While Gateshead's favourite son Brendan Foster confined himself to running around his local athletics stadium Lam stampeded all over it covering every square

While Gateshead's favourite son, Brendan Foster, confined himself to running around his local athletics stadium, Lam stampeded all over it, covering every square metre of turf in a startling display of muscular ball-carrying "He's our cutting edge," said Andrew. Arnold and Garforth were "at it" throughout the first half and the violent undercurrent surfaced with a vengeance after the break as Newcastle's unashamedly physical pack turned the screw.One member of that pack, Pat Lam, was as outstanding as he was blameless. He also delivered a well-chosen barb in the direction of the Premiership favourites. "For some reason, there is a problem every time we play them," he said.And sure enough, there were problems aplenty. Both Leicester props, Graham Rowntree and Darren Garforth, found themselves on the wrong end of yellow cards, as did Richard Arnold, the Newcastle flanker. However, the accepted rule of thumb - or, in this instance, rule of head - is that butting carries a 60-day suspension, a penalty that would inevitably put England's most creative midfield talent out of the southern hemisphere sojourn.If Dean Richards was not entirely happy with his side's discipline, while insisting - with a slightly unfortunate choice of words - that Greenwood was "not one of the game's head cases", the Leicester coach acknowledged a more general lack of compusure; he was none too happy with the refereeing, either.

Had it not been for the earlier punch-up, I'm sure Ed would have taken him to one side and told him not to be so daft."Like everything else in English rugby, disciplinary procedures are in a state of such flux that it is next to impossible to second-guess the outcome of Greenwood's untimely predicament. "I'd speak up for Will if asked, of course I would; there was nothing full-blooded about it and anyway, it was completely out of character. Will Greenwood, Leicester's stylish and prodigiously gifted international centre, may or may not have succeeded in ruling himself out of the summer trip by landing a half-hearted head-butt on Newcastle's stand-off and director of rugby, Rob Andrew, in the closing seconds of yesterday's combustible contest at Gateshead. But, whatever the severity of his punishment, his imaginative approach made a refreshing change from the usual pleas of burn-out and injury. Greenwood "walked" as the clock ticked over into injury time. Newcastle had already secured two priceless Premiership points - paid for in blood and sweat, if not tears - when Ed Morrison, generally regarded as the world's leading referee, spotted the 25-year-old Lion connecting with Andrew as the dust settled on another bone-shaking ruck.Six minutes previously, Morrison had issued a general warning to the two captains after a humdinger of a set-to between the packs."It was pretty innocuous, more a kiss than a butt, but I'm afraid Ed had little choice, given the fact that he had just announced 'the next one goes' edict," said Andrew. He was released on a free transfer from Goodison Park in March. Stoke's caretaker manager, Alan Durban, confirmed his spell in charge was over after Sunday's 5-2 defeat by Manchester City that sealed their fate.

Southall has already been in discussions with the board at the Britannia stadium."I want to stay at Stoke and I want to play for the club," Southall said. "I would like the job as manager, but there would have to be changes. But any time a club goes down there is always a change of personnel."Southall was signed as a player-coach by Chris Kamara before the former Bradford City manager left after just 14 matches in charges without having achieved a victory.Bradford City are trying to sign the full-back Chris Short, soon to be out of contract at from Sheffield United, on a free transfer.West Ham have agreed to sign the French international midfielder Marc Keller from the German club Karlsruhe on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling. The 30-year-old, who hopes to be included in the French squad for the World Cup, has signed a four-year contract due to start in July.Alex Ferguson has watched the Cameroon international, Marc Vivien Foe of Lens. The Manchester United manager saw him in action in Saturday's French Cup final in Paris.Foe, who can play midfield or defence, was on the losing side as Lens went down 2-1 to Paris St-Germain.Sky Sports will broadcast Ipswich against Charlton in the first leg of the First Division play-off semi-finals on Sunday at 1pm. At 4pm, Sky will simultaneously screen Everton's vital Premiership home game with Coventry and Chelsea against Bolton from Stamford Bridge on different channels.. TIME will tell whether snooker has entered a new era, but it felt like it last night when John Higgins won his first Embassy World Championship By doing so he overtook Stephen Hendry as the world No 1.