Briefs

Australia win: Nagoya Grampus striker Josh Kennedy scored a brace as an understrength Australia beat New Zealand 3-0 in a friendly at Adelaide Oval yesterday. Kennedy struck in the ninth and 59th minutes and Turkey-based James Troisi made it three with a penalty deep in injury time after Germany-bound Robbie Kruse was brought down in the box.

Adams: Port Vale manager Micky Adams is attempting to become a director of the troubled League Two club in order to salvage his transfer plans for next season. Adams is currently prohibited from any transfer activity after Wednesday’s highly-charged EGM left just three directors in place. The 49-year-old also intends to invest £50,000 of his own money to purchase shares in the Burslem outfit.

Coach quits: Algeria coach Abdelhak Benchikha resigned yesterday after a 4-0 drubbing by Morocco in a high-profile Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. Benchikha survived just three competitive matches after succeeding veteran Rabah Saadane last October.

Boxing: Mexico’s Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr dethroned Germany’s Sebastian Zbik by majority decision to seize the World Boxing Council middleweight title in a showdown of unbeaten fighters. Chavez Jnr improved to 43-0 with one drawn on judges scores of 115-113 and 116-112 while the third judge scored the bout a 114-114 draw.

Horse Racing: Reliable Man won the French Derby yesterday to give his trainer Alain de Royer Dupre his sixth win in the classic. Given a superb ride by veteran Gerald Mosse, he came late down the outside to deprive Bubble Chic in the final strides and prevail by 3/4 of a length to give the winning jockey his third win in the race. However, it was the performance of the third horse home, favourite Beraan, which caught the eye as he completely missed the break under Christophe Lemaire and ended up just two and three quarter lengths off the winner.

Cycling: Lars Boom, of Rabobank, took the overall lead of the Criterium du Dauphine stage race after dominating his rivals in the opening prologue held over 5.4 km yesterday. Former cyclo-cross champion Boom completed the race against the clock in a time of 6min 18sec to keep Astana veteran Alexandre Vin-okourov in second place by two seconds. Bradley Wiggins, who is using the event as a warm-up for the Tour de France next month, was third at five seconds adrift.