Defending champion scrapes through

Neil Robertson had to come from 3-5 down to beat Ding Junhui 6-5 in his first round tie of this year’s Masters at the Alexandra Palace.
The Australian was in real trouble when the 2011 winner won the eighth frame to move to just one away from knocking out the reigning champion on day one.
Despite taking a 2-0 lead, Robertson needed to win the last three frames of the match deny Ding the opportunity to progress. The Thunder from Down Under seemed to find his best snooker when he needed it the most with breaks of 100, 62 and 90 to advance into the second round.
It was a disappointing blow for the Chinese player who played his part in top quality match, with the Masters odds pre-game suggesting he would go far in the tournament. Ding hit breaks of 103 and 127 to prove how dangerous he was in the break building. However, it now means that he has not been beyond the second round of any of the five premier tournaments so far this season.
The defending champion and Betfair snooker favourite will now face Mark Allen on Thursday after the Northern Irishman came through his clash with Mark Davis 6-2.
Those two players were locked at 2-2 at the mid-session interval, with a 136 coming from Allen in the opening frame. However, the Pistol didn’t give Davis a chance after the break winning four consecutive frames for a comprehensive victory.
It’s not been the best of season so far for the man from Antrim Town with just a quarter-final appearance at the International Championship to show for it. He has only once reached the last four in this competition when he was defeated in the semi-final by Marco Fu in 2011.

Robertson bids for title defence

Neil Robertson goes into the 2013 Betfair Masters as the defending champion after winning the competition 12 months ago, beating Shaun Murphy in the final 10-6.
The Australian added the trophy for the invitational only event for top 16 players to the World Championship he won in 2010. He now just needs the UK Championship to join a handful of players to have won the sport’s top three premier tournaments.
The Thunder from Down Under, favourite in the snooker betting,  will kick his defence off against Ding Junhui in the opening round tie on Sunday afternoon. His Chinese opponent is also a previous winner of the Masters after doing so in 2011 in an all Asian final against Marco Fu where he ran out a 10-4 winner.
Ding has not had the best of season so far after failing to go beyond the second round of a tournament. Robertson, on the other hand, reached the final of the International Championship, was down to the last four of the Premier League and went out in the quarter-final to the eventual winner Mark Selby in York for the UK Championship.
The 2012 winner goes into this year’s tournament as the number on seed and would meet Judd Trump in the final if the top two seeds make it safely through their respective halves. That would be a repeat of their clash in the semi-final in last year’s competition.
Robertson is currently down to number five in the world rankings but held the number one spot for large parts of 2010 and 2011 and is still well fancied in the snooker Masters
odds. He is bidding for his 15th tournament success since turning professional in 1998. He is the only Australian to have won the Masters and if he defends his crown he will be the first man to do so since Paul Hunter in 2002.

Six Nations preview - Ireland

With other home nations suffering disappointing results since the 2012 Six Nations, Ireland’s difficult year has been somewhat overlooked. They did not gain a win – a non-capped 53-0 win over Fiji apart – until easing past Argentina last month, with some chastening southern hemisphere experiences eroding confidence.

The nadir of a 3-0 June defeat in New Zealand was a record 60-0 reverse that made the preceding three-point defeat a distant memory. A strong 2013 Six Nations campaign seemed unlikely at that point, with the team’s defensive problems seemingly unsolved.

Ireland were the top points and try scorers in this year’s tournament, so it is easy to see where their problems laid. A limp effort in the breakdown in the All Blacks hammering at Hamilton suggested Declan Kidney and his coaching team had plenty of work to do with the defence and there were encouraging signs in the 16-12 defeat by South Africa last month.

Despite a brave rearguard action, a nine-point lead could not be protected, but with key men Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell and Rory Best absent through injury, some optimism was at least rediscovered.

Debutants David Kilcoyne, Iain Henderson and New Zealand-born Michael Bent – a controversial selection – all made a decent impression. O’Connell and Stephen Ferris are unlikely to be fit for the tournament opener against Wales, so the new faces need to integrate quickly.

Ireland and Wales have had some memorable Six Nations clashes in recent years and that curtain-raiser could set the victor on the road to a title-challenging campaign. The loser will be left wondering when their slump will end.

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