Who could foresee 2003?
WHEN a player goes into a tournament with as much hullabaloo as Jonny Wilkinson at the Rugby World Cup, logic suggests the hype will consume its subject and spit out the bones.
Which is why that drop goal with the last meaningful kick of the World Cup final, against champions Australia in their own back yard, was so inevitable it should never have happened.
THAT Mick McCarthy vacated the Irish manager’s job was hardly a bolt from the blue given Saipan and the appalling start to Euro 2004 qualifying.
Nor was it a shock that the better qualified Brian Kerr was in the frame to succeed him. The big surprise was that the FAI should take the sensible option and appoint him rather than the higher-profile alternatives.
IT started with a flying boot at Old Trafford and ended with a sharp exit to Real Madrid. The move suited both parties in truth, but that Becks won the PR battle was unexpected, although not as surprising as him doing so well in La Liga, and in a central position his former mentor Alex Ferguson thought him so unsuited.
ALEX FERGUSON is often embroiled in a battle, with his players, the FA, Arsene Wenger or the media.
But taking on John Magnier, below, who with business partner JP McManus is the largest shareholder in Manchester United plc, over stud fees earned by racing star Rock of Gibraltar is a fight that has already wound up in the High Court.
AS if the shaming of former Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis, below, for drug test failures in the 1980s wasn’t bad enough, evidence of a new drug epidemic in sport was uncovered.
The substance was tetrahydrogestrinone, THG, a designer steroid which had previously avoided detection. Now it has claimed the athletics careers of Dwain Chambers and double world gold medallist Kelli White and changed the face of sport.
ONE of the strangest years in golf saw all four majors won by first-time winners. At least Mike Weir (Masters) and Jim Furyk (US Open) were names vaguely familiar to golf fans.
Few would have recognised the name of Shaun Micheel (USPGA) and even the pros had probably never heard of Ben Curtis, above, until he won the British Open.
THE omens were not good when Munster took to the Thomond Park pitch on January 17. Defeats in Perpignan and Gloucester meant they needed a miracle against the English champions to reach the quarter-finals.
And despite a superb performance they looked set to be denied on points difference until John Kelly’s injury-time try and Ronan O’Gara’s pressure conversion ensured scenes of delirium on a remarkable afternoon.
LAST season should have been Leinster’s. Under coach Matt Williams, its players had developed to a point where Heineken Cup glory beckoned.
Great group wins over Montferrand earned a home quarter and semi-final draw. So, with a Lansdowne final served on a plate, how did they end up blowing it at home to unfancied Perpignan in the semi?
WHEN women’s world number one golfer Annika Sorenstam was handed a sponsors invite to the Colonial event in May she jumped at the chance to take on the boys in a PGA Tour event. She narrowly failed to make the cut but her composure, good humour and talent was a lesson for all.
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