• David James trains as talks over Stoke loan deal continue
• Fans expected to march on Fratton Park ahead of FA Cup tie

Stricken Portsmouth were today hoping that interest from the club’s former manager Harry Redknapp in taking Younes Kaboul back to White Hart Lane would solidify into a £10m offer.

The complicated deal would be offset by £2m still owed by Portsmouth on the £4m deal that took the player to Fratton Park in 2008 and a £1.5m sell-on clause, but could still make a material difference to efforts to lift the transfer ban imposed on the club by the Premier League.

The ban will not be lifted until the Premier League is certain that Portsmouth have reached agreement with Udinese, who have reported the south coast club to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over a missing payment due on the purchase of Sulley Muntari in 2007.

Goalkeeper David James trained with Portsmouth today as talks continued over a possible loan move to Stoke City, while Mike Williamson was finalising his move to Newcastle United.

Hundreds of Portsmouth fans are tomorrow expected to march on Fratton Park ahead of their FA Cup tie with Sunderland, calling on the club’s owners to “pay up or sell up”.

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• Prop ‘did not do anything intentional’
• Case may go to French governing bodies

The Stade Français prop David Attoub has launched an appeal against the 70-week ban he received this week for gouging the eyes of the Ulster flanker Stephen Ferris last month. Even if the appeal fails, he hopes to be allowed to play in France before the end of his suspension in April next year.

Attoub says that if his appeal fails – his club colleague Julien Dupuy only secured a one-week reduction on a technicality after appealing against a six-month ban for making contact with Ferris’s eyes in the same Heineken Cup match – he will take his case to the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. Under French law, LNR has to ratify any suspension handed out ­outside France. It has the power to quash or reduce a ban, but if it does so the player concerned is only able to play in France. If LNR upholds the sanctions against Dupuy and Attoub, the players will be able to take their cases to the Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français. Last year, the CNOSF allowed the Perpignan hooker Marius Tincu to play in the Top 14 after he received an 18-week ban for ­gouging in a Heineken Cup match against the Ospreys.

“Seventy weeks is hard to understand and I had the same judge [Jeff Blackett] who heard the Tincu and Dupuy cases,” said Attoub. “We are going to appeal to European Rugby Cup Ltd. Then we will turn to the LNR and then to the CNOSF. I did not do anything intentionally.”

The LNR president, Pierre-Yves Revol, said his organisation was studying Attoub’s case. He also said the ban would not automatically be applied in France. Stade Français have criticised the punishments given to Dupuy and Attoub, claiming the players have been the victims of British injustice.

“We are awaiting the outcome of the appeal,” said Revol. “There is a ­procedure for applying an ERC [European Rugby Cup] suspension to a ­particular country. The LNR will have to reprocess this file and reconsider it. This will happen after the outcome of the appeal is known. What is certain is that this decision does not automatically extend to national territory. It will be the subject of careful examination.”

The International Rugby Board set up a working party last year after the Tincu case and a consequence of its report is that the French Rugby Federation will have to fight ERC’s case before the LNR and, if necessary, the CNOSF, which in the past has ruled that long suspensions impinge on the right of a player to earn a living. If Dupuy and Attoub earn reprieves, the IRB’s disciplinary system, which sees a player banned from all tournaments, not just the one he offended in, will need to be reviewed.

England, meanwhile, will play four autumn Tests this year, with all three major southern-hemisphere nations coming to Twickenham. The game against New Zealand on 4 December will be played outside the international window but the Rugby Football Union will have no problem getting players released, because of the deal with Premier Rugby which allows for a fourth Test every two years.

Australia, as they did last November, will start the autumn schedule, followed by Samoa, who will be making their first appearance at Twickenham for five years, and South Africa. The All Blacks will finish off what will be a demanding series for Martin Johnson’s men less than a year before the start of World Cup in New Zealand.

England’s autumn international schedule Australia (13 November), Samoa (20 November), South Africa (27 November), New Zealand (4 December).

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• Johnson ‘out to leave a mark on this competition’
• Tigers’ Murphy wants to ‘make experience count’

The Ospreys are determined to shake off the tag of Heineken Cup chokers and they know they can start to do so by beating Leicester at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow afternoon. The winners will be guaranteed a place in the quarter-finals, though the Ospreys made that stage in the last two seasons only to lose meekly, first at ­Saracens and then in Munster.

The Welsh region beat Leicester at home in the final group match last season, but the Tigers needed only a bonus point to top the pool, which they achieved in a dour and ill-tempered match. The ­Guinness Premiership champions were the last team to beat the Ospreys in the Heineken Cup at the Liberty Stadium, 13 matches ago, in 2005.

“We want to leave a mark on this ­competition,” said the Ospreys’ director of rugby, Scott Johnson. “Leicester and Munster have done that over the years, able to win on their travels, and it is important that we meet that standard. I struggle with a mentality in Wales that you cannot do things: my view is that any human can do anything. We control our own destiny and we will go into the game determined to have a crack, out to win it rather than not to lose it.”

The two sides drew in their first group match, at Welford Road last October, when Billy Twelvetrees inspired a Leicester fightback that had seemed unlikely when they were trailing 26-8. The Tigers were then struggling with injuries, to the extent of having to move a back-rower into the centre during the game. The Ospreys were also a few regulars light.

“There is nothing for anyone to take from that match because the circumstances are totally different now,” said Johnson. “I always thought it would come down to this game and we know what we have to do. Leicester’s threat is well known, a strong forward base and dangerous backs. They are a quality side but so are we. When you put a big fish on the line you get to see the best or worst of people. This is a grand final come early and we will not be going into our shells.”

Shane Williams and James Hook return from injury to sharpen the Ospreys’ backs. Leicester have ­chosen the Irishman Johne Murphy on the right wing instead of Alesana Tuilagi and ­Jeremy Staunton will partner Dan Hipkiss in the midfield, with Aaron Mauger on the bench.

“I think it could come down to which team makes its experience count,” said Murphy. “We have been in this position before and prevailed. The more people write you off, the bigger the challenge. If you want to go all the way in this ­competition, you have to be able to pick up huge away victories and this will be like a cup final with the winner taking all.

“The Ospreys are known for their attacking rugby, but if we shut them down at nine and 10 we will be able to stifle their outside backs. Defence will be huge, but if we get our attacking game going and score a couple of tries, the chance of winning the group will be there.”

The match is unlikely to be a sell-out – some 7,000 tickets were still to be sold today, a sign that regional rugby in Wales is still finding its way and a reflection, perhaps, of the Ospreys’ past failures in the tournament. The home team’s ­captain, Ryan Jones, who will lead Wales in the Six Nations, said the lessons of ­fruitless campaigns had been learned.

“At this level there is little between teams and the margins are small,” said Jones. “We know each other inside out and it will come down to the bounce of the ball or a mistake. We will come out fighting and play exciting rugby, but we must keep our composure and take our opportunities. This sort of fixture is why you play rugby.”

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An epochal battle here as the oldest league club in the land host one of the youngest in Wigan Athletic. Achieving in double time the Latic’s nine-year climb from league basement to attic was just one of the ambitious goals of Notts County’s former owners, Qadbak and Swiss Commodity Holding. The latter’s logo remains part of the League Two club’s crest, despite Peter Trembling’s £1 management buyout. To progress perhaps the new owner needs to crank up the hubris and affect a move from Meadow Lane to the Peter Trembling Stadium in the same style as the Wigan chairman Dave Whelan. Mikey Stafford

Venue Meadow Lane

Ref M Clattenburg

Odds Notts County 4-1 Wigan 3-5 Draw 13-5

Head to head Notts County wins 5 Wigan wins 12 Draws 10

Notts County

Subs from Hoult, Pilkington, Facey, Rodgers, Clapham, Edwards, Hamshaw, Akinbiyi, Fairclough

Unavailable Canham

Wigan

Subs from Kirkland, Pollitt, Gohouri, Amaya, Koumas, Gómez, Sinclair, Boyce, Bouaouzan, Edman

Doubtful Scharner (ankle)

Suspended Thomas

Match pointers

Lee Hughes has scored 10 goals in his last eight appearances for Notts County. Wigan’s last seven away matches have produced an average of 4.6 goals per game.

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• Englishman says his clubs ‘felt like fishing rods’
• Australian wild card takes one-stroke, halfway lead

Lee Westwood, winner of the Dubai World Championship, said his clubs “felt like fishing rods” after missing the cut at the Abu Dhabi Championship today.

The British world No4 shot a disappointing 78 in the second round, putting him three over and ensuring an early end to his tournament. Australia’s Rick Kulacz, on 12 under, holds a one-stroke lead.

Westwood, who achieved a European Tour double in November by winning the season-ending Dubai World Championship and the overall money-list title, was left wondering if his equipment supplier, Ping, had fitted all his clubs with the wrong shafts.

“They just don’t feel right and they don’t feel the same, and I don’t know if they’ve put the wrong shafts in or whatever,” the Englishman said. “So I will probably get a new set sent out and reshaft the lot over the weekend to see if that does any good. They just feel like fishing rods.”

Westwood quashed suggestions that missing the cut in the UAE event was a reality check after his strong finish last year. Westwood produced a dominating end to 2009 to claim a second Order of Merit title and he headed to Abu Dhabi as one of the obvious favourites.

But after being forced to put a new set of irons in his bag to comply with the changed rules regarding grooves following a six-week Christmas break, Westwood carded six over par to miss the cut by five shots with six bogeys spread across his card. “It’s just a bit of rust,” said Westwood.

The little-known Kulacz had 11 birdies in a nine-under-par, second-round 63 to take the halfway lead. The 24-year-old, born in Perth, secured limited playing rights on the European Tour with a final-round 64 at Qualifying School last year – a round he rates as his best ever given what was at stake – but was given a spot in the field this week via a sponsors’ invite.

Twice a winner on the Asian Tour, he took full advantage to charge up the leader­board clear of Sergio García, Shane Lowry and Peter Hanson.

While Kulacz’s score, a figure Paul Casey also posted en route to winning last year, is an achievement in itself, it is made the more remarkable given he was so unhappy with his pre-tournament practice he needed a phone call to his coach back home on Wednesday to iron out the flaws in his game.

“I was just in the zone. I tried to get it on the green and every putt went in, it was one of those days where everything went right,” said Kulacz, who dropped only one shot in his first-round 69.

“That round is definitely top five in my career. I think the one at Q School was better under the circumstances; to get to Europe was pretty special.”

Kulacz shot a final-round 65 to come back from four behind to win the New South Wales Open as an amateur in 2006 and claimed his first win as a professional thanks to a chip in on the first play-off hole at the 2008 Brunei Open.

“I will have to see if I can deal with the pressure, it’s a totally different story than Q School,” Kulacz said.

Lowry, the Irish Open champion, carded a bogey-free seven-under-par 65, the world No13, García, dropped one shot in a 67 and Sweden’s Hanson went one better with a flawless five-under-par second round over the National Course at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

The former champion and last year’s runner-up, Martin Kaymer (67), the Englishman Chris Wood, who had a bogey-free 64 and the Welshman Rhys Davies (68) are a further shot off the pace, with Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter in a group on nine under.

Casey, the defending champion, beat the cut with a 69 and the Italian amateur Matteo Manassero, the British Amateur champion, also advanced after he birdied the last to make an even-par 72.

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• French side know a big win against Castres would be enough
• Leeds must also better French rivals to progress

Saracens, frontrunners for much of the Premiership season, could be knocked out of the Amlin Challenge Cup tomorrow – with the club’s own former favourite Kris Chesney helping to plot their exit. Saracens are expected to beat their Italian hosts Rovigo and secure a bonus point at the 5,000-capacity Stadio Mario Battaglini, but still will not qualify for the quarter-finals if Toulon, Chesney’s current side, record a five-point maximum at home to Castres.

Should Saracens and Toulon finish tied on points in Pool Three, then Saracens will progress because they have a better points difference over the two pool fixtures between the clubs.

Chesney, now playing alongside his fellow Englishmen Jonny Wilkinson and Tom May at Toulon, is keen to eliminate his former club. “Saracens will be looking for four tries in their match with Rovigo,” said Chesney. “And although I would like to say ‘no’ as to whether they would get those tries, they are such a good outfit you would be surprised if they did not get them. For both me personally and for Toulon as a club, one of our aims at the start of the season was to qualify for the Challenge Cup quarter-finals so that would be one box ticked. I definitely think with the quality of players we have got and the rugby we are playing we are genuine contenders. We would be extremely disappointed if we don’t get to the quarter-finals.”

The scrum-halves Neil de Kock and Justin Marshall miss Saracens’ trip to Italy because of slight knocks, so the Fijian Moses Rauluni will wear the No9 shirt. Full-back Chris Wyles, wing Richard Haughton, centre Adam Powell, prop Tom Mercey and lock Mouritz Botha are expected to start in a side captained by the England skipper and lock Steve Borthwick.

Leeds must also overcome French rivals to progress, in their case from Pool One, though they are actually playing Bourgoin, in Yorkshire on Sunday. The clubs are level on 19 points, setting up a group decider with a quarter-final place – and probable home draw – as the prize. “You never plan for these things, but as the group developed we became aware there was always the possibility that it could come down to the last game between ourselves and Bourgoin,” said the Leeds director of rugby, Andy Key.

“We are delighted we’ve put ourselves in that position, and even more pleased that we are playing such an important game at home. It promises to be an old-fashioned cup game with the winner progressing to the quarter-finals. We are really looking forward to it. With only the top team in each pool going through to the knockout stages, that has given the competition an extra edge, and now with the three teams from the Heineken Cup joining the quarter-finals it has given the next round an extra kudos. It would be fantastic if we could win on Sunday and book a home tie in the last eight against one of the giants of European rugby, but we have a big job on our hands first of all.”

Leeds have made four changes from the side that defeated Parma last weekend, and they are all up-front with starts for the props Mike MacDonald and Juan Gomez, lock Erik Lund and flanker Kearnan Myall. Connacht – the tournament’s only unbeaten team – will progress as top seeds tomorrow if they beat Spanish minnows Olympus Madrid.

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• Scot beaten by Dinara Safina in under an hour
• ‘I’ll build on this for rest of year,’ says 26-year-old

Elena Baltacha admitted her disappointment at losing to the second seed Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-2 in less than an hour but said her run at Melbourne Park could act as a spur to a rise in the rankings this year.

The British No1 could not cope with the power of last year’s runner-up on the Rod Laver Arena and the swift defeat meant she was unable to surpass her best ever showing at a grand slam, having reached the third round of this tournament in 2005 and at Wimbledon two years ago.

“It was difficult,” said the 26-year-old Scot. “It was a great experience for me to play the world No2. All credit to Safina – I think she played really well today. Overall it was a little bit disappointing because I would have liked to have played a little better. I did under-perform. I didn’t show her the tennis I know I can play.

“I’ve got to look on it in a very positive way – I’ve made the third round this week and I earned my place on Rod Laver today to play Safina. I’m proud of that.

“The start of the year has been fantastic. It’s a complete and utter positive, it’s just the start of 2010 and I’ve got the rest of the year to build on it.”

Baltacha, who was born in Ukraine, reached a career-high ranking of 83 last week and that is set to climb after her performance in Melbourne, which included a second-round win over the 30th seed Kateryna Bondarenko.

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Monday’s 2-2 draw at St James’ Park and a stalemate on the opening day of the season have not resolved the tussle for superiority between these sides in the league this season. Both managers will hope for a conclusive outcome in the cup. Chris Hughton’s Newcastle needed a replay against Plymouth to reach this round, while Roberto Di Matteo’s West Brom beat Huddersfield in 90 minutes. However, the Baggies have recently slipped from the Championship’s automatic promotion places; their focus may wander from this tie to a critical midweek league trip to Ipswich. Jonny Weeks

Venue The Hawthorns

Ref J Linnington

Odds West Brom 7-5 Newcastle 17-10 Draw 11-5

Head to head West Brom wins 42 Newcastle wins 41 Draws 30

West Brom

Subs from Kiely, Mattock, Barnett, Miller, Moore, Teixeira, Martis, Zuiverloon, Cox

Injured Morrison (heel)

Unavailable Méïté

Newcastle

Subs from Harper, Barton, Guthrie, Smith, LuaLua, Simpson, Ranger, Tozer, Kadar

Doubtful Simpson

Unavailable Lovenkrands

Match pointers

West Bromwich have won one of their last four home matches. The last time these sides met in the FA Cup (1974) Newcastle won 3-0 and went on to reach the final.

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Snowboarding, skiing, bobsleighing hero follows success of Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn’s Beijing Olympics monkey

The BBC is to promote its Winter Olympics coverage with an animated clip featuring an Inuit hero on a mission, after the success of the monkey cartoon that backed the broadcast of the Beijing Olympics.

The 40-second clip will break tonight on BBC1, as the corporation starts promoting its forthcoming coverage of the Winter Olympics, which begin in Vancouver on 12 February.

The idea for the clip was developed by ad agency RKCR, which also came up with the strategy that resulted in monkey animation developed by Gorillaz creator Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn.

The clip was developed by Marc Craste – the animator behind Lloyd’s TSB’s commercials featuring a cutesy family – of agency Studio AKA, with production by Red Bee Media. It tells the story of an Inuit hero who goes on a quest to recover a stolen stone who overcomes obstacles by using a snowboard, skis, bobsleigh and curling.

“Following the success of the Beijing Olympics monkey campaign our aim was to once again reach a younger audience while reflecting the national heritage of the host country,” said Louisa Fyans, head of marketing and communications at BBC Sport.

The BBC is also using the theme of the promotion in the title sequences of its Olympics coverage. The animated trail will also be supported by a wider campaign that will include radio and online advertising.

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Arsène Wenger started to sound a bit envious when he discussed Manchester United’s elimination from the FA Cup. The Arsenal manager may fear the effects of a busy programme and he will know what to expect at the Britannia Stadium. The Stoke striker Ricardo Fuller confirmed it with his claim that the visitors cannot “deal with the aggressive play”. Arsenal did lose 2-1 at Stokein the Premier League last season, but Wenger’s team has improved since then. His main problem may be deciding how strong a line-up to send out in the Cup. Kevin McCarra

Venue Britannia Stadium

Ref M Atkinson

Odds Stoke 16-5 Arsenal 4-5 Draw 9-4

Head to head Stoke wins 21 Arsenal wins 47 Draws 21

Stoke

Subs from Simonsen, Whelan, Fuller, Kitson, Pugh, Delap, Ab Faye, Collins, Am Faye

Doubtful Delap, Am Faye

Injured Beattie (knee)

Arsenal

Subs from Almunia, Gallas, Senderos, Vermaelen, Traoré, Fábregas, Arshavin, Mérida, Eduardo

Doubtful Mérida, Campbell, Senderos

Injured Bendtner (groin), Diaby (calf), Djourou (knee), Gibbs (foot), Nasri (hamstring), Ramsey (thigh), Sagna (shoulder), Van Persie (ankle)

Unavailable Song, Eboué

Match pointers

Stoke have lost all seven of their previous FA Cup meetings with Arsenal. The visitors have participated in the fourth round of the FA Cup in every season since 1996-97.

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