Casey carded an opening 67 on Thursday but was seven over par after 15 holes of his second round on Friday, and at two over for the tournament looked certain to miss the halfway cut.The 25-year-old needed to play the final three holes in three under par to make the cut on the mark of one under, and after a birdie on the 16th and par on 17, came to the last needing an eagle. The former amateur star found the green on the 531-yard par five in two and duly converted his eagle putt from 10 feet to complete a remarkable escape. And he carried on from where he left off with his last six holes being played in seven under.The weather eventually forced play to be abandoned for the day, meaning an early start for those players yet to finish, followed by a break before the start of the final round – weather permitting.. The ability of the professional game in York to rise from the ashes will have its first and most searching examination when the newly-formed York City Knights play their inaugural game this afternoon. Their player-coach, the former Great Britain prop, Paul Broadbent, will miss their opening Arriva Trains Cup match against Hull KR recuperating from shoulder surgery, but any club outside Super League would like to have him, Richie Hayes and Lee Jackson in their front row.Jackson, another former Test player, was discarded by Hull at the end of last season “I don’t feel I’ve anything to prove,” he says “But I knew I had another couple of years left. Unfortunately, people there didn’t agree.”Even at 33, Ferres believes that Jackson still possesses “the fastest hands from dummy half in the game.

He’s extremely fit and I think he’ll give us two good seasons”.The York-born Hayes was voted into the Northern Ford Premiership Team of the Year for his efforts with Hull KR last season and is noted for his inexhaustible appetite. “Our problem is that we’ll have two props – Broadbent and Hayes – who won’t come off the pitch,” says Ferres. “They both want to play 80 minutes.”Hayes has been appointed captain of a squad that includes two other players recruited from Rovers this winter in Alex Godfrey and Mark Cain, plus the vastly experienced centre, Graeme Hallas, and Trevor Krause, a highly-rated utility player from Queensland.Ferres is confident that they will be competitive, not just in the group stages of the new Cup that begins today, but also in National League Two when it kicks off in the spring.Equally important is the financial stability of the new club; it was a chronic inability to balance the books that forced the Wasps to the wall Ferres says it will not happen again. The success of a membership scheme, with 300 people paying £5 a week in advance, underpins the Knights’ effforts to re-establish themselves. “We asked them whether their club was worth two pints of beer a week to them,” he says.Also venturing into the unknown today are the London Skolars, the second professional club in the capital, whose first season begins with a visit from Dewsbury.

They are unlikely to get much out of that match, but like York they are in for the long haul.. Biarritz started the day needing to score 13 tries to reach the Heineken Cup quarter-finals – and they achieved their remarkable target with a humiliating 75-25 demolition of a woeful Cardiff side. The France wing, Philippe Bernat-Salles, was the local hero with the 13th touchdown in added time at the end of the second half. Full-back Anthony Forest picked up two well taken tries while older brother, the scrum-half Mikael, added a try late in the second half. But it was outside half Alexandre Peslier who proved the real thorn in Sale’s side, kicking 18 points including two first-half drop goals.

A third-minute try from hooker Noel Curnier set the pattern of the game as he drove over following a forward surge.At St Helen’s, Swansea launched a brave fightback against Montferrand but it proved too little, too late as they lost 24-19. The centre Steve Winn managed to touch down in a scramble in the 76th minute after the Swansea pack had led an assault on the French line. Outside-half Arwel Thomas slotted over the conversion but Montferrand deservedly managed to hold on. The defeat left Swansea at the bottom of Pool Five with only one win – over Bristol – to their name.Swansea got off to the worst possible start as Montferrand scored two tries in the first eight minutes through wing Jimmy Marlu and centre Johnny Ngaumo.