Flintoff ready for Lancashire comeback

• Clamp down follows yellow card leniency in Tri-Nations
• Lewis Moody admits to 'butterflies' after joining Bath

Premiership referees will be told to clamp down on spear tackles this season and send off players for the offence rather than showing a yellow card, as has been the case in this year's Tri-Nations.

Two South African backs and the Australia outside-half, Quade Cooper, have been banned this month after being cited for spear tackles. Cooper and the Springboks' centre, Jaque Fourie, were shown yellow cards, only to be suspended after being later cited, while the South Africa wing Jean de Villiers went unpunished during the Wellington Test against New Zealand only to receive a two-week ban afterwards.

Citing commissioners are supposed to take action if they feel offences warrant a red card, raising the question why spear tacklers have not been sent off in the Tri-Nations. With the three matches so far refereed by Irishmen, it is not a hemisphere issue.

"Our policy has been that spear tackling warrants a red card and that remains the case," said Jeff Blackett, the Rugby Football Union's chief disciplinary officer. "I will be speaking with Ed Morrison [the RFU's referees' manager] before the start of the season to reinforce that.

"I do not know why the offences in the Tri-Nations have so far only merited yellow cards. It may be because referees and their assistants only saw the incidents for a fleeting moment and did not feel they had the necessary evidence to justify a red card. The citing system means that there will always be a follow-up.

"We regard spear tackling as a serious, dangerous offence and I believe the right decisions were reached by the disciplinary panels that considered the three citings this month. Our message to referees is that it is an offence that warrants a straight red card and players who dump an opponent on his head in the Premiership can expect to be banned."

Lewis Moody will start the Premiership campaign in the unfamiliar colours of Bath after spending 14 years with Leicester. The flanker admitted he had taken himself out of his comfort zone and added he had not heard whether he would be captaining England in the autumn after leading the side in their last three matches.

"I knew everything and everyone at Leicester and I had butterflies when I started with Bath," Moody said. "It was totally out of my comfort zone and you almost have to start again. Because it is such a great chapter of my life I'll always remember everything about Leicester, but now it's time to move on and be part of something else, something special I hope.

"I loved being England captain during the tour to Australia in June but I have to earn my spot in the team next season. If Martin Johnson still wants me to be captain and feels I am up to the job, I would like to do it again. Johnno never gives much away and you have to be the best player you can be."

One of England's successes on the Australia tour, the Leicester second row Geoff Parling, will miss the November internationals at Twickenham after having surgery on a neck problem he sustained during the trip.

"Geoff had a disc problem in his neck and has had a procedure to take some pressure off the nerves," said the Leicester director of rugby, Richard Cockerill. "He will be out of action for between 12 and 16 weeks and it is hugely disappointing. After breaking into the England team and doing well, he will not have an immediate opportunity to follow it up."

Leicester will be without another second row, Richard Blaze, until December and Cockerill is considering making an injury-dispensation signing allowed under the salary cap rules.

• Deciding to split with Miles Maclagan 'wasn't that tough'
• 'I want to get to No1 in the world' says Murray

Andy Murray is hoping the appointment of a new coach can help him make a major breakthrough after revealing a difference of opinion was behind this week's split with Miles Maclagan.

The world No4 announced the end of his two and a half years with Maclagan on Tuesday. It is believed the former Great Britain Davis Cup player was unhappy with the involvement of Alex Corretja as a part-time coaching consultant. But Murray considers the Spaniard a valuable part of his team and it was Maclagan who ended up leaving his post.

Murray said: "It obviously was a hard decision and one that wasn't the nicest thing to have to take. It wasn't that tough to make up my mind because we were quite far apart in what we thought. Between the three of us, we obviously had different ideas and different ways of seeing things – what I felt was beneficial to me and what Miles and Alex felt was beneficial to me."

The timing is not ideal, with Murray preparing for the American hard-court stretch leading up to the US Open, the event he considers offers his best chance of grand slam success.

The Scot recently changed his plans, cutting short his training block in Miami and accepting a wild card into the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles this week. Murray opens his campaign in the early hours of tomorrow morning with a second-round clash against the American qualifier Tim Smyczek. It will be the Scot's first match since his Wimbledon semi‑final defeat by Rafael Nadal.

It has been a strange season for the British No1, who began the year by reaching his second grand slam final at the Australian Open before a slump that continued all the way until Wimbledon. Murray's run at the All England Club was a welcome turnaround in form but the straight-sets loss to Nadal in a match in which he did not play at all badly would have given him plenty of food for thought.

The 23-year-old is desperate to break his major duck and is hopeful a change of coach can help him get closer to Nadal, the world No1, and the 16-times grand slam champion Roger Federer. He continued: "The last few years have gone very, very well but I want to try and get to No1 in the world and try to win grand slams. I don't think I need to make huge changes in my game. I just need to become a better player all around. I had good results against Federer. I've beaten Nadal a couple of times in slams.

"I think it is easy to start over-thinking and over-analysing things. I don't think there is a problem in my game. I need to get better. That is something that hasn't happened in the last four or five months, something that hopefully by getting a new coach and a new coaching team in place, that will help me do that and achieve my goals."

The Australian Darren Cahill, who is a former coach of Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt, has already been linked with the post. He should begin life post-Maclagan with a win against the world No192 Smyczek, although the 22-year-old has already claimed four impressive wins in Los Angeles and the Scot is taking nothing for granted.

"He is playing some of the best tennis of his career," Murray said. "He is very quick and doesn't make too many mistakes. He is going to make it difficult for me."

• Stand-in coach urges league leaders to avoid errors
• Greg Eastwood's return to Australia may need contract buy-out

Shaun Wane will remind the Wigan players of the pain they have suffered at Headingley this season when he takes charge of the team for the second time in tomorrow night's Super League blockbuster at Leeds.

Wane, a former Wigan forward who has been on the club's coaching staff for several years, had extra responsibility thrust upon him last week when Michael Maguire returned home to Australia to be with his ill father, who died on Tuesday.

He enjoyed a dream debut in the hot seat with a 46-0 romp at Hull last Friday that re-established Wigan's four-point lead at the top of the table. Another win at Leeds would virtually guarantee Wigan finish top for the first time in a decade, if it is followed by a St Helens win at second-placed Warrington on Saturday night.

Wane's emphasis this week has been on the most costly of the five defeats the Warriors have suffered this season, when Lee Smith's late try secured a 12-10 win for Leeds in the Challenge Cup quarter-final that shattered Wigan's hopes of a first Wembley appearance since 1998.

"That defeat in the cup game still sticks in the throat," Wane admitted. "It could have gone either way, and it was just a simple error that let us down. I'm big on not making simple errors at the play-the-ball and in contact. We've been hammering the point this week."

Wigan's win at Hull allowed Leeds to climb into the top four for the first time this season by beating Salford last Sunday, and the champions should be much stronger with the return of Rob Burrow, Jamie Peacock and Keith Senior. But they are still missing Greg Eastwood, the New Zealand forward who is recovering from a knee injury and whose desire to return to Australia at the end of the season was finally confirmed today.

However, he may have to buy out the remaining two years of his contract after his former club Canterbury dismissed the idea of paying the £100,000 transfer fee that Leeds are demanding. "Last time I looked, we're not the Commonwealth Bank," said Canterbury's chief executive, Todd Greenberg.

Hull KR have confirmed that they are one of four Super League clubs to have expressed an interest in signing the colourful Australian forward Willie Mason for next season. Mason is hoping to secure a new two-year contract with the North Queensland Cowboys, whom he joined last winter from the Sydney Roosters, but said: "If not, it's a big world. I've got several options."

• Injury to favourite Age Of Aquarius overshadows big race
• Illustrious Blue's win is his sixth success at Goodwood

Local knowledge was a precious commodity here today as Illustrious Blue, a horse with six previous course victories to his name, took the Goodwood Cup, while Borderlescott, a former Stewards' Cup winner, won the big sprint. An abiding image, though, was of Age Of Aquarius, the Goodwood Cup favourite, coming to a standstill after suffering an injury at the top of the straight.

Age Of Aquarius was in front and still going strongly when Johnny Murtagh felt him go lame and pulled him up. The four-year-old was taken to Arundel Equine Hospital, where it was found he had ruptured ligaments below the fetlock of his off-fore.

Dr Paul Dupreez, senior partner at the hospital, said last night: "He's fine and on his way home, supported by a splint and bandages. It's not a catastrophic injury, but there are huge doubts as to if he will be able to get back to competitive action."

As the odds-on favourite dropped through the field, Illustrious Blue, who is trained barely 10 miles from Goodwood at Angmering Park near Arundel, was going better than anything on the track he knows so well. It took him a while to master Electrolysercorrect inside the final furlong, but he was well on top at the line. Electrolyser was a length and a quarter away in second, with Purple Moon, a former Ebor winner, back in third.

William Knight, Illustrious Blue's trainer, was saddling the first Group Two winner of his career, and could not let the injury to Age Of Aquarius tarnish the moment. "He's shown today that he's one of the best stayers around, and the plan to come to his favourite track has paid off," Knight said.

"When you're a hold-up horse you need a nice long straight to make up ground, and at Goodwood he's able to wind himself up with enough time to get to the post. It wasn't nice to see the Aidan [O'Brien] horse go lame like that but, without wanting to appear arrogant, I thought we would win from four furlongs out. He was always going to get there."

Today's race also marked the retirement of Caracciola, at 13 years of age and after a 60-race career that has included victory in the 2008 Cesarewitch, the 2009 Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot, in a Listed race at York and wins over hurdles and fences.

Borderlescott will attempt to win the Nunthorpe Stakes at York for the third year running next month after recording his first success of the season in the Group Two King George Stakes.

Robin Bastiman's sprinter came with his familiar late charge, though with the unfamiliar figure of Kieren Fallon in the saddle, in place of the suspended Neil Callan. One bookmaker now makes Fallon odds-on to retain the ride in the Nunthorpe, as the jockey seeks his first British Group One victory since returning from a long suspension nearly 11 months ago.

"He's eight now and you are always thinking 'when is he going to lose that bit of dash?'" Bastiman said. "But he's coming to hand as he always does at this time of year. He's getting a bit older and it takes a bit longer to wind him up but, once he gets wound up, he goes. The engine is still there, and that's the main thing."

Bastiman added: "Kieren rode him to perfection, just how we wanted. I'm sorry for Neil, who missed the ride because of a one-day ban at a Mickey Mouse meeting, which seems very unfair. I'll have to talk to the owner about who rides at York. Maybe we'll just have to toss a coin to decide."

Richard Hughes extended his lead as the week's top rider when Kalahaag took the fillies' maiden, while Mark Johnston, who has suffered several near misses so far at this year's Glorious Goodwood, finally saddled a winner when Eastern Aria came clear of Polly's Mark in the Group Three Lillie Langtry Stakes.