All the bookies are in agreement, Australia will win this international and the odds are so conventional that the best price to be found on this outcome is a rather stingy 19/100 at Betfair. So, with this in mind, is there any money to be made on this game at all? Well, yes there is. For starters, assuming you are a little crazy, you could well put some money on the New Zealand boys claiming an unexpected (to say the least) victory. With odds as good as 11/4 at Sky Bet, it goes to show that the bookies don’t feel that such an outcome is completely impossible, just very very unlikely.

So, where is the real money hiding at? Well if you fancy placing a bet on this game, your best chance at making a profit comes from the Australian Top Runs Scorer option with Shane Watson being the favourite to claim the most runs for the Aussies. Even though Shane is the favourite however, at odds of 3/1 at Paddy Power and Stan James, it is certainly worth a punt. The nest favourite is Ricky Ponting who is also bringing in similar odds. So, if you simply have to place a bet on this one day international, then these are your best options. Sure, you can put some money on New Zealand winning outright, but safe to say that it might be unwise.

Shane Watson to lead scoring for Australia – 3/1 at Paddy Power and Stan James.

Rooney came off the bench to replace the injured Michael Owen, who had scored United’s opener, and popped up to head the winner home in the 74th minute despite playing with a slight knee problem himself.

Rooney stated after the game:

“It’s a great feeling to play a final at Wembley and to score the winning goal is unbelievable. Obviously I wanted to play but I had a bit of a sore knee. Fortunately for me I came on and I’m delighted with the winning goal.”

Rooney has been on fire of late and the press have made much of the fact that he is chasing the 42 goal target set by Crisitano Ronaldo two seasons ago, Rooney’s goal against Aston Villa left him on 28 so far.

“I am enjoying playing at the minute and enjoying scoring goals, hopefully that will continue. Cristiano got 42 but I am just looking to contribute to us winning medals. If that happens it would be great but as long as we win medals it would be even better.”

Despite the victory and Rooney’s marvellous display, the news that Michael Owen has suffered a hamstring injury will not go down well with a side that is still chasing glory in two other tournaments.

United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson said on the matter:

“He (Owen) did really well for us and it was a good performance from him. It’s maybe our fault too. He’s not had a lot of minutes recently and that soft pitch didn’t help him. It’s a bad blow for us.”

With the Premier League and Champions League titles still very much within United’s grasp Ferguson will be hoping no more injuries effect his sides quest for more glory.

United are still slightly behind Chelsea in the league and the odds with Ladbrokes reflect this with the Manchester side at 6/4 to Chelsea’s 5/4 to become Premier League champions.

Though there are dangers of whomever finds themselves playing Premiership football next season being immediately slumped back into the Championship, it is no doubt a very exciting time for fans of a few teams right now with the carrot of Premiership football being dangled just in front of them and their players but just how far will some teams need to leap? Just who are certain to find themselves playing against the likes of Wayne Rooney and Cesc Fabregas next season?

Will, a given seems to be Newcastle United whose remarkable fall from grace last season looks to have been remedied at the first attempt. So expectant are the bookies that the boys in black and white will be back in the top flight next season that the best odds to be found on their promotion attempt is a measly 1/6 at Coral. The surprise package this season have been Nottingham Forest who, after a rather glorious history have found themselves lurking in the lower leagues for many years now. Well, the best odds to be found for Forest finally making a return to the Premier League are at Sportingbet.com who are offering 17/20.

However, in this writers opinion, perhaps the most interesting team are Blackpool who, hiding just outside of the play-off positions right now could well pull off what Burnley achieved last season and at 16/1 at Tote-Sport, there is clearly a chance to earn some money from the chaps in tangerine.

Nottingham Forest to win promotion – 17/20 at Sportingbet.com.

Blackpool to win promotion – 16/1 at Tote-Sport.

So, what exactly are the kind of bets being taken by some of the big bookies with regard to these two gentlemen being reunited on the field of play? Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, there is little money to be won by betting on these two not swapping shirts at the end of the game. In fact, so unlikely is this that the odds at Sky Bet are only 16/1.

Okay, so we have established that the chances of seeing Terry and Bridge touching tongues is rather slim, but what scenario is currently offering the best odds? Well, according to Paddy Power Bingo, there is little chance of Wayne Bridge being booked for a foul on John Terry but as we all know, at 40/1, it might just be worth having a flutter because passions may well get the better of the Manchester City left-back. Chelsea will play Manchester City at Stamford Bridge this Saturday.

There had been considerable speculation regarding Martin Johnson’s potential final team selection. Certainly the side struggled against Italy in a game where they repeatedly made major errors and only won the game by what could be considered to be more luck than judgement. In the end he decided to make no changes at all and for the first time since he took the job as coach he is playing an identical fifteen.

Since the game against Italy Wilkinson in particular has had to endure some severe criticism for the way in which he failed to lead play and his sudden lack of ability to kick the ball. Wilkinson has said that he can shrug off this criticism from outside, but what was more difficult to handle was his internal criticism.

Johnson has described the current side as “Work in progress” and that he thought that the criticism that Wilkinson had been receiving was unfair. Coach Brian Smith has also defended Wilkinson. He said that Jonny enjoyed the total support of both himself and the rest of the team. He pointed out that despite the kicking failures Jonny’s late drop goal had put the team back in the game and that he had been very much involved in scoring the winning try.

Brian Smith also slated the media saying that much of it was made up former players who were hired to provide sound bites, and writers who didn’t know enough about rugby to justify their criticisms.

With odds of 20/21 being offered by Boylesports, England remain the marginal favourites to win against Ireland this weekend.

The X- Factor judge made the announcement via her publicist’s Twitter page. It stated that “Cheryl Cole is separating from her husband Ashley Cole. Cheryl asks the media to respect her privacy during this difficult time.”

Their three and half year marriage had been rocked by a series of allegations that Ashley had cheated on the singer. Recently he had been accused of sending sex texts and allegedly sleeping with a string of women. Over the weekend reports appeared in newspapers claiming an American local government worker, Ann Corbitt, had had sex with Cole in a hotel during Chelsea’s pre-season tour in Seattle last July.

Cheryl arrived back in the UK on Tuesday after jetting out to LA after the Brit awards. A few hours later and the confirmation of the split was released.

Over the weekend it had been reported that Cheryl had dumped Ashley via text message. The Sun had claimed she had sent the Chelsea star a message saying “Move out. It’s over.”

On Monday she was pictured being comforted by US dancer Derek Hough, 24, whom she met when she recorded her album 3 Words

William Hill closed the book on whether the Cole’s would divorce on Sunday claiming that “The revelations keep coming and sometimes there is no point in Fighting for this love and we think Cheryl has thrown the towel in”.

However, speculation is now mounting over the Girl’s Aloud star will do next.

William Hill are offering 10/1 that Cheryl’s next husband will be a Premiership footballer but they are offering 3/1 that she will get back together with Ashley before Christmas. William Hill also reckon Cheryl will leave the UK for the states, she is now evens from 4/1 to be a judge on the American X Factor.

“The odds suggest that there is a great chance that Cheryl will go stateside to the US X Factor!” said Hill’s spokesman Rupert Adams.

Meanwhile, Boylesports are taking bets on what profession her next boyfriend will be – they’re offering odds of 7/4 that he will be a dancer.

Her decision was severely criticised by reputably unpleasant judge Jason Gardiner, who called her a “spoilt brat” and branded her rejection of Torvill and Dean’s routine a “disgrace”. This is, however, the same judge who compared one of Davies’ previous routines to “faecal matter” and spurred an investigation by TV watchdog Ofcom into whether he had breached acceptable standards with his remarks.

Having competed in the skate off with Davies, Emily Atack is leading the odds on the next celebrity to be eliminated in spite of achieving her highest score so far in Sunday night’s show after getting a little advice from superstar Alexandra Burke, performing to her single Bad Boys. It was called her best routine by the judges and they consider her to be improving; however, with odds of 13/8 on her being the next to leave from BetFred, it may be that she just hasn’t climbed quickly enough to the standard required.

However, Danny Young received a lower score than Atack from the judges on Sunday, although he was not in the skate off, perhaps saved by his cheeky attitude which judge Emma Bunton was pleased to see returning. He was criticised for being too slow and not stringing the elements of his routine together smoothly enough. Bookies BlueSQ and 888Sport offer the same odds for Young as for Atack, at 6/4.

Andy Murray is still the favourite to win the championship and is priced at 5/4 by Stan James.

The current champion Nikolay Davydenko had a very difficult time in his second round match against the Frenchman Florent Serra. He lost the first set 6-7 following a tiebreak and in the second set his serve was nearly broken on several occasions though he managed to hang on and win the next two sets 6-4, 6-1.

Not withstanding this hiccup, Nikolay Davydenko remains the second favourite for the championship at 7/2 with Stan James.

Meanwhile the French Open winner and Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal, not playing in the tournament due to a damaged knee, has been finding some action elsewhere. He has been shooting a quite edgy video with Shakira, the singer and pop star from Columbia. In the video that goes with her latest release ‘Gypsy’, Shakira, clad in little else other than a semi-transparent scarf, and Nadal hold hands and gaze into each others eyes.

VIP guests at the ATP include many members of the England cricket team. They watched a centre court match between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra which Tsonga won before joining tennis players for an open air party on the lawns of the Aviation Club.

To win at Formula One requires a special relationship between man and machine. That is certainly what Jenson Button and his Brawn GP car had during the 2009 season, at least for the first half of the season during which time he laid down sufficient victories to secure the title. Jenson had worked on the development of the car for several years when the team was Honda. The recruitment of Ros Brawn was the catalyst and when he took control of the team following the departure of Honda he was finally able to create a car for Jenson that Jenson described as a monster car.

A similar relationship between man and machine accounted for Lewis Hamilton’s championship win in 2008 and his near win in 2007, his first year in F1. Hamilton had worked with McLaren since he was a boy. He had been the protégé of Ron Dennis, the then team principal, and had more or less grown up with McLaren racing cars. When he stepped up to Formula One, it was apparent from the start that he was at one with his car.

It seems that now a similar relationship is developing between Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari F10. He says that it is the best car that he has ever driven. That he was at home with the car was apparent from the first few laps that drove. In practice the car has not been the fastest on the track, but he said that they had not yet carried out low fuel level testing; all their laps had been with significant fuel levels.

Certainly many pundits think that he is poised to take the championship this year. Odds on this are being offered at 16/5 by BetFred with Lewis Hamilton the second favourite at odds of 5/1.

Public opinion has been steadfastly in Cheryl’s favour, condemning Ashley for his promiscuous behaviour. Cheryl Cole is, after all, considered one of the most attractive women in the world; she is the favourite to win the title of FHM Sexiest Woman of the Year 2010 with odds from Paddy Power at 1/3. Megan Fox is second at 7/4; in spite of her poor acting, suggested by her haul of Razzie nominations, it seems the male population appreciate her other assets.

It seems the general opinion that Cheryl could do much better than Ashley, in any case, and with his looming fine from Chelsea, for purportedly bringing women back to the team hotel room on at least three occasions, his future is looking decidedly unstable. It’s taken Cheryl this long to take some decisive action. There is even a Facebook fan-page titled “Ashley Cole, are you stupid?! Can’t you SEE how hot your wife is?!”

BoyleSports are even offering odds on what the job of Cheryl’s next boyfriend will be. The odds of another footballer are at 7/1, with any sportsman other than a footballer slightly more favourable at 6/1. The most likely occupation is a dancer, with odds of 7/4, perhaps spurred by Cheryl’s appearance with Derek Hough in LA. Whoever she chooses, the odds of him being better than Ashley Cole are considerably high.