Newton piles misery on hapless Eagles

Cam Newton starred for the Carolina Panthers, throwing for two touchdowns and crossing for another couple of his own, as his side earned a 30-22 victory over Philadelphia Eagles earlier this week.
The clash between the Panthers and Eagles was a meeting between the teams with the worst records in the NFC so far this season and the NFL betting lines struggled to separate them.
For the Eagles, Bryce Brown was on top form, and smashed the club’s record for rushing with 178 yards on the night.
The running back was only named in the squad following an injury to LeSean McCoy, but he made the most of the opportunity, breaking Correll Buckhalter’s haul of 134 yards, achieved in 1998.
Brown ran for two touchdowns for good measure, but his efforts were in vain as the Eagles crashed to their seventh straight defeat, giving them an overall record of 3-8 for the campaign.
Carolina, who are now also at 3-8 for this season, held an advantageous position from the beginning of the the fourth quarter thanks to Graham Gano’s 20-yard field goal.
Inevitably, it fell to Brown to lead the Eagles’ fightback, but the Panthers were wise to the running back’s antics when it mattered, and scuppered their opponents’ attacking threat sufficiently enough to seal victory and make positive NFL news  headlines for a change this season.
The victory for the Panthers was a welcome one following a run of just one win in their previous eight matches, though there was little to inspire hope of a late charge for Super Bowl glory, and many pairs of Carolina eyes are already transfixed on the fresh opportunities 2013 might offer.
A seventh successive defeat for the Eagles, meanwhile, sees their campaign go from bad to worse, and recent performances have been made even harder to bear given the potential demonstrated during the opening weeks of the year, which saw the side win three of their opening four matches.

NCAAB Top 25 announced

The NCAAB season has commenced and already we have the first Associated Press poll to pore over and a welcome chance to celebrate if you are a UConn Huskies supporter.

Connecticut needed just one game to convince the voters in the poll that they can still be a basketball force to be reckoned with despite the setbacks they have faced before the start of this season.

Those setbacks included losing a Hall of Fame coach (Jim Calhoun) and five underclassmen. But despite those hindrances UConn (1-0) moved into the Top 25 on Monday on the strength of its 66-62 win over Michigan State in Friday's Armed Services Classic played at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

The team hadn’t actually been ranked since earlier in the year (Jan 23rd) and they had not received a single vote in the pre-season poll, that one win soon put paid to their near ten-month exclusion. The Huskies had already lost their two best players, Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb, to the NBA draft and three other players transferred after the NCAA declared the Huskies academically ineligible for the 2013 postseason.

That NCAA ban does not disqualify a team from the AP poll and that’s the yardstick by which the Huskies will be measured this year.

Apart from the reappearance of the Huskies there wasn’t an awful lot of movement in the poll after the opening weekend of NCAAB results.

The first seven teams in the initial regular-season poll, led by Indiana and Louisville, were the same as the preseason Top 25; with the Hoosiers a very solid No 1 choice, gaining 46 first-place votes from the 65-member strong Electoral College.

The rest of that top seven saw Kentucky take third place, and they were followed by Ohio State, Michigan, North Carolina State and Kansas. Syracuse and Duke swapped places in eighth and ninth and Florida completed the top 10.

That left UConn as the only newcomer in the top-25 after this weekend, although not everyone was impressed by them and they have an awful lot of work to do yet to maintain a run of positive NCAAB scores and progress up the rankings. Although after their recent trials and tribulations just returning to one of the top slots is an achievement.

Wood upbeat but England face stiff test

England flanker Tom Wood says he is relishing the test South Africa will provide this weekend at Twickenham but, sadly, the Red Rose are unlikely to be able to stand up to the Springboks.

 Ahead of the latest Autumn International, Wood has admitted he is looking forward to what he says is the "man test" the tourists will provide in the clash and he hopes Stuart Lancaster's side can meet the significant challenge head on.

 Wood, back in the side for the first time since last year's World Cup after recovering from a foot injury, said: "They look for your biggest guy and get theirs to run at him as hard as he can.

 "If you show any fear and back off to any extent you've got a long day at the office. You have to match it head on."

 England have had to regroup after the setback of last week's defeat against Australia. Expectations were high before that game that Lancaster's men were capable of hurting what was apparently a below-par Wallabies outfit but, in the end, it never worked out like that and they were fairly comfortably beaten.

 It all means they will need to step up considerably if they are to get anything out of the Springboks who, on their day, remain up there with the All Blacks as the strongest side in international rugby.

 As expected, the returning Wood is confident Lancaster's developing side have what it takes to combat their opponents' obvious strengths this weekend and you would not expect anything else from the 26-year-old when speaking pre-match.

However, most astute observers know it likely to turn out different than that with England set to have to defend for their lives while taking any try chances that come their way if they are to secure a headline-grabbing win.

South Africa have already accounted for Ireland and Scotland on their current tour and will be in no mood to throw away that unbeaten run at Twickenham.

For a time, England may well be up to containing the Springboks but over 80 minutes expect South Africa to come out on top, both in the physical challenge Wood is predicting and the overall result.

 Don’t forget you can use your Betfair FreeBet for the big match this weekend, don’t’ forget to log-on for all the latest England v New Zealand Rugby betting news, odds and opinion.