In NewZealand: Rugby should take first focustoday, as The British and Irish Lions conclude their tour or New Zealand atEden Park. A victory Saturday wouldsecure a first series win of the team in New Zealand for 113 years. The teams will compete at Eden Park, Auckland,and each have won one game in their three game series, the All Blacks winningtheir first game at this same stadium two weeks ago. The challengeis, perhaps, insurmountable. Since theirfounding over a century ago, the All Blacks have a 77 per cent win record,being one of the most, or most, successful team in the history of sports. Scotland have never beaten the All Blackswhile Wales last beat them in 1953 - 64 long years ago. The All Blacks have wonthe Rugby World Cup three times - and twice in a row - the only team to do so. It has been 39 Tests and 23 years since NewZealand last lost at Eden Park, then against France. Of today’s starters, Leinert-Brown, JordieBarrett and Maro Itoje were not even born then. The All Blacks will be playing without their brightest star, Sonny BillWilliams, who was ejected from their last game and remains suspended. "This game is definitely notcareer-defining I can promise you that," said Lions Coach Warren Gatland. Whatever the results, it should be a rugbymatch for the ages. InAustralian Rules Football: Today is abig day for Aussie Rules Footy, with five of the weekends nine games. The Sydney Swans meet the Gold Coast Suns atthe Sydney Cricket Grounds. The Swansare the form team of the competition after winning four straight, and seven oftheir past eight games, but they must maintain their run after a 0-6 start tothe year. They have won the last fivemeetings with the Suns. Combine thatplus their win streak, and chances look good for them. If theSuns are to come to Sydney and beat the Swans for the first time, they'll needa great game. St Kilda vs. the Richmond Tigers at the EtihadStadium. Richmond has been the strongestteam of two perrenial favorites, winning four of their last five meetings. This season the Tigers have remained hard tobeat. Recently games between the twoteams have been low scoring and strong on defense. StKilda will need to find a way to break through a stingy Tigers line. Both wonon the road last weekend, Richmond wasbrave against Port Adelaide while St Kilda won its third straight game againstFremantle. St. Kilda is currently 8th in the standings, Richmond 4th. Furtherdown the standings are two big clubs who are having tough seasons, and willmeet today: the Collingwood Magpies,currently 15th in the standings, take on the 11th ranked Essendon Bombers. This is the 68th meeting between the clubs atthe Melbourne Cricket Grounds, with 34 wins to Essendon, 31 to Collingwood andtwo draws, with the clubs having equal wins and losses since 2014. A 6-8 Essendon has lost four of its past fivegames (by an average losing margin of just 10 points), including a potentiallyseason-killing fadeout against the Brisbane Lions last week, while 5-9Collingwood is in danger of losing a fourth successive game for the first timein two years. If it's desperation stakes for the Bombers, then it's absolutepanic stations for the Magpies, who now need to win at least seven of theirlast eight games to avoid a fourth straight season outside the top eight. InSri Lanka, in international cricket: Zimbabwecontinues their tour of Sri Lanka, with their 4th ODI (One DayInternational). The two meet today at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International CricketStadium in Hambantota. Sri Lanka leadsthe series two to one, so Zimbabwe, considered the better team, must win bothremaining matches including today's, to leave Sri Lanka with the trophy. Sri Lanka has not done well this season, lastwinning a trophy in November. Zimbabwe Captain Graeme Cremer, freshly back fromleague play in Scotland, said "There'snot much you can change in one day. We will take the positives and try andrestrict them." Sri Lankan captainAngelo Mathews, worried about his team's ability to remain constant, said "Whatwe need is consistency. We can lose one or two games, but if we bat well everyday that's great. Some days we don't do well. If we want to improve we need tobe consistent." Overall, the gameseems too close to call. Zimbabwe willcertainly come ready to play hard against Sri Lanka for a revenge win, so the hosts need to play well to have a hopeof pulling out a win for the day and the series. Inthe United Kingdom, Strawberries and Cream are being served as the storiedBritish Open continues at Wimbledon, with today's action featuring the last dayof the Round of 32 in Men's Singles and Doubles, and the Round of 16 in MixedDoubles. In Friday's action, RafaelNadal has advanced. Today will seeaction from Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer, who will see a real challenge ashe takes on Germany's Mischa Zverev, who he beat on his way to the AustralianOpen Championship a few months ago. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 7/08/2017 12:14:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
