He had a very good game

He had a very good game."Robinson's speed was the highlight of a nine-try show from Wales which silenced fervent local support in Tucuman's Atletico stadium.Byron Hayward scored 24 points as Wales recorded their first victory of the tour following their defeat against Buenos Aires last weekend. The Llanelli outside-half only missed with one kick at goal out of 12, landing nine conversions and two penalties.Wales led 20-3 after 11 minutes but conceded 22 points during a miserable 10-minute spell to trail 25-20. However, they regained their composure, with centre Mark Taylor and full-back Neil Boobyer both crossing twice and No 8 Geraint Lewis once in addition to Robinson's heroics.Ireland have retained five players from Monday's 43-6 defeat of New South Wales Country for their game against New South Wales at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday: the backs Matt Mostyn, Girvan Dempsey and Brian O'Driscoll, along with Jeremy Davidson and Andy Ward from the pack.The Australian-born Mostyn has been switched from left to right-wing, while Dempsey moves from full-back to left-wing, where he played all six matches for Ireland last season.Davidson and Ward, meanwhile, retain their positions at lock and open- side flanker respectively.The Irish international wing Darragh O'Mahony has signed for Saracens after a year at Bedford. The 26-year-old is the second Test player acquired by the Watford club this week, following the French stand-off Thierry Lacroix, who signed from Harlequins on Tuesday.The Scotland prop Dave Hilton is considering an offer from Glasgow Caledonians to turn his back on the Allied Dunbar Premiership. The Bath loose-head prop is unhappy with contract negotiations.Bath have refused to comment either on the Hilton situation, or speculation linking them with the Richmond openside flanker Adam Vander and the Bridgend back-row forward Gavin Thomas.France have called up four new players and their former captain, Abdel Benazzi, to face Romania in a Test match in Castres today.The Toulon No 8 Jean-Luc Aqua and centre Guillaume Delmotte, the Castres winger Olivier Sarramea and the Brive flanker Lionel Mallier earn their first caps, while the lock Benazzi makes his comeback after a long injury lay-off.IRELAND (v New South Wales, Sydney Football Stadium, Saturday): C O'Shea (London Irish); M Mostyn (Begles Bordeaux), K Maggs (Bath), B O'Driscoll (UCD), G Dempsey (Terenure College); E Elwood (Galwegians), C Scally (UCD); R Corrigan (Lansdowne), R Nesdale (Newcastle), P Wallace (Saracens), J Davidson (Castres), P Johns (Saracens), T Brennan (St Mary's College), A Ward (Ballynahinch), D O'Cuinneagain (Sale, capt).FRANCE (v Romania, Castres, today): J-L Sadourny; P Bernat-Salles, C Lamaison, G Delmotte, O Sarramea; T Castaignede; F Galthie; J-L Aqua, O Magne, L Mallier; O Brouzet, A Benazzi; S Marconnet, R Ibanez (capt), J-J Crenca. Replacements: P Mignoni, U Mola, G Merceron, C Labit, A Pelous, F Tournaire, M Dal Maso.. MARCO PANTANI clung to his overall lead in the Giro d'Italia yesterday after a 45km (28 miles) time trial in Treviso was won by Sergei Gontchar.

Pantani was seventh fastest behind the Ukrainian in 54 minutes 33 seconds, but that performance was good enough to keep the quickest of his challengers at bay and leave him 44sec ahead of the field overall. The defending champion's chief threat remained his fellow Italian, Paolo Savoldelli, who slashed his overnight deficit by 1min 21sec by clocking 53:12, only 17sec slower than Gontchar. Laurent Jalabert, the Frenchman who won the first time trial at Ancona, was third in 53:36, to cut his arrears on Pantani to 1:09."It was tough for everyone, because it was very hot," Pantani said after riding in temperatures up to 32C "I couldn't have done much better than I did. It was important to not lose seconds, but just as important not to destroy myself because there are still four stages to go."Neither Savoldelli nor Jalabert, formerly ranked No 1 in the world, can match Pantani's skill in the mountains, where the next three stages will be fought out. The tour ends on Sunday in Milan.Ivan Gotti, the 1997 Giro winner and a strong climber, trails Pantani by 3:12, while Gontchar, who rides for the Vini Caldirola team, jumped from seventh to fifth overall on the strength of his success yesterday and now trails Pantani by 4:19.Thursday's 19th stage of 166km (103 miles) takes the riders to Alpe Di Pampeago in the eastern Alps. It is one of the 22-stage race's toughest legs, featuring climbs to as high as 2,047m (6,755ft) above sea level.As storms hit the Tour of Germany, Italy's Michele Bartoli and Emmanuel Magnien of France crashed badly.Bartoli, the World Cup holder, fell heavily 75km into the first of the day's two stages, a 153.5km ride from Koblenz to Bensheim, and has undergone surgery for a broken kneecap and torn ligaments in his right leg. Bartoli will miss this year's Tour de France, though he should be fit for the World Championships in October.A violent storm broke during the second stage, a 29.9km individual time trial, and Magnien suffered a spectacular crash. The Frenchman was riding through driving rain and gusty winds when he fell, and a press motorcyclist who was following the race crashed into him.

Magnien was taken to hospital with a broken rib and a knee injury. Like Bartoli, he could also miss the remainder of the season.Organisers said the time trial, which was completed by all the other riders and won by the Latvian, Raivis Belohvoscik, would not count for the overall standings. The German Jens Heppner, who is heading for overall victory in the tour, said: "It was crazy. I had never seen anything like it."Another German, Erik Zabel, who has been beaten into second place on three stages by France's Jimmy Casper since the race began on Friday, won a mass sprint to take the morning stage, with Heppner finishing in the pack to retain his overall lead.. GARY STEVENS made it three wins in two days at the start of his new career in Britain when he guided Duke Of Aston to victory in the two- year-old maiden at Goodwood yesterday. The winning trainer, Alan Jarvis, had no doubts about the jockey.

"He'll do for me," he said firmly before speaking in equally enthusiastic terms about Duke Of Aston. "He's always been a really nice horse and the fastest I have ever trained out of the stalls. Gary said that he was a bit special," added the trainer, who was completing a 55-1 double after Alfie Boy, another newcomer, had won the three-year-old maiden 35 minutes earlier.Stevens will be seeing some familiar faces when he takes part in the Lester Piggott International Jockeys Challenge at Taby, Stockholm, next Tuesday evening, as his former American colleagues Kent Desormeaux, Corey Nakatani and Laffit Pincay take on top riders from Britain, France and Scandinavia in a four-race series which forms part of the Swedish 2,000 Guineas card.The other contestants are Kieren Fallon and Pat Eddery from Britain, Olivier Peslier from France, and the Scandinavians Mark Larsen, Gunnar Nordling and Fredik Johansson.The home side lost its star when Kim Andersen, champion jockey in Scandinavia for the past two years and in front again this season, broke a leg at Aarhus on Monday.Earlier at Goodwood yesterday, The Winning Line Syndicate, whose colours were made famous by Teeton Mill during the last jumping season, had hopes of a double after their Ligne Gagnante had taken the three-year-old 1m4f handicap in a driving finish with Deploy Venture.Ligne Gagnante was continuing the excellent form of the William Haggas stable, but the Newmarket trainer and owners had to settle for third place when their Anthony Mon Amour, 7-4 favourite for the 6f handicap half an hour later, set a strong pace but tied up and was caught well inside the final furlong by the 16-1 chance Loch Laird and Top Banana.. WIGAN MOVED to third place in the Super League last night, their best position since the early weeks of the season, but they will be concerned that their home gates are moving in the opposite direction. Attendances at Central Park have been showing a steady decline and last night's 6,005 was the worst of the year and well below any realistic break-even figure for such a big club. Those who stayed away - and for once they did not have the option of watching on television - missed one of their side's more convincing performances. An Eagles outfit handicapped by the early loss of their main tactician and kicker, Mark Aston, never looked like standing up to a business-like Wigan effort, in which Tony Smith thrived behind a dominant pack and Wes Davies added to his growing reputation with two more tries. Wigan had the benefit of the ideal start, taking the lead after five minutes when Tony Smith kicked on the last tackle towards a wing left open by Dale Cardoza drifting inside.

Davies exploited the space to the full by taking the catch and making the touchdown.Much of Wigan's best work was based around hard running in the forwards. Terry O'Connor, Jon Clarke and Simon Haughton all contributed to creating the position from which Kris Radlinski found a gap in the Sheffield defence after 16 minutes and this time Gary Connolly added the goal.Wigan also had their share of defending to do, but Sheffield's best chance came when Cardoza picked up a loose ball and headed for the try line 90 yards away. The wing man was caught by Lee Gilmour, who is, nominally at least, a second-row forward.Seven minutes before halftime, Connolly, making a good fist of the unfamiliar position of stand-off, slipped a pass out of the tackle and the substitute, Mark Reber, raced in.Wigan made the game safe after 14 minutes of the second half, Mick Cassidy running on to Radlinski's pass and striding through for their fourth try. Almost immediately, Connolly won possession from Smith's high-kick and fed the ball on for Danny Moore to score.Davies then claimed his second, with Neil Cowie and Tony Mestrov doing the preparatory work. Another substitute, Phil Jones, took over the kicking duties and duly tagged on the goal.Wigan Warriors: Radlinski; Robinson, Florimo, Moore, Davies; Connolly, Smith; Cowie, Clarke, O'Connor, Gilmour, Haughton, Cassidy.