I owe it to South Africa and the team I've been with

"I owe it to South Africa and the team I've been with for five years to concentrate totally on the World Cup."New Zealand, who arrived on the same flight, were quite content to be languishing at 14-1 in the odds. "I think it's great not to be one of the hot favourites," their captain, Stephen Fleming, said. "The beauty of this tournament as we see it is that teams around the world are consistently beating each other and there's no one who's really dominated the world scene over the last 12 months."Asked if New Zealand had enough in their armoury to upset a few teams, he said: "We think we can do a little more than that But obviously it's going to be very tough.". MARK LOVATT recaptured the elusive yellow jersey on the final day of the Tour of Lancashire, but suffered another twinge of uncertainty before clinching the five-day race by four seconds. Two days ago Lovatt sat in his hotel room unaware that he was the race leader until another rider, Jon Clay, pointed out a discrepancy in the results to officials.

Next day Clay took the colours from Lovatt, but in yesterday's stage from the Camelot theme park his tenancy of the jersey ended once nine riders had broken away. Lovatt still faced more doubt in the quest for his holy grail. His first worry came on the final climb as he lost contact with the leaders, but he fought back to salvage sixth place. Then he had to wait while officials worked out whether he or Huw Pritchard would win overall as Pritchard had taken third place, 46 seconds clear of Lovatt, in yesterday's 89-mile tester through the Pennines.The British road race champion, Matt Stephens, raced away to win with 50 seconds to spare over Dave Williams, but his overnight deficit of three minutes and 39 seconds was too much to overhaul Lovatt."I was beginning to think that I would never win a race wearing the champion's jersey, but I decided to just keep attacking," Stephens said.Clay finished 5min 4sec behind Stephens and said: "You cannot chase everything especially without team support."TRAVELWISE TOUR OF LANCASHIREFifth stage (Charnock Richard-Manchester, 89 miles): 1 M Stephens (Harrods- RT) 3hr 38min 24sec; 2 D Williams (Adidas-SciCon) +50sec; 3 H Pritchard (Team Men's Health) same time; 4 J Bayfield (Harrods) +1:36; 5 G Butler (Men's Health); 6 M Lovatt (Pro Vision-Planet X) both same time. Final overall positions: 1 M Lovatt 11hr 27min 10sec; 2 H Pritchard +4sec; 3 J Bayfield +36, 4 G Butler +39; 5 D Williams +41; 6 M Stephens +1min 05sec.. CANNOCK AND Slough, who won their leagues convincingly, yesterday won the Premiership play-offs to take their places in next season's European club championships. Slough, always in control, won the women's title when they beat Clifton Scottish Life 4-2, but it was a close run thing for Cannock, who prevailed 4-3 on penalties after a 3-3 draw thanks to two outstanding penalty stroke saves by Jimi Lewis from Reading's captain, Jon Wyatt. With a galaxy of international talent on view, the crowd was treated to an entertaining game.

Craig Parnham opened the scoring for Cannock after 15 minutes, Mark Pearn finished off a stimulating run with a superb reverse stick shot to equalise and then Jonny Loose put Reading ahead on the interval.Kalbir Takher equalised for Cannock before the New Zealander, Ken Robinson, put Reading ahead again. Reading survived the temporary suspension of three players without conceding a goal, and time was running out for Cannock when Bobby Crutchley sent the match into ultimately goalless extra time.Reading again looked set to win when they were 3-1 up in the penalty barrage, but then Lewis saved for a second time from Wyatt in sudden death. The teams meet again in the EHA Cup final at Milton Keynes on Sunday.In the women's final, two goals from Karen Brown and a gem solo goal from Sarah Kelleher gave Slough the edge in a game they dominated.. MARSEILLES WANT to sign Marcel Desailly from Chelsea this summer.

The wealthy French club, who are on course to win their domestic championship and a place in the Champions' League, are keen to bring the defender home in a move which would cost around pounds 5m Desailly could be interested in leaving Stamford Bridge. Although he has been a great success at Chelsea, he has not put down roots in English football since his move from Milan in the same way that some of his fellow countrymen have. Desailly, a World Cup winner with France last summer, has already played at the top level in his home country and in Italy and some of his comments have suggested he is only passing through at Chelsea. He will give an answer after the end of the season but he may wish to see what other options are available.Marseilles are trying to sign the German defender, Christian Ziege, from Milan.Roy Hodgson, the former Blackburn manager, says he would be tempted by an offer to coach the Australian national team. The 51-year-old met the Soccer Australia chairman, Basil Scarsella, while in Australia to address a sports seminar two months ago, though he said he had not been offered the job."The job has appeal, there's no doubt. I can see a lot of positive things Australia have going for them," Hodgson said. He made a spectacular start last night to his temporary job as director of coaching at Internazionale, who beat Roma 5-4.Diego Simeone scored an 87th-minute winner after Roma staged a spirited fightback at the Olympic stadium. Inter looked destined to mark Hodgson's return with a straightforward victory when Ronaldo, back to his best, scored one and made two for Zamorano to put the visitors 3-1 up at half- time.

But two goals in three minutes at the start of the second half brought the scores level. Ronaldo retsored Inter's lead before Eusebio Di Francesco equalised.The result lifted Inter into eighth place, ahead of Bologna on goal difference in the race for the last remaining Uefa Cup place that the club's president, Massimo Moratti, has asked Hodgson to capture in the last four matches of the season.David Elleray has mentioned an off-the-field incident which took place after Ian Wright was dismissed in Saturday's match between West Ham and Leeds in his match report to the FA. There were reports of an incident in the referee's room after Rob Harris showed Wright the red card.Elleray confirmed: "I have submitted a disciplinary report to the FA in my capacity as the fourth official at the match. I have sent in a report on an incident after Mr Wright was sent from the field of play. As a fourth official, I am only empowered to report on things not seen by the referee on or off the field of play, so my report solely deals with incidents not in the referee's match report.".