The Welsh rugby season had never before lingered on so long into May, and never before had it seen such a dramatic finish. With the top four sides playing against each other, something had to give.
Cardiff were determined to make it three major trophies in as many years, having won the Swalec Cup in 1994, the Heineken league title last year and now facing the chance of back to back First Division titles.Theirs was always going to be the harder task, trailing as they did on try counts to the other title contenders, Neath.Hemi Taylor’s men set about trying to gain maximum bonus points against a team which had beaten them in three out of five in the league at the Arms Park.The first target was to get a bonus point and that came after 32 minutes thanks to a brilliant solo try by Mike Hall, a second touchdown by Adrian Davies and a flamboyant third by the centre Gareth Jones.Two penalties by the outside- half Matthew McCarthy at least kept Llanelli in touch going into the final 40 minutes of the season.The target after the break were the second and third bonus points and they did not take long in coming. Graf wept in front of 6,000 ecstatic fans as she was presented with the German journalists’ award for the World Sports Personality of 1995.. The Spaniard’s first-round defeat by Richard Krajicek means that he will drop out of the top 20.Although Michael Stich defeated Emilio Sanchez, 6-3, 7-6, in his first match since a recurrence of ankle trouble in February, he has decided that he is not fit enough to make a serious challenge in Paris.Steffi Graf, making her first home appearance since her tax affairs came under investigation, defeated American Tami Whitlinger Jones 6- 1, 6-2 in just 49 minutes in the first round of the German Open in Berlin yesterday. Roberto Carretero, the Spaniard who won the Hamburg title on Sunday as a qualifier, lost to Australia’s Mark Philippoussis in a third-set tie-break.Sergi Bruguera, runner-up to Muster here last year and holder of the French Open for the two years prior to he Austrian’s succession, will not even be seeded this time. Jim Courier, a winner in 1992 and 1993, joined Todd Martin and Malivai Washington in the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Italy’s Renzo Furlan.Europeans have experienced a few blips. It was Muster’s first outing since his 38-match winning streak on clay was ended in Munich by the Spanish teenager Carlos Moya.The tournament is not exactly devoid of Americans.

Sampras is due to set foot on clay for the first time this year in Dusseldorf next week.”I don’t know what their tactic is, but maybe at the French Open we are going to have a big surprise,” added Muster, who triumphed in Paris last year.When minding his own business yesterday, Muster, the top seed, eased his game back on track with 6-3, 6-0 win against his compatriot Herbert Wiltschnig, a qualifier ranked No 309. “It’s really amazing to me that all the guys are injured at the same time of year,” the defending champion said. “It proves what I’ve said, that nobody respects the European clay-court tour.”We Europeans are very stupid. We wait for the Americans to come and offer them a lot of money and they shit on our heads, and that’s not very nice.”Nor is Muster’s quote, but, then, the Austrian has been subjected to a fair amount of verbal abuse from some of the Americans this year since daring to become the world No 1 for the odd week on the strength of his results on clay.Agassi played in Monte Carlo recently, winning his first match there in three visits before being jeered by the crowd for his performance in losing to Alberto Costa, of Spain. Pete Sampras, the world No 1, is mourning the death of his coach, Tim Gullikson; Michael Chang is injured, as is Andre Agassi, who did not intend to play here anyway; and Boris Becker did not have Rome on his itinerary.
The European clay-court season has not been notable for American raiders, and yesterday Muster took the latest swipe in his tit-for-tat feud with them. Substitutes used: Seal, Gillespie, Tuilagi, Highton.Wigan: Radlinski; Smyth, Tuigamala, Connolly, Offiah; Robinson, Edwards; Cowie, Hall, O’Connor, Haughton, Cassidy, Farrell.

Substitutes used: Murdock, Baynes, Johnson, Craig.Referee: S Cummings (Widnes).. An admirer of the new wooden Centre Court at the Italian Open here, Thomas Muster could not resist teasing that a taxi comes in handy to reach it No problem. Mercedes, the ATP Tour sponsors, provides competitors with courtesy cars to and from the Foro Italico and Lamborghinis – albeit golf carts – shuttle them between the locker-room and the stadium. Such trappings of affluence at the $2m (pounds 1.3m) tournament ($309,000 for the winner) are not reflected in the number of leading players who entered, however. However, Robinson underlined Wigan’s control with two quick tries.With the Halifax captain, Karl Harrison, becoming the fourth player to use the sin-bin, Craig Murdock, Smyth and Simon Haughton added further tries as Wigan coasted home.Halifax: Amone; Bentley, Schuster, Hallas, Ekoku; Umaga, Dean; Harrison, Rowley, W Jackson, M Jackson, Perrett, Baldwin. The teams were temporarily reduced to 11-a-side when a fight between Abi Ekoku and Neil Cowie with a late contribution from Terry O’Connor, resulted in all three being sin-binned.But seven-a-side, 11-a-side, it makes little difference to Wigan in their current versatile mood, and Gary Connolly extended their lead as the 10 minutes of parity came to an end.Halifax at last got the try they had threatened when their substitute, Fereti Tuilagi, went over in the corner.

Pontypridd: Tries S Lewis, Prosser, J Lewis, Jenkins; Conversion Jenkins; Penalty Jenkins.Neath: D Case; C Higgs, L Davies, H Woodland, R Wintle; G Evans, C Bridges (P Horgan, 56); L Gerrard, B Williams, J Davies, Glyn Llewellyn, Gareth Llewellyn (capt), A Kembery, S Williams, I Boobyer.Pontypridd: C Cormack; D Manley, S Lewis, J Lewis (G Jones, 79), S Enoch; N Jenkins, N Lloyd; N Bezani (capt; N Eynon, 67), P John, A Metcalfe, G Prosser, M Rowley, M Spiller (R Collins, 40), M Lloyd, M Williams.Referee: D Davies (Llanbradach).. Wigan came down to earth with a thud at times in a bruising match at Thrum Hall last night, but were always too good for a home side who created too many of their own problems. Halifax, without a win in Super League, started as though determined to avoid one here. But their scrum-half, Craig Dean, frittered away a glorious chance after less than two minutes, fumbling a pass from Mike Umaga with the Wigan try line open.
Six minutes later, they were reduced to 12 men when their second rower, Michael Jackson, was sent off for a trip on Mick Cassidy, although there was a suggestion of mistaken identity.After Andy Farrell’s penalty had given Wigan the lead, Halifax’s misfortune continued with a clear push on Martin Offiah denying John Bentley a try.The misadventures went on, with Wigan making their advantage count after 20 minutes, Jason Robinson’s break setting up Cassidy. Halifax were breached again when a sweeping move the length of the field ended with Shaun Edwards’ flighted pass releasing Rob Smyth.Inside a minute of the second half, Edwards was scorching through on to Farrell’s pass for Wigan’s third try. First Huw Woodland went under the posts and then, with five minutes left, Gareth Llewellyn marked his final game before joining Harlequins by making the break for Williams’ rapturous conclusive try – after which Jenkins’ try for Pontypridd simply did not matter.Neath: Tries Boobyer, J Davies, Bridges, Higgs, Horgan, Woodland, S Williams; Conversions Bridges 3, Horgan 2.