Post by Taxigirl on Nov 8, 2003 10:32:58 GMT
As the action heats up in Australia, so the Rugby World Cup takes up more space in Saturday's UK sports pages.
The Daily Express announces the arrival of the quarter-final stages of the tournament, with the headline "Then there were eight".
And of the eight teams left, England, unsurprisingly, claim the most column inches.
The favourites line up against Wales on Sunday and the Independent voices its concerns over the pressures on Jonny Wilkinson.
It feels "England's stand-off's obsession with perfection in danger of becoming self-destructive burden because of pressure to succeed".
Another in the England camp feeling the strain is captain Martin Johnson, and The Times go full-frontal with a close-up on his furrowed brow and the caption "This time it's serious".
It certainly is. In fact, it is "a weekend to set boots on fire", according to The Telegraph.
It anticipates this weekend's action being "violent and beautiful, ferocious and graceful, pitiless and pretty".
The same could be applied to the action likely to occur in north London on Saturday, where Arsenal play rivals Tottenham.
Especially since the Daily Express says Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has been wondering "Where did it all go wrong?" for THFC.
He believes the clubs have the same resources, yet Arsenal have out-performed their neighbours in his trophy-filled seven-year tenure.
Rubbing salt in the wounds? Wenger may have usurped Sol Campbell as the new white Hart Lane hate figure.
Speaking of little love lost, the Daily Mail says Mark Viduka will be dropped for the second time in eight days after a training ground bust up with his Leeds boss Peter Reid.
The paper says that Viduka stirred things up by telling team-mates: "If you want to go down, stick with this fella".
But does he really mean it, or is it an elaborate way of getting some time off to watch his home nation Australia take on Scotland in their Rugby World Cup quarter-final?