THERE are two ways of looking at Raheem Sterling’s decision to tell Roy Hodgson that he was tired ahead of England’s game against Estonia.

When I first heard that the conversation had taken place, I didn’t think much of it.

The radio phone-ins were full of people spouting the “I work a 70-hour week, how can a 19-year-old who gets paid thousands of pounds a week to play football be too tired to play for England” line, but what did they want him to do? Keep quiet, get picked and play poorly?

I’m pretty sure it’s the sort of conversation that players and managers have all of the time. Next time you hear a manager tell reporters that he rested a player because he looked a bit jaded, maybe what really happened was that player went to the manager saying he was tired.

Hodgson chose to make the conversation public, which is probably something he regrets now. If he’d just said that the player didn’t look sharp in training, there wouldn’t have been much of an issue, especially as England won the game.

The England manager’s decision to go public may have something to do with Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers’ criticism of him over the injury Daniel Sturridge picked up on England duty, but it was ill-advised.

The over-played Liverpool verses England row that keeps rumbling on is the other side of this coin though, and there have been suggestions that Rodgers was involved in Sterling’s decision to say he was tired.

I’m not sure I buy that, but if it emerges that Rodgers was somehow involved, then I’ll quickly switch to the side of the morally outraged.

Basingstoke Gazette:

Qualifying needs a shake-up

IF THERE was ever a game that illustrated why something needs to change when it comes to the way the European countries qualify for major championships, it was last week’s game between England and San Marino.

San Marino turned up at Wembley aiming not to win or even draw with England, but to concede as few goals as possible.

I’m not even sure you can blame them for that. Their country has a population of just 30,000 and most of their players are part-timers. Of course they had no chance of beating England’s team of Premier League stars, so they did their best not to be humiliated.

To put this in perspective, while I was watching the game, I put together what I think would be the Basingstoke and Deane team if this area was an independent country.

Here’s what I came up with:

Goalkeeper: Joe McDonnell (AFC Wimbledon) .

Defence: Nathan Smart (Basingstoke Town), Ryan Case (Braintree Town), Kieran Maylen (Basingstoke Town), Tom Bird (Basingstoke Town).

Midfield: Adam Nditi (unattached), Tom Cleverley (Aston Villa), Simon Dunn (Basingstoke Town).

Strikers: Ben Wright (Eastleigh), Scott Rendell (Woking), Rowan Vine (unattached).

That’s a decent team, and I’d fancy them to beat San Marino, but how would they get on against England? Bear in mind that only one of them, the rather dubiously selected Cleverley, is playing regularly in the Football League.

Now consider that Basingstoke and Deane has a population of 170,000 and you begin to see what San Marino are up against.

Why not reduce the number of qualifying games for the more established nations by having some pre-qualifying rounds?

The teams that finish fourth, fifth and sixth in this qualifying campaign should be made to pre-qualify. The teams who finish sixth could play the teams who finish fifth over two legs, with the winners taking on teams that finish fourth and the winners of that tie taking their place in qualifying.

These one-sided matches aren’t fair on anybody.

Ben Flower is missing nowhere near enough rugby for his brutal attack 

ST HELENS’ Grand Final triumph last weekend was very much overshadowed by Wigan prop Ben Flower’s horrific attack on Lance Hohaia.

Hohaia started the fracas with a forearm smash on Flower, who responded with a right hook that knocked the New Zealander clean out. The Welshman then leapt on his opponent and piled in with another right hand while he was on the ground.

It was a sickening incident and the Rugby Football League have acted swiftly, banning Flower for six months. That sounds like a hefty ban, but the season is now over and Flower will only miss 10 games of the next campaign, which seems lenient.

In my view, he should be sitting out an entire season.

It’s the second punch that’s the real problem. Flower is lucky that he didn’t make proper contact because, if he had, Hohaia could have been seriously and possibly permanently injured, or worse.

Something I have thought about since is the response there would have been had this happened on a football field. Wayne Rooney was vilified for a poor challenge the other week, imagine the levels of hysteria if he had thrown the first punch, let alone the second.

I’ve heard the tired argument that rugby is a more physical sport but, as in football, punching an opponent is a red card offence, so why should it be less serious?

They may not have the same profile, but rugby players are still role models for some children. Flower got away lightly.