The muscled youngster who has surged to fifth in the world rankings on a tidal wave of 23 straight clay court wins needs to make it 24 by overcoming the unseeded Argentinian, Mariano Puerta.After what Nadal has accomplished, no big deal surely. The deepening gloom on Court Central which enveloped and finally smothered the Swiss could not have been more appropriate as Nadal somehow managed to create light and space with his nerveless, fearless tennis.So the fairy story of this Roland Garros debutant requires no more than a fairytale finish. The cutting ceremony was performed by Nadal's friend, the Spanish basketball ace Pau Gasol of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies Gasol promised he would be back for this afternoon's final. So will Nadal. The teenager's battalions of well-wishers will be hoping he can go one step further, though not necessarily higher, than the 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-3 crushing of the world No 1, Roger Federer. Man Of The Match: Josh LewseyPound for pound, Lewsey is the most effective back in the four home nations, and his two tries confirmed him as a certainty for Test duty.
Those who suspect full-back suits him better than wing or centre will feel vindicated, not least by the excellence of his finishing.. They launched a wave of attacks - Aleki Lutui, almost a mirror image of the fearsome Wasps hooker Trevor Leota in both style and scale, was a serious handful with the ball tucked under his cavernous armpit - and when O'Gara, desperately weak in defence, found himself swatted aside by another Pacific Islander, Nili Latu, there was nothing to stop the gifted Colin Bourke putting his side on the board.Bourke's try ushered in a deeply uncomfortable period for the Lions. Dallaglio, prominent with ball in hand, twice drove hard in the Bay of Plenty 22 to lay the foundations for a try in the left corner for Lewsey, and when the lightning-quick full-back skinned the big Fijian wing Filimone Bola-vucu to claim a second score in the same area of the field, this long-awaited tour was very much up and running.Dallaglio was heavily involved in the Lions' third try six minutes later, vacuuming up possession at the base of a scruffy Bay of Plenty scrum to send Tom Shanklin away down the left. "When you hear someone like Lawrence complaining of the pain, you just know it's bad."Dallaglio, who was invalided out of the Lions tour of Australia four years ago, was treated at a hospital a few minutes' drive from the stadium. While Sir Clive Woodward and the rest of the tourists' coaching team could not provide a precise diagnosis before leaving to attend the after-match formalities, they saw no point in pretending that he might recover to play an active role later in the tour."He's out for the duration," Woodward said.
"I'm gutted for him, because we'd been talking together about this trip for more than a year and I've never seen him in better shape, physically or mentally. But it's a tough world out there, and people are going to pick up injuries. We have to stop thinking about him and move on quickly."It is certainly true that Woodward has more urgent things to ponder than the misfortunes of a player, albeit a treasured one, whose contribution is at an end. The Lions started brilliantly, clattering along at a point every 45 seconds in the opening 12 minutes, and finished soundly, if less extravagantly.But once the home side settled into a rhythm, they threatened to swamp the tourists. Even before Dalla-glio's catastrophe, they were struggling to cope with the dynamism of Bay of Plenty's attacking game, and in the 15 or so minutes after his departure, defeat was very definitely on the cards.There had been no hint of stormy weather in the opening exchanges. His right foot was a sickening sight, a fractured and dislocated ankle twisting it out of shape and leaving it at the most gruesome of angles."It happened so quickly," O'Driscoll said. But in terms of his impact on the squad, there was more to Dallaglio than mere flesh and blood Infinitely more.
