23/01/2016

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:00:15. > :00:17.Welcome to the BBC Sport Centre, I'm Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes,

:00:18. > :00:20.and coming up on Saturday Sportsday: we'll hear from Welshman George

:00:21. > :00:23.North, and find out about the challenges Eoin Morgan

:00:24. > :00:26.faced with England's blind cricket team.

:00:27. > :00:34.England's bowlers couldn't stop South Africa reaching 475 all out

:00:35. > :00:36.on Day 2 of the final Test in Pretoria.

:00:37. > :00:39.Quinton De Kock was dropped twice before reaching his maiden century.

:00:40. > :00:40.Norwich-Liverpool is the first of eight matches

:00:41. > :00:42.in the Barclays Premier League today.

:00:43. > :00:45.It's goaless after five minutes and the big team news is that

:00:46. > :00:48.new signing Steven Naismith has started for Norwich.

:00:49. > :00:52.And Andy Murray and Johanna Konta have been in action

:00:53. > :00:58.Find out how they got on with BBC highlights straight

:00:59. > :01:07.Northampton are playing in their final group game

:01:08. > :01:12.of the European Champions Cup this afternoon against Scarlets.

:01:13. > :01:15.And it gives this man, George North, a chance to return

:01:16. > :01:17.to his former club for the first time.

:01:18. > :01:19.Saints must beat Scarlets to stand any chance of reaching

:01:20. > :01:23.The pressure is on North, who has already played a lot

:01:24. > :01:25.of rugby this season, and with the Six Nations only two

:01:26. > :01:35.weeks away, Patrick Gearey has been see how he's getting on.

:01:36. > :01:48.And strong yet quick, graceful, George North is the epitome of

:01:49. > :01:53.modern rugby player. Two tries on his Wales debut aged 18, 50 caps by

:01:54. > :01:56.the time he was 23. The Premiership when I'm with Northampton Saints but

:01:57. > :02:04.all that expectation can weigh heavily. Everybody expects so much

:02:05. > :02:08.and wants me to deliver. I always want to be that guy, step up to the

:02:09. > :02:13.plate. It has been difficult trying to change my game, still learning. I

:02:14. > :02:19.am only 23, still trying to discover more things about how I can make

:02:20. > :02:24.myself better and more effective. His season began in the summer, a

:02:25. > :02:27.Rugby World Cup seeing Wales beat England but lose to South Africa in

:02:28. > :02:33.the final minutes saps the mind as well as the body. When the whistle

:02:34. > :02:39.goes regardless of the school you are left not only battered and

:02:40. > :02:43.bruised and shattered but also to recover mentally and emotionally.

:02:44. > :02:51.When you get that close doesn't annoy you to get the criticism? Yes,

:02:52. > :02:55.yes it does. Why is that? I think the bit that hurts me the most is a

:02:56. > :02:59.lot of them have never played rugby to that standard, they do not know

:03:00. > :03:03.what it takes to get in that position. You do not go out there to

:03:04. > :03:07.play badly and mess up but it is easy for them to just drop a

:03:08. > :03:10.one-liner. In the heat of the game sometimes you do not have enough

:03:11. > :03:14.time to breathe let alone make a decision. People do not really know

:03:15. > :03:18.what they are talking about. That makes you grind your gears. Just as

:03:19. > :03:25.he resettled into club live the cycle restarts with the Six Nations.

:03:26. > :03:28.For me in particular I am still hungry to play as much as I can,

:03:29. > :03:34.still learning and absorbing every game. Andy yet obviously if I am

:03:35. > :03:37.selected I will be more than ready to step up for the Six Nations.

:03:38. > :03:39.The British Paralympic skiers enjoyed record-breaking medal

:03:40. > :03:42.success in Sochi two years ago, claiming five of GB's six honours.

:03:43. > :03:44.But come the next Games, adaptive snowboarding aims

:03:45. > :03:50.Ben Moore and Owen Pick are leading the way and this week they're

:03:51. > :03:52.competing in the sport's highest profile competition,

:03:53. > :03:58.There is something special about snowboarding.

:03:59. > :04:03.At the Sochi Olympics freestylers dazzled with their tricks

:04:04. > :04:05.but it was all about speed when the sport

:04:06. > :04:10.Although Britain had no adaptive snowboarders at the 2014 Games,

:04:11. > :04:13.they now have two of the world's best in Ben Moore and Owen Pick.

:04:14. > :04:18.Their journey to the summit, though, has been far from smooth.

:04:19. > :04:21.I used to be in the Army, I joined the age of 16.

:04:22. > :04:23.I was deployed to Afghan when I was 18.

:04:24. > :04:26.We was out on patrol, stood on an IED, it basically

:04:27. > :04:31.They spent about 18 months doing operations, trying to fix it,

:04:32. > :04:35.I was knocked off my motorcycle ten years ago.

:04:36. > :04:37.The guy trying to cross my lane, I T-boned him.

:04:38. > :04:47.In the end of the kind of said, "Look, you can keep it,

:04:48. > :04:49.deal with it, or you can get rid of it".

:04:50. > :04:53.At that point I was just tired of operations so I made the decision

:04:54. > :04:58.And the day I woke up I have never looked back.

:04:59. > :05:00.He and Moore are reaping the benefits of record-breaking

:05:01. > :05:03.skiing medal success in Sochi which has seen UK Sport invest

:05:04. > :05:05.heavily in para snow sports, whilst the inclusion of adaptive

:05:06. > :05:08.events into the X Games for the first time in 2015 has been

:05:09. > :05:15.We have both gone from just being two guys going around just

:05:16. > :05:17.doing some World Cups, to now we have got coaches

:05:18. > :05:20.and physios and more people coming into the team.

:05:21. > :05:23.There were lots of people who were made aware of adaptive

:05:24. > :05:25.snowboarding purely from the X Games.

:05:26. > :05:31.To kind of go there and prove, "Look, we are not just disabled

:05:32. > :05:33.riders who need a little course, we can hide the same course

:05:34. > :05:37.riders who need a little course, we can ride the same course

:05:38. > :05:41.Snowboarding made a spectacular Winter Paralympic debut in Sochi,

:05:42. > :05:43.but only for athletes with lower limb impairments.

:05:44. > :05:48.Those like Ben Moore were not able to compete.

:05:49. > :05:55.and Moore aims to make a massive impact there.

:05:56. > :05:57.it would sum up my snowboarding career, definitely.

:05:58. > :06:00.If we can get some medals there it is going to the massive

:06:01. > :06:04.for the sport, it is going to open up so many more ways of getting

:06:05. > :06:08.The bigger it gets, the better it gets, the more fun it becomes.

:06:09. > :06:12.Now, England's blind cricketers are 10,000 miles away

:06:13. > :06:14.from their training base at Lord's, taking on Australia in the Ashes.

:06:15. > :06:18.England are one up in the 8-match series in Adelaide.

:06:19. > :06:21.And before they flew out, Ankur Desai gave England's one-day

:06:22. > :06:34.captain Eoin Morgan a chance to see what it's like to bat blind.

:06:35. > :06:40.If you are going to play this game successfully you are really going to

:06:41. > :06:43.have to play fearless cricket. You cannot think about what you're going

:06:44. > :06:49.to have for dinner or what your boyfriend or girlfriend is up to,

:06:50. > :06:53.you have got to be on it 100%. Those are the words of wisdom for England

:06:54. > :06:53.one-day captain Eoin Morgan, who is usually

:06:54. > :07:03.one-day captain Eoin Morgan, who is hand. But not today. So, first

:07:04. > :07:09.ball... . Oh dear. There are three categories to take part in blind

:07:10. > :07:13.cricket and more more than what different types of glass is

:07:14. > :07:19.experienced with varying levels of impairment. It is fair to say and

:07:20. > :07:22.found them all difficult. They are better than me by a long way, you

:07:23. > :07:27.are listening for the bringing him the ball so it is almost a sense of

:07:28. > :07:33.panic and feeling as the ball makes its way down. That is the challenge

:07:34. > :07:39.these guys go through but certainly from the first ball I knocked my

:07:40. > :07:47.stumps over. Fear not, Hassan was on hand to rescue the England one-day

:07:48. > :07:52.skipper. As soon as you hear it... How did I get one? You got on quite

:07:53. > :07:57.well considering it was your first time. Interestingly you tried on all

:07:58. > :08:04.three classes and surprisingly enough you batted better when you

:08:05. > :08:07.are totally blind. The visually impaired cricketers are preparing

:08:08. > :08:14.for the ultimate battle, against Australia down under for the Ashes.

:08:15. > :08:17.They took the blind ashes of us in 2012 and I am so eager to win them

:08:18. > :08:23.back. I believe this is where they belong. The series consists of three

:08:24. > :08:30.T20 matches and five one-day matches, forms of the game organise

:08:31. > :08:35.well and now he has some new skills. Gray that is Eoin Morgan, BBC

:08:36. > :08:41.sport... Good night. Good night? You will not make a reporter! The latest

:08:42. > :08:44.from the final Test match is that England are

:08:45. > :08:52.chasing 475. Also some sad news from the world of cricket, it has been

:08:53. > :08:57.announced former Warwickshire bowler and BBC commentator Tim threw has

:08:58. > :09:02.died. Tributes to him are on the website. -- BBC commentator Jack

:09:03. > :09:06.Bannister has died. That's it for Saturday Sportsday,

:09:07. > :09:26.until next time, goodbye. On your marks, get set...

:09:27. > :09:31.Bake for Sport Relief.