Something From The Weekend: Entente discordiale; Virender Sehwag; Mick McCarthy; Kenya; Cycling is dangerous

The Good, The Bad and The Odd

Entente discordiale

Tom Palmer started it and now the French coach Marc Lièvremont has raised the bar. With next Saturday's England-France game expected to be a Six Nations decider, the combatants have eschewed analysis of what might occur on the pitch and gone straight for the jugular. "Well, we don't like the English," said Lièvremont. "This insular country who always drape themselves in the national flag." Roll on Saturday.

Virender Sehwag

England refused to pick Samit Patel for this Cricket World Cup on the grounds that he's too fat. A cricketer, of course, doesn't need to be super-fit, as the not-exactly-svelte Sehwag proved with his 175 for India against Bangladesh.

The Bad

Mick McCarthy

This has been a uniquely testing season for the Yorkshireman. Despite notching up some pretty impressive wins, Wolves have made a damaging habit of conceding last-minute goals. That trend continued yesterday as a derby victory at The Hawthorns disappeared in injury time thanks to Carlos Vela's goal. Still, if McCarthy was feeling sorry for himself all he needed to do was gaze across at West Brom's Roy Hodgson. Look how his last eight months have gone.

Kenya

The African nation were beaten within 32 overs by New Zealand in the Cricket World Cup yesterday. Kenya, of course, reached the semi-finals of this tournament just eight years ago.

The Odd

Cycling is dangerous

Mark Cavendish has picked up a few scratches over the past few years but even the Manx mouth must have been feeling a little ill when he heard about the injury sustained by Azizulhasni Awang, who had surgery to remove an eight-inch splinter from his calf yesterday. The Malaysian cyclist fell on to the wooden track at the Manchester velodrome during the final stages of the keirin race. He seems to be OK, but whether he'll be able to brave the rough and tumble of this particularly strange event again is debatable. Jason Queally, an Olympic champion in Sydney, now only rides against the clock after crashing at Edinburgh's Meadowbank track in 1996 and being pierced by an 18-inch piece of wood.