Joe Green Sports

Champions League Final Preview 2017: Juventus vs Real Madrid Tonight, the footballing world descends on Cardiff as two European giants go head-to-head for what is arguably the greatest prize in world football. Juventus, with their compact defence, will hope to overcome the reigning champions Real Madrid, who possess a frightening attack, the centrepiece being Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo has torn La Liga defences to pieces all season, scoring 25 goals in the league and 10 goals in the Champions league. Assisted by the tireless Karim Benzema and the “Welsh Wizard” Gareth Bale, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich have both been dispatched by Ronaldo & Co. There seems no way to halt the charging Real attack. Enter Giorgio Chiellini. The 6ft Italian centre-back has been a defensive wall for Juventus since 2005. With Chiellini at the core, Juventus have only conceded 99 goals in the last 5 seasons, a staggeringly low number. Alongside club and country team-mates Leonardo Bonucci and ...

Lions Watch #1: NZ Provincial Barbarians 7 -13 British & Irish Lions Match report: The Lions had to make a good first impression, and in that sense, they fell at the first hurdle. Straight from kick-off, a mistake from Iain Henderson gifted the ball to the Barbarians, who then battered the Lions defence for almost ten minutes, but to no avail. The Lions gradually worked through the phases and eventually won a penalty, but Sexton missed what would usually be a guaranteed 3 points, inviting more Barbarians pressure. Sexton later got on the scoresheet with a penalty, but approaching the half hour mark the Lions were still holding on to a shaky 3-0 lead. The provincial Barbarians finally produced an end product to their fantastic first-half performance, a Bryn Gatland up-and-under resulting in Anderson-Heather driving over the line, with Gatland getting the conversion to give the Barbarians a 7-3 lead at half-time. Greig Laidlaw steadied the ship with a penalty just after the br...

5 things Warren Gatland must do if the Lions are to beat the All Blacks 1. Rotation, Rotation, Rotation The Lions tour is without doubt the most gruelling event on the rugby calendar. Coming off the back of a hard-fought season, the squad will be beaten up twice a week by the provinces in so-called warm-up matches, and then face the most physical team on the planet at the end of it. 3 times. If the players who play 80 minutes each week in the midweek games start against the All Blacks, Gatland shouldn’t be surprised if the injury list is longer than the injury-hit tour of 2013. 2. Keep Morale high Graham Henry’s time as Lions coach is the perfect example of how NOT to win the series. Henry lost half the squad, mentally at least, on day one after telling his players who would be starting in the Test matches before they’d played a single warm-up game, leaving most of the squad disgruntled and with no motivation. The squad was effectively cut in two, with the midweek players trai...