MARK SELBY TURNED the tables on a frustrated Ronnie O’Sullivan as he fought back to take a 9-7 lead in their World Championship semi-final today.
Selby, who had managed to cling to O’Sullivan’s coattails at 5-3 down by winning the final frame of a difficult first session yesterday, took the first four this afternoon before holding his nerve to win the second and last after the interval for a 6-2 return.
O’Sullivan, who had been decidedly unhappy with the amount of kicks he had suffered on Wednesday, was left shaking his head again as another cost him an easy black when he was in pole position to take the first frame.
Selby eventually got the better of a prolonged bout of safety play to edge himself to within a single frame of the Rocket, and they were level after the next when he put together a break of 97, his highest of the match.
O’Sullivan’s fluency had deserted him and having been among the balls twice only to miss blue and then black, he saw Selby clinch a fourth successive frame to take a 6-5 lead after sinking a fine long red.
He made it a clean sweep before the mid-session interval after O’Sullivan had once again got in first, but it was Selby who faltered on the resumption as his opponent took full advantage of a poor attempt at a red to rattle in a decisive 87 and pull it back to 7-6.
A break of 61 following a missed blue by the Rocket proved sufficient for Selby to restore his two-frame advantage, but after he had left a difficult red in the middle in the 15th, O’Sullivan compiled a run of 82 without reply to peg him back once again.
He was left rapping his knuckles on the table, however, after failing to drop a difficult pink as the session drew to a close, in the process handing Selby the opportunity to make it 9-7 with a break of 76.
In the morning session, Kyren Wilson significantly improved his chances of making it to the final after eradicating Anthony McGill’s 6-2 lead in some style.
The Englishman made two century breaks as he fought back to level the match at 8-8 with McGill managing just 47 pots in the entire session.
Wilson signalled his intent from the off with breaks of 100 and 77 to take the first two frames and although McGill steadied the ship to make it 7-4 and then 8-5, his opponent was not to be denied.
An impressive clearance of 116 after McGill had left a red in the jaws following a re-rack was decisive in the 14th, and the 15th followed courtesy of breaks of 44 and 46 before he wrapped up a good morning’s work with a 76-0 victory in the last of the session.
Somewhere Phil Kearns is having an absolute meltdown about the unfairness of it all…
Great to see Jaguares win, hope they can follow up next week.
Argentina are 50-1 for the world cup! Insane odds given how well the Jaguares are going. Plus they always underperform in the Rugby Championship cos of the distances they have to travel. Given Ireland are 5-1, this seems pretty long for the Argies.
@Farzad Saadat: Pool C will see a big faller at the 1st. France, England and Argentina will be interesting. You’d think France could be the one to miss out but they’ve been ruthless with their squad selection, brought in O’Gara and you only have to look at 2011 when they had no chance and made the final. England could find themselves in a similar fate to 2015, after a great start under Jones they had an awful run of loses. Argentina always peak at world cup time. Exciting!
@RabidHorizon: Did they bring in O’Gara in the end? I thought that was all just rumours in the end
@Eddie Hekenui: No they didn’t in the end
@Ciaran Twomey: Cheers. Thought I might’ve missed the news he’d taken a role with them.
@Farzad Saadat: Madness considering they have knocked us out of 3 of the last 5 RWCs.
@RabidHorizon: they didn’t bring in O’Gara
@RabidHorizon: France brought in much better coaches than O’Gara, they should get a real boost – Labit and Galthié – they picked the right squad, too. I think England could be the team to miss out..
Brumbies should never have made it to a semi. Awful team but get lucky because of how weak their conference is.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL:
Aussie Rugby is in a bad place right now.
Unreal for the sport!! Makes the competition a whole lot more competitive! Will be interesting to see how far Argentina go at the WC.
@Aaron Tynan: Further than us, I fear.
@Bluepoolroad: draw kinder to them I think than Ireland – SA or NZ is a tough 1/4
The second semi just finished. Cracking game. 30-26 crusaders.
That jaguares kit is lovely
@Eoin Murphy: i wonder where one could buy it?
@Tony Stack: https://www.elverys.ie/elverys/en/search?text=jaguares
Great. When Argentina played in the November series against Ireland. Which i went too. It was the Jaguares team.
Jags play flat and pass wonderfully, it’s great to watch. The crowd was brilliant too.
I think the Crusaders will have too much for them at home, but I’d love to see the Jags win it.
Where’s the final taking place?
@Bluepoolroad: crusaders ground
@Bluepoolroad: Crusaders home stadium in Christchurch, super rugby needs to start playing them in neutral venues, even if it’s in the higher ranked clubs home country. Home stadium advantage is a bit much for a final.
@Con Al: The problem is distances. Say Cape Town was this year’s venue, how many Jaguares and Crusaders supporters are going to make it at a weeks notice? Stadium would be near empty. At least in the current system, one set of supporters see the final and home advantage is based on merit earned during the season. Not perfect, but understandable system