for most of the apart from lock Pascal Pape, who came on match. Bordeaux failed to score in the sec- at the end of the game for Alexandre ond half and were in the end frustrated by Flanquart. And the hosts were first off the Argentine centre Benjamin Urdapilleta who mark following a spectacular solo run by accounted for 23 of the hosts points, after Fijian winger Waisea Vuidravuwalu after 11 Ivory Coast winger Yves Donguy had minutes which defied Brive’s Tongan full- opened the scoring with his 11th minute : New Zealand Brendon McCullum (left) and his Pakistani counterpart Misbah-ul-Haq (right) hold a Test series trophy back Alfie Mafi and Fijian Benito Masilevu. try. Montpellier remain locked in their cur- during a ceremony at the end of the third and final Test match between New Zealand and Pakistan at the .— AFP But Brive fought back to 5-6 thanks to two rent crisis which resulted in forwards coach penalties off the boot of Gaetan Germain Mario Ledesma resigning, losing 23-20 at before both teams played 10 minutes with Lyon. Fabien Galthie’s side were deprived of New Zealand level series 14 men after props Damien Jourdaine and victory through Fijian Mosese Ratuvou five Sakaria Taulafo were sinbinned. minutes from time, suffering a fifth straight loss in all competitions. They remain in SHARJAH: Paceman Trent Boult took four wick- The 28-year-old Shafiq smashed 18 fours and innings closed on 690 with Craig (65) becoming INTENSE eighth position with Lyon moving off the ets as New Zealand beat Pakistan by an innings six sixes in his knock and added 78 for the ninth the sixth batsman to score at least a half-century The hosts regained the initiative after a bottom of the table, to sit 11th ahead of La and 80 runs to win the third and final Test within with Rahat Ali to delay New Zealand’s cel- in the innings. Mafi error, which was punished by a Rochelle and Castres. In a bottom-of-the- four days and level the series 1-1. ebration. He fell to Boult. The visitors hit 22 sixes in total, another Raphael Lakafia try (10-6) on the half hour table clash, La Rochelle and Bayonne Pakistan, who won the first match of the Rahat was the last man out and gave Craig his record for the most number of maximums in a mark and Stade pulled further ahead min- played out a 19-19 draw. — AFP series in by 248 runs, were all out for 10th wicket in the match. Former New Zealand test innings. Paceman Rahat and leg-spinner 259 in their second innings in Sharjah yesterday. captain Daniel Vettori, who returned to tests for picked up four each for Asad Shafiq staged a lone battle for Pakistan the first time since July 2012, also chipped in Pakistan, while part-time off-spinner Hafeez, and completed his fifth test hundred with an with a wicket in what could be his last match in who was reported for an illegal action after the aggressive 137 off 148 balls but ran out of part- the format. first test in Abu Dhabi, took the remaining two ners in the end. Earlier in the morning, New Zealand’s first wickets. — Reuters “Really tough circumstances to play the test match here,” New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said at the presentation ceremony, SCOREBOARD referring to the death of Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes on Thursday. “Our thoughts were SHARJAH: Complete scoreboard of the third and final Test between Pakistan and New Zealand elsewhere for majority of the game. When we on the fourth day at Sharjah stadium yesterday: look back at this result in due course we will obviously be very proud.” Pakistan 1st innings 351 ( Pakistan 2nd innings On a docile pitch at the Sharjah Cricket 197; M. Craig 7-94) Mohammad Hafeez c and b Craig 24 Stadium where New Zealand posted their high- Shan Masood c Southee b Boult 4 est total in tests, the 25-year-old Boult extracted New Zealand 1st innings (overnight 637-8) Azhar Ali b Boult 6 T. Latham c Ahmed b Rahat 13 enough movement and pace to rattle the lbw b Boult 0 Pakistan top order. B. McCullum b Shah 202 Misbah-ul Haq c Watling b Craig 12 Boult dismissed Shan Masood (4) in the third K. Williamson c Younis b Rahat 192 over, bowled Azhar Ali (6) with the last R. Taylor c Younis b Shah 50 Asad Shafiq c Craig b Boult 137 of his fourth and then returned to dismiss C. Anderson c Shah b Rahat 50 Sarfraz Ahmed c Taylor b Sodhi 37 Younus Khan for a duck leg before with the first D. Vettori lbw b Rahat 15 Yasir Shah lbw b Sodhi 10 ball of his next over. Off-spinner Mark Craig, who BJ Watling lbw b Hafeez 8 Mohammad Talha lbw b Vettori 19 M. Craig c and b Hafeez 65 took seven wickets in the first innings, continued Rahat Ali c McCullum b Craig 6 T. Southee c Talha b Shah 50 to punish Pakistan by dismissing opener Zulfiqar Babar 0 Mohammad Hafeez and captain Misbah-ul-Haq. I. Sodhi c Younis b Shah 22 T. Boult not out 0 Extras: (lb2, 1nb, w1) 4 FRANCE: Brive’s player Benito Masilevu (left) vies with Stade Francais’ Waisea Extras: (b2, lb7, nb6, w8) 23 Total: (all out; 63.3 overs) 259 Vuidravuwalu (right) during the French Top 14 rugby union match. — AFP COUNTER ATTACK With Pakistan reeling on 63-5, Sarfraz Ahmed Total: (all out; 143.1 overs) 690 Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Masood), 2-20 (Ali), 3-24 (37) decided to take the attack to the New Fall of wicket: 1-51 (Latham), 2-348 (Younis), 4-36 (Hafeez), 5-63 (Misbah), 6-136 Tears of revenge for Brem Zealand bowlers and added a quickfire 73 for the (McCullum), 3-464 (Taylor), 4-488 (Williamson), (Ahmed), 7-146 (Shah), 8-180 (Talha), 9-258 sixth wicket with Shafiq. 5-528 (Vettori), 6-537 (Anderson), 7-546 (Watling), 8-637 (Southee), 9-682 (Craig) (Rahat) ASPEN: Eva-Maria Brem put years of bitter end of a season in which she had not been But leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, who saw Sarfraz : Talha 22-2-136-0 (6nb, 1w), Rahat 29- Bowling: Boult 15-6-38-4, Southee 11-3-20-0 disappointment and hard luck behind her good enough to make the Sochi Olympics. dropped twice off his bowling in one over, took 2-99-4 (2w), Babar 23-1-135-0, Shah 44.1-4- (1w), Craig 20.3-2-109-3, Vettori 5-2-8-0, Sodhi with a maiden World Cup win in a giant “More than once I questioned my choic- out the wicketkeeper-batsman and Yasir Shah (10) to take New Zealand closer to victory. 193-4, Hafeez 23-2-110-2 (5w), Ali 2-0-8-0. 12-0-82-2 slalom on Saturday. es and I even considered quitting. Not qual- The Austrian smashed the field in the ifying for Sochi was not the turning point of first leg, leading by more than a second my career but the moment when I realised I while pre-race favorites Anna Fenninger of needed to change my approach. “That’s Austria and American Mikaela Shiffrin fal- when you need to show your strength of Clarke pays tribute tered. She delivered again in the afternoon character. Either you go ahead or you just run to win in two minutes and 05.97 sec- put the skis aside and stop,” she said. onds, with a 0.59 seconds lead over compa- “I was forced to learn to accept to live triot Kathrin Zettel while Italy’s Federica and work with the same people who did Brignone was third, 1:36 adrift. not call me for the Olympics or the worlds. to ‘brother’ Hughes Slalom world and Olympic champion It’s a bitter pill to swallow at the time Shiffrin finished sixth and World Cup holder because you never know where you’re Fenninger, winner of the season opener in going to be four years later. SYDNEY: A day after he choked back tears pared statement on behalf of his team. Clarke added of Hughes, who despite having Soelden, was 12th. “When I saw the green “But disappointments teach you a lot, addressing the media on behalf of his team, Clarke said he had been compelled to write played 26 tests found himself in and out of the light, the disappointments of the past they teach you to become selfish. It’s hard Australia cricket captain Michael Clarke has the column to “shine a bit more light” on the team. “When he was last dropped from the came straight back at me. I knew I had to but that’s the way a career goes. Now I’m opened up on his own feelings about the death type of man Hughes was, painting the picture of Australian team he knuckled down, worked on show my skis to the camera but I was not no longer wondering what the others think of his “brother” Phillip Hughes. Hughes died on an uncomplicated player with a burning desire parts of his technique that he felt could be able to do it. I just could not move any of me, I’ve gone over that. I only go for Thursday, two days after he was struck in the to represent his country and an “amazing talent”. improved and he peeled off century after cen- longer,” Brem said. what’s important for me.” head by a short-pitched delivery during a first “I said a couple of months ago that I had no tury for South Australia. “He lit up like a bea- “I put my face in the snow and cried.” At Add that she broke her leg in April 2010, class game at the Sydney Cricket Ground. doubt Phillip would have gone on to play 100 con again for the selectors to not help but 26, she finally had came of age after as she was entering the Austrian A team, The lefthander’s death has created an out- tests, such was his determination and skill,” notice.” — Reuters snatching her first podium places last win- and it is understandable how moved she pouring of grief and emotion from even outside ter in Are and at the World Cup finals at the was after her first victory. — Reuters the cricketing world, while Cricket Australia have postponed the first test against India, which was scheduled to start next Thursday. Crawford keeps “I don’t have a blood brother, but I am very proud to have called Phillip my brother,” Clarke wrote in a column for the Sunday Telegraph on lightweight crown what would have been Hughes’s 26th birthday. “I am a better man for having known him. I OMAHA: Terence Crawford retained his World pound division to 140 pounds. “This is it for don’t think in 12 years of playing cricket at the Boxing Organization lightweight title and kept (lightweight division)” Crawford said. “I been at top level I have ever come across a more loyal or his undefeated record intact with a unanimous 135 since I was 17. I am 27 now. It is time to generous-hearted team mate. decision over the number one contender Ray move up.” Crawford landed 243 punches com- “Whenever Hughesy suffered adversity, if he Beltran on Saturday. The 27-year-old Crawford pared to just 96 for Beltran and also had a big was replaced in the team or if he wasn’t scoring dominated the 12-round fight, switching to a lead in total punches thrown, 436-162. Despite as many runs as he wanted he never dropped his southpaw stance at times to land shots, and all the punishment he was taking, Beltran (29- head, never once complained. making Mexico’s Beltran miss before counter- 7-1, 17 KOs) continued to plough forward and “If he had a tough conversation with a selec- punching effectively. even had enough left in the tank to make it an tor he would nod, agree he needed to work In the final round, Crawford (25-0, 17 KOs) entertaining 12th round. harder, grin because he felt bad for the person was going for the knockout but Beltran man- “I prayed to God to give me the strength, delivering the message and then get on with it.” aged to hang on and even landed a few left but I forgot to pray to take it away from him,” Clarke, who is battling a hamstring injury and hooks of his own to keep Crawford at bay. Beltran said. Russia’s Evgeny Gradovich kept would have likely been replaced by Hughes in “I felt he was slowing down,” said American his world title after fighting Jayson Velez to a the test side for the Dec. 4-8 game at the Gabba, Crawford, who was fighting in front of his draw in their featherweight fight on the was a virtual constant at his bedside until he hometown crowd at the CenturyLink Center undercard. The three judges were dead- died and his raw emotions were displayed for arena in Omaha, Nebraska. “I didn’t want to locked with one having Gradovich the winner the world to see at the media conference on get careless. I just stuck with what was work- 117-111 and another gave it to Velez 115-113. Saturday. ing. “I saw his eyes swollen but I just stuck to The third scored it even 114-114. Both fight- Several times Clarke paused as his emotions the game plan.” Crawford, who came into the ers remained unbeaten with Gradovich mov- threatened to get away from him and at one ring almost 20 pounds heavier than at the ing to 19-0-1, nine KOs and Velez on 22-0-1, ASPEN: Eva-Marie Brem of Austria skis to first place in the ladies giant slalom during the stage he was heard to say under his breath ‘do weigh-in, wants to move on from the 135- 16 KOs. — AFP 2014 Audi FIS Ski World Cup at the Nature Valley Aspen Winternational. — AFP your job’, before he continued reading a pre-