Leicester Tigers v Saracens: Owen Farrell tipped for greatness by Shalk Brits following faultless kicking display

Farrell outshone his opposite number and England incumbent Toby Flood, who surprisingly missed two penalties from in front of the posts during the second half, by kicking five penalties as well as converting a try by James Short.

Saracens hooker Schalk Brits, who put himself back in the frame for a further caps for the Springboks with a stunning man-of-the-match performance, said Farrell was destined for a long career with England.

“Farrell is a kid who played like a man today,” said Brits. “He will just get better with age and will, as he gets old, dominate more in attack and organizing the backline even more.

“For a kid of 19 to play rugby like that is a phenomenal feat. He’ll get better and better and is a great player. He’ll definitely play international rugby, it is just a question of when, without a doubt.”

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall also hailed Farrell’s performance.

“Every time that a new challenge has been presented to Owen this year, he has risen to that challenge,” he said. “For a guy who is in his first year out of school, to play with that kind of composure and that kind of control against opposition is a remarkable performance.”

McCall also paid tribute to his side’s heroic defensive display as Saracens withstood 32 phases on their line to prevent Leicester scoring what would have been a match-winning try.

“It would have been very difficult for us to have lost at the end but it was a fitting end to the match because it tells you a lot about Leicester; the fact that they were 19-9 down but refused to give up,” added McCall. “But it hopefully tells you something about our squad and our team as well. We refused to yield and fought and fought at the end. We hope that today is the start of something, not the end of something.”

Richard Cockerill, the Leicester director of rugby, conceded that Saracens “probably deserved their victory” but once again pointed a finger at England for Flood’s drop in kicking accuracy.

“He (Toby) went to England with a certain kicking percentage and came back with a different one that was lower,” said Cockerill. “He was not responsible for the result today but that whole issue with his kicking has been a problem ever since the autumn Tests. We lost today but the season was not a disaster.”

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Monaco Grand Prix: Jenson Button hits out at safety following Sergio Perez's horrific crash

Perez was taken to Princesse Grace hospital after his 130mph crash into the safety barriers at the Chicane during qualifying on Saturday.

Sauber’s Mexican rookie escaped with concussion and a sprained thigh but will definitely not race on Sunday as he is kept under observation.

On a day when Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was lucky to walk away from a similar accident, safety was uppermost in drivers’ minds.

For Button, both incidents prompted memories of his crash at the same spot eight years ago which also left him with concussion and out of the race.

David Coulthard also had a memorable accident after losing control at one of the fastest, bumpiest points of the track - a downhill stretch following the exit to the tunnel - while many recalled Karl Wendlinger’s near fatal crash there in 1994, just days after Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger had been killed.

Wendlinger recovered after being placed in an induced coma although his career never did. Former team owner Eddie Jordan believes organisers should now look at that section of the track.

“It’s a tough place to crash,” agreed Button, who will start Sunday’s race from second on the grid.

“Safety has improved a little bit but there’s more work needed. If you have an issue there you are a passenger.

“It’s downhill, it’s bumpy, you lock the rear wheels and you’re in the sidewall.

"You then lose wheels, which loses the braking and you’re running on the car’s belly.

“You’re a sled and the car always aims straight for the barrier. You come off the wall and it pushes you in that direction.”

“Wendlinger had a horrific accident there. When I had my accident they moved the barrier back but we need to take action now and make a big push.

"We love racing and this is a special place but there’s no reason we can’t help safety in that area. “We’ll see what we can do. It’s not over yet.

"We need to look to see what has to be done for the future.”

Button added that his start on Sunday would be crucial to his chances of repeating his memorable win in 2009 after which he parked his car in the wrong place and ran down the start-finish straight to collect his trophy.

“We still have a very good chance of victory here,” Button said. “I need to get a good start and that side [of the grid] a bit tricky because it’s a bit off camber.”

“If I win I’m still parking it in the wrong place and running down the pit lane even if I get told off. That way you can enjoy it with everyone.”

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French Open 2011: Kim Clijsters crashes of Roland Garros following defeat to Dutch world No 118 Arantxa Rus

The world No 2 was playing her first tournament after two months out with an ankle injury and looked rusty in her first-round win over Anastasiya Yakimova.

She seemed to be playing better in the early stages on Thursday but her level dropped midway through the second set and the decider was a horror show from Clijsters, whose first appearance at Roland Garros since 2006 was expected to see her challenge for the title.

Rus, ranked 114th in the world, must have feared the worst when Clijsters raced through the first three games but he dug in and began to trouble her opponent off the ground.

The second seed always had the edge though despite the windy conditions and a run of five hard-fought games in a row gave her the first set, and a 3-0 lead in the second.

Again Rus battled back, and the errors continued to come frequently from the Clijsters racquet, but it always seemed only a matter of time before the 27-year-old strung enough points together to finish things off.

However, after failing to take advantage of a match point at 5-2, she lost six of the next seven points to give her opponent a sniff of a chance, and Rus then saved another match point before levelling proceedings at 5-5.

The 20-year-old was now playing extremely well and she broke Clijsters - whose dream of a third grand slam title in a row was fast fading - for a second successive time before taking the second set with her fifth game in a row.

The Belgian, who did not appear to be moving particularly well, stopped the rot with a gutsy hold at the start of the third set but then let three break points slip away on the Rus serve.

When the Dutchwoman followed up by breaking again, the prospect of an early exit for Clijsters began to look a distinct probability.

The second seed had an outrageous slice of luck when a ball hit the top of the net and then the net post before dropping back into play but any thoughts that might indicate it was her day after all were swiftly dispelled.

A double fault handed Rus a 4-1 lead and she clinched a famous victory and a place in the third round of a grand slam for the first time on her second match point with a backhand winner.

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Manchester City face hard grind to secure Champions League spot following defeat to Everton

For all the money spent by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a talent for making life unnecessarily complicated remains and the next few days will be far more arduous following this defeat.

Victory at Goodison Park would have enabled Roberto Mancini to rest the legs of his key men against Tottenham tomorrow night, with the FA Cup final against Stoke to come on Saturday.

But after surrendering a lead that revealed a worrying weakness for crosses, which will have been noted by Tony Pulis, who could not even venture to the toilet without being grilled by supporters about Matthew Etherington’s hamstring, the visit of Spurs retains important.

It may be a little removed from the Champions League decider that was the penultimate match of last season but there will be no shortage of tension at Eastlands.

Mancini plans to bring Carlos Tévez, sidelined with a hamstring problem since April 11, on for up to half an hour against Harry Redknapp’s side but even that may be thrown into question if the game is not going City’s way.

The City manager, who was involved in an ugly exchange with Phil Neville after the final whistle, maintains that a six-point lead over Tottenham with a vastly superior goal difference and three games remaining means that fourth place is not a major concern.

“I am not worried but I am disappointed because, if we had won this game, [the race for fourth] was finished and we could have prepared very well for the final but now we are thinking only of Tottenham,” Mancini said. But the nature of City’s collapse under Everton’s second-half onslaught – they conceded both goals from headers – will give Rory Delap and Stoke’s own list of potential NBA recruits plenty of encouragement.

Nigel de Jong, who has been nursing a hip problem, is one who might have been spared tomorrow night but the Dutchman is certain that 35 woeful minutes will not disrupt City’s attempts to end their 35-year trophy drought.

“We have now got to grind through the Tottenham game before the Cup final and that will be hard,” De Jong said. “It is our own mistake and we just have to get our heads clear again. This is a very important week for the club, the players and the fans. This is do-or-die for Manchester City. Fourth place is in reach and everything is in our hands.

“We just have to win that game against Tottenham, we then have a chance to be FA Cup winners after 35 years but we just have to learn from this game.

“We just have to think what we did wrong, take the mistakes out and if we do that, we can be in fourth place and FA Cup winners.”

In the opening period at Goodison, the excellent David Silva and Yaya Toure combined to pull the hosts apart regularly and it was they who worked the opener, with the Spaniard slipping through for the Ivorian to finish with a cross-shot.

But again they simply seemed to stop doing what was so productive and Everton forced their way back, with Sylvain Distin heading in from Mikel Arteta’s free-kick and Leon Osman beating Vincent Kompany to glance in from Neville’s cross.

At the final whistle Aleksander Kolarov accused Seamus Coleman of elbowing him, resulting in Mancini and Neville having to be pulled apart as they roared insults at each other.

Moyes has come out on top in each of his four meetings with Mancini and the closest the Italian has come to any sort of victory was ripping the ball from his counterpart’s grasp at Eastlands last season.

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World champion Jessica Ennis voted European athlete of the month following Doha heroics

Jessica Ennis has been voted the European Athlete for March after her victory at the World Indoor Championships in Doha.

The 24-year-old from Sheffield added the pentathlon gold medal to the world outdoor heptathlon title she won in Berlin last August.

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