Something From The Weekend: Wigan Warriors; Sir Michael Stoute; Roy Hodgson; Nigel de Jong; It's actually open...?!

The Good

Wigan Warriors

A remarkably lean period for arguably the most famous rugby league club in the world came to an end at Old Trafford on Saturday. Under workaholic Aussie coach Michael Maguire (above) the Warriors have quietly rediscovered their spirit and they deservedly beat deadly rivals St Helens in the Super League Grand Final.

Sir Michael Stoute

It has been a long time in coming for a trainer who has been operating since the 1970s and handled Shergar, but yesterday Sir Michael landed the Big One as Workforce held off Nakayama Festa at Longchamp to win the Arc.

The Bad

Roy Hodgson

After an extremely trying day at Anfield, as the Liverpool manager struggled to deal with Premier League defeat to Blackpool just over a week after a cup exit at the hands of Northampton, surely he reached for a good book by his favourite author, Milan Kundera, to ease the pain. Hopefully it was The Book of Laughing and Forgetting and not the Czech-born writer's 1967 work, The Joke.

Nigel de Jong

The Manchester City man shows no sign of letting up after his infamous karate-kick tackle on Spain's Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final. A reckless challenge yesterday left the Newcastle winger Hatem Ben Arfa with a broken leg but, true to form, the man known as "The Lawnmower" during his time at Ajax was not even booked, let alone sent off.

The Odd

It's actually open...?!

After all the doubts, the delays and the horror stories about conditions in the athletes' village, the 19th Commonwealth Games opened in Delhi last night. The crowd at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium cheered Prince Charles and India's president Pratibha Patil, and rather inevitably booed the chief Games organiser Suresh Kalmadi. Less predictably, the Pakistan team had a warm reception. Perhaps there is hope for these Games after all...