Ex semi-pro rugby player Price clinches darts world championship
Welshman Gerwyn Price has won darts' world championship, beating Scotland's Gary Anderson 7-3 in the final to earn his biggest career victory since swapping a career in semi-professional rugby for the ever-more lucrative pub game.
Price, 35, earned a lucky break to take the first set after Anderson had missed three darts and he proceeded to out-class the more experienced Scot to take a 6-2 lead in the showpiece at an empty Alexandra Palace, which was missing the usual hum of boisterous supporters due to coronavirus restrictions.
But Price lost his composure in the ninth set, squandering 11 match darts before eventually clinching the championship in the 10th with a double five after Anderson had also been wasteful and passed up three chances to win the set.
Price, who had grown increasingly frustrated with each clinching dart he had wasted, bowed his head in a release of emotion when he finally sealed victory, pocketing 500,000 pounds ($A887,000) in prize money in doing so.
"I've never ever felt pressure like that in my life," said Price, who becomes world No.1.
Anderson, a two-time winner is now also a three-time runner-up.
Price played rugby in the Welsh Premier League until quitting in 2014 to fully focus on darts after earning his place on the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) as a qualifier.
The two players had a frosty relationship in the past, with Anderson accusing Price of deliberately slow play after losing the 2018 Grand Slam of Darts to him and declining to shake his hand.
But there was no ill-feeling on this occasion and Anderson admitted he had been well beaten.
"I just could not get the darts, my doubles were atrocious and that's what happens when you do that, you get thumped," he said.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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