The words alcohol and cigarettes are no longer scribbled on the shopping list.Cecil did not mind a drop in his younger days, and his present abstinence may have been brought on by the drinking career of his twin brother, David, who fought a battle with the bottle in which, for some time, he looked like finishing runner-up. But then, last year, came reports that the owner was displeased by the input of Cecil’s wife, Natalie, and, terminally, there was disagreement over the condition of a horse that was being prepared for Ascot’s Royal Lodge Stakes.Sheikh Mohammed sent over a convoy of boxes to collect his 35 magnificently bred horses and as Cecil watched the vehicles leave it must have been like seeing bullion trucks disappearing over the horizon.The circle is completed this afternoon when the colt that caused the final fissure in the partnership, Mark Of Esteem, lines up as one of the more potent challengers to Storm Trooper.Mark Of Esteem has wintered in Dubai as a member of the Sheikh’s Godolphin team and when he stepped off the aeroplane ramp in Britain this week his well-being was palpable. Cecil and the Sheikh are both too opinionated to melt into a harmonious relationship, but both could stand the other as the results spewed out incessantly. His joy will come from seeing one bearded face among the ranks of the vanquished, the features that belong to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
It is now seven months since the most successful trainer-owner partnership in modern racing was severed. At Newmarket racecourse this afternoon, the trainer, metaphorically at least, will raise two fingers if Storm Trooper manages to capture the 2,000 Guineas
Victory per se will not cheer Cecil. At Warren Place, the lofty stables of Henry Cecil, they run up the family ensign whenever a Group winner returns home.
“We can win the Cup if we perform as we are capable but I imagine Pontypridd feel exactly the same.”NEATH v PONTYPRIDDat Cardiff Arms ParkRichard Jones 15 C CormackC Higgs 14 D ManleyL Davies 13 J LewisJ Funnell 12 S LewisG Evans 11 G LewisP Williams 10 N JenkinsP Horgan 9 Paul JohnD Morris 1 N Bezani captB Williams 2 Phil JohnJ Davies 3 N EynonGlyn Llewellyn 4 G ProsserGareth Llewellyn capt 5 M RowleyRobin Jones 6 M LloydS Williams 8 D McIntoshI Boobyer 7 R WilliamsReferee: D Bevan (Clydach) Kick-off: 3.0 (BBC Wales). “We have a development programme that ensures that any losses will be limited,” Jones said. “If a player has a good offer we won’t stand in his way although we would make sure he went for the right reasons.”Neath were the first club to win the Cup, in 1972, and they have never met Pontypridd in the competition “I don’t think either team can be optimistic,” Jones said. Darryl Jones, a teacher at Neath College, has eight of his former pupils in a team capable of playing breathtaking rugby.Jones, though, is resigned to running what amounts to a finishing school and the final will be the swan-song for the Llewellyn brothers, Gareth and Glyn, who are joining Harlequins and Wasps. We are older and wiser.”They are certainly older than Neath who have the youngest back line ever to appear in a final.
“Everyone knows he is a superb goal-kicker but he has not had the credit he deserves for leading the line.”We know we have played some excellent rugby in the last five years without winning anything but that does not increase the pressure on us Last year we froze That won’t happen again. But then the Neath style has very little to do with kicking, and all to do with moving the ball at pace.Paul John, Horgan’s opposite number, believes Jenkins is playing the best rugby of his career. “We became more and more wound up and all it did was to add to the nervous tension.” Pontypridd suffered from stage fright and Neil Jenkins missed a string of penalties.This season Jenkins has scored 88 points in four cup games and if the final was to be decided on goal-kicking, the form of the Wales outside- half gives Pontypridd an edge. Although Patrick Horgan, the Neath scrum- half, landed a match-winning penalty against Newport in the semi-final, he is not regarded as a specialist kicker. The bookmakers are unable to separate Pontypridd and Neath for the Swalec Cup final at Cardiff Arms Park today but if emotion was a factor then Nigel Bezani’s team would be clear favourites.
Bezani retires at the end of the season at the age of 39 and despite captaining one of the most consistently successful sides in Wales his cupboard is bare. Pontypridd have appeared in two finals and lost them both, to Bridgend in 1979 and to Swansea last year when they also finished runners-up in the league. Bezani, whose nine-year-old daughter Lucy will accompany him as the club’s “official mascot” when he leads out the team, said: “This match is not about a fond farewell for Nigel Bezani because there is no room for sentiment in a cup final. Instead it is all about our players going back to the Arms Park to prove that we are no longer an unfashionable club and that we deserve a place among the elite.”
Twelve months ago Pontypridd stayed in a Cardiff hotel prior to the final, which they lost 17-12, and Bezani admits it was a mistake. Semi-final London Irish (a) 46-21.BATH v LEICESTERat TwickenhamJ Callard 16 J Liley OJ Sleightholme 15 S Hackney NP de Glanville capt 14 S Potter MA Adebayo 12 R Robinson LA Lumsden 11 R Underwood KM Catt 10 N Malone JA Nicol 9 A Kardooni ID Hilton 1 G Rowntree AG Dawe 2 R Cockerill BJ Mallett 3 D Garforth CM Haag 4 M Johnson DN Redman 5 M Poole EA Robinson 6 J Wells FE Peters 8 D Richards capt GS Ojomoh 7 N Back HReferee: S Lander (Irby, Wirral) Kick-off: 3.0 (Sky Sports). With the Double in their sights, it is unthinkable to back against them.PATHS TO FINAL: Bath: Fourth round Northampton (h) 12-3 Fifth round Wakefield (a) 16-12 Quarter-final Bristol (a) 19-12 Semi-final Gloucester (h) 19-10 Leicester: Fourth round Exeter (a) 27-0 Fifth round Saracens (h) 40-16 Quarter-final Harlequins (h) 24-9. No prizes for guessing which is which.The absence of the injured Jeremy Guscott and Ben Clarke will disturb Bath more than they might care to admit, but Bath’s strength has always been more collective than individual.
Experience, both their own and of others, teaches the reinstated champions that although they have to match the muscular Tigers at close quarters, the optimum course is actually to avoid close quarters in the first place.”Anyone looking at the two sides would realise that the way one might think they could beat the other would be to keep the game fairly close, and the other side might play in a more flexible manner,” Brian Ashton, the Bath coach, said. “They’ve taken a lot of flak for their style, but as they’ve dealt effectively with us in recent matches, we can’t criticise them,” Phil de Glanville, the Bath captain, said. Whatever a neutral’s opinion of this type of rugby – and there is no such thing as a neutral at Welford Road when Richards is rumbling up the middle of the field – it is undeniably effective, so much so that the only unpredictable thing about it is that now and again Leicester lose.Last Saturday, Harlequins achieved what only Bath and Saracens had done this season, and the league title duly reverted to Bath from Leicester. Back in the real world, Richards offers this nugget: “We won’t reveal our tactics, but everyone knows where our strength lies.”So at least Bath know what to expect. I still want to play for England and Leicester and when that’s over I want to concentrate on my job.”He has not yet signed with Leicester, whom he joined in 1990, and has had offers from other clubs “I love Leicester and that’s where I want to play I want a contract that will enable me to give 100 per cent.
