01/02/2014 Saturday Sportsday

This is out of this board stay. News, reviews and more coming up. --

Saturday Sportsday. 22 pack in over the next 15 minutes.

Some early kick-offs in the Premier League and Championship and I have

updates on those but here is what is coming up. The six Nations

Championship starts today. The champions are favourites to lift the

trophy once again despite the shaky foundations of the club game. The

Winter Olympics start next week and we meet a gay athletes heading to

Sochi with the Russian authorities standing by their controversial new

laws on homosexuality. And will it be a big freeze for the big game in

American football? It is certainly a wintry first for the Super Bowl this

weekend. All that come but here are the headlines. Ashley Giles is the

leading contender to take over from Andy Flower. England gave a news

Conference confirming that Alistair Cook will be remaining as captain.

Giles is currently coaching the one-day and Twenty20 sides. We agree

that he is a strong candidate. Ashley is a valued employee. We have

the highest regard for him as a man and as a coach. He is a man of great

integrity and capability. He has played a lot of cricket for England

and is very well respected. Great Britain are on course for victory in

their group tie in the Davis Cup against the USA. They have the 22-0

lead with three rubbers to play. -- 2-0. And Brian McDermott will

remember transfer deadline day. He was sacked last night after only ten

months in charge. The six Nations gets underway in

Cardiff in a few hours, where Wales will play Italy, looking to become

the first side to win three titles in a row. But longer term, there is

concern about the future of rugby union in Wales.

Beneath the ever-changing sky in Welsh Rugby union, there are two

realities. At the Millenium Stadium, there is one. The national

side, favourites for the six Nations again. A source of pride for all.

Welsh rugby is in a permanent state of agony or ecstasy. And when we are

in agony, some of us can be ecstatic about it. When we are in ecstasy, we

agonise. Letters look at what is taking place. We have one three six

Nations champions -- Championships. 20 miles from Cardiff, echoes from

history. When people talk about the parklands of Welsh rugby, this is

the kind of place they mean. Pontypool, population 40,000. Yet

not so long ago, the most famous group of four words in the world

played here together. -- for words. Immortalised in song and sculpture,

the Pontypool front row, almost unbeatable for club and country in

the 70s. Now not even the great prop, Graham Price, would support

Pontypool alone. Before we went into the Millenium Stadium, -- if all the

people who went into the stadium supporting Wales supported club

Brondby, we would not have a problem but many of those people just come

for the occasion. -- club rugby. Pontypool's clubs are now in the

hundreds, but it used to be 20,000. Those in charge here that the club

could be gone inside a decade. Our volunteers at the moment go out on

this pitch before every fixture and trawl the pitch for needles and drug

paraphernalia. Can you tell me that someone is going to race to fill

that position when these people move on? The Welsh challenge is to make

rugby union meaningful and relevant here as well as here. The six

Nations will be across the BBC for the next six weeks, starting with

that game on BBC One at two o'clock, all by France against

England. To the Davis Cup, Great Britain are in a fantastic position

in San Diego, Andy Murray won his singles rubber last night against

Donald Young. And James Ward then stunned the hosts by beating Sam

Querry in five sets. Ward is ranked at 175 in the world, Querry 49.

Great Britain now need just one more point from the remaining three

rubbers to win the tie. They haven't beaten the USA in the Davis Cup for

nearly 80 years. James Ward, that was simply sensational. It must be

the greatest performance and victory of your life. It is. Sam is ranked

pretty high. The one in Russia was also a massive win for me. I'll hope

to use it and push on from here. I love playing the Davis Cup. I love

playing for my country. And that shows the performances. -- in the

performances. Staying with tennis, Great Britain start their Fed Cup

campaign in Hungary this week. There will be plenty expected of

Australian born Yohanna Konta in Judy Murray's team. Emily Croydon

reports. I am in good athlete. I have a good

serve. I can be quite loud. You might know all about Laura Robson

and Heather Watson but there is another young starlet in British

tennis. Born in Australia to hunt Gehry and parents, Yohanna Konta

began representing Great Britain in 2012. There was never a specific

agenda to change nationality. It was more of a process that happened over

time. As I started living here, this became home and it was just a

natural process. And I have never looked back since I've became

British. Under the British flag, she enjoys a successful 2013 and is

currently ranked 114 in the world. And she is being noticed. Last year,

she spent time in illustrious company as an ambassador for Venus

Williams' clothing brand after a chance training session with the

five-time Wimbledon champion. It was interesting to be with her, just

because she is one of the few remaining players who I grew up

watching. I've felt like a looks like a little girl again, watching

these players play. It was overwhelming at the beginning. But

then you get on with it. When not on the road, Yohanna Konta lives,

sleeps and eats at the National tennis centre and crucially spends

up to four hours a day on the training court. The next focus is

the Fed cup, where the British women will have to beat four other

countries to qualify for a play-off in the spring. Last year, Yohanna

Konta was involved in the team for the first time and this year, she

could have a big part to play. Robson is absent from the squad with

the rest injury. Watson is included but struggled through 2013 after

glandular fever. That means that Johanna is the highest ranked player

in the team. We are all different players and we bring our best to the

team. I believe in the team as much now as for the future. Football's

transfer window shut last night, and there was a new face among the

agents. Sheneelah Ahmed recently became the first female muslim agent

on the FA's books. And, as Shabnam Mahmood reports, she's determined to

make an impact. A cold Saturday morning and the

under 14 is from Redbridge football club are training at the ground in

east London. Watching them, Sheneelah Ahmed, Britain's first

female Muslim football agent. Have you spotted any talent? I think I

have spotted two. As a passionate football fan, she says that she is

not fazed by her journey into a man's world. You hear it is male

agents doing football, and I thought, why not a female? It is

only afterwards that I've realised that there was not an Asian female

football agent. So that was like, wow. And she has already facilitated

two Premier League transfers and is hoping to get more Asians into the

game. I hope to go into schools and detox and try to engage myself in

Asian communities. Taiwan to visit clubs and academies to promote

youngsters to get into this profession. The Football Association

have currently pledged to get more British Asians into the game but so

far, only eight of 4000 players have professional deals across England's

top four divisions. Michael shopper is one of the very few British

Asians to make it to the top level in English football. -- Chopra. But

it is not just wrappers addition on the pitch. More needs to be done off

it. We need to do more. In terms of coaches and managers and people at

the top of the game. If you have not got any influence at the top of the

game, you will not get the influence at the bottom of the game.

Traditional Asian attitudes towards sport are changing, giving children

like these more of a chance. Younger parents want their kids to do what

they love. The older generation are they did not. They wanted their kids

to be doctors and lawyers. It is not a game. It is a profession. That is

a message that needs to be sent across to the ethnic communities.

And that is why they need to support their children. Will we ever see an

Asian David Beckham? 100%, we will. It is just a matter of time and

effort. As long as the community and everybody that works in the game

carries on working, I have no doubt that we will see an Asian Ronaldo or

David Beckham. Russia says gay athletes are welcome

at the Winter Olympics in Sochi next week, but they have a new law in

place ,banning what it calls 'homosexual propaganda'. Australia's

Belle Brockhoff is an openly gay snowboarder and has been speaking to

our reporter Ollie Williams. Russia has no ban on homosexuality.

The country's president recently told journalists that. Instead, you

said, feel free in your relationships, but leave the

children in peace. It is a sentence that Belle Brockhoff finds strange.

I'm not going to go around to every kid in Russia and say that gay is

OK, that is not why I am there. I was not even thinking of doing that.

But I will leave the children alone. Belle Brockhoff is 21 years old,

gay, and heading to her first Olympics as a Australian

snowboarder. She has not been afraid to speak out about homophobia. There

is a war out there, which is almost encouraging the rest of the

population to discriminate. I want to go there because I'm not afraid

of these laws and want others that live in Russia who are homosexual to

see that and be inspired by that. She knows that when she gets to the

games, she has to be careful. I do not want any official to come aside

and stop me competing or stopping at the border. I am putting my Olympic

dream first. What is the best outcome for you? A goal medal would

be the best outcome. That is the top outcome for me. If I do not get a

goal medal, most people will not care about my opinion. We wish her

well. The Super Bowl takes place in New Jersey tomorrow, with the

Seattle Seahawks up against the Denver Broncos in sub zero

temperatures. Alex South has been down to Times Square.

It has not been your average build-up to a Super Bowl. There have

been plenty of ups and downs. The biggest down, the weather.

Temperatures have fallen to around freezing for the past few days and

it could be the coldest Super Bowl in history on Sunday. That has put

some fans of going but it has not put the advertisers off. Companies

are looking to spend ?2.5 million for a 32nd spot. As you can imagine,

for the first time, New York and New Jersey have held this event and

security is tight. But the City has embraced having the Super Bowl here.

They have renamed Broadway Super Bowl Boulevard. And you can ride a

sexy foot slide or practice your field goal skills. You can also have

your picture taken with the trophy. It seems that whatever the weather,

you cannot stop New York getting excited about the Super Bowl.

It should be quite something. A quick update on the matches on the

match, no goals in the premier league matches so far. Newcastle

against Sunderland, West Ham against Swansea, they are about 15 minutes

old. Kevin Doyle and Richard Dunne had given QPR a 2-1 lead in the

Championship. From all of us at the BBC sport centre, have a great

weekend, whatever sport you're following. Goodbye.