"Ian Rush said it was every player's dream to score a goal here and Pele described the place as the 'church of football', but I know the union supporters will take something to remember from their stay here," said the stadium manager, Martin Corrie. "We're not just about football, although that's the impression people have of us. The harsh realities of professionalism may have left the Celtic fringe struggling to maintain their collective international credibility, but Five Nations occasions are special and the Welsh remain confident of transporting their traditional hwyl from the close-knit snuggery of central Cardiff to the warehouse-infested commercial wasteland of north London.Wembley expects something special, too. A bit of rain makes it dead slippery, but you have to say that it's an absolute treat for anyone who fancies the fast going. I hope the Cardiff surface turns out to be similar."Seasoned Wembleyites are used to welcoming the funny-shaped ball brigade, of course; the grand old lady of world stadiums has hosted rugby league cup finals since time immemorial, flirted with American football and even opened its hallowed portals to the England rugby union team on a low-key and largely forgotten occasion in 1992 when a certain Ian Hunter slipped a couple of tries past the Canadians on his Test debut.Tomorrow will be different, though.

So quick, in fact, that even the New Zealanders were caught out by it during the last game. But then, as the pessimists remind their starry- eyed brethren, Wales have not played a British team at Wembley for 15 years.Since the football boyos went down 2-1 to England in 1983, the red shirts have paid only a single visit to the Twin Towers, for last November's one-off Test with the All Blacks. And the least said about that, the better.Still, the Welsh are up for Wembley, a stadium they must call "home" until the reconsecration of their beloved Arms Park cathedral is completed in June of next year "What a surface," Howley mused yesterday "It's quick, that's the big thing. On the face of it, of course, Wales have every chance of winning; as the eternal optimists of the valleys point out, no national side from the far bank of the Severn has lost to a British team at Wembley in 15 long and happy years.

Like the rest of his countrymen, Howley is acutely aware that a second embarrassing capitulation in the space of a fortnight would have such a deadly effect on national morale that he and his colleagues might easily spend the rest of their careers performing in front of nothing more animated than a large cassette deck and half a dozen loudspeakers. "You could describe this as a must-win game," acknowledged the skipper, an unusually profound degree of seriousness etched across his Stan Laurel features. Anyone walking past Wembley Stadium might have been forgiven for thinking proceedings had kicked off a day early - the cacophony from the stands was deafening - but a glance down the players' tunnel revealed 75,000 empty seats reverberating to a tape recording of crowd noise. Had they known I was Don King, I am confident they never would have stopped me."Lawyers for King began a High Court action in London on Wednesday against his former business partner, Frank Warren, alleging that Warren owes the American money.. ROB HOWLEY'S chastened tribe of Welsh rugby romantics reacquainted themselves with the field of dreams yesterday as they made their final preparations for what has emerged as a watershed Five Nations match against Scotland. The watch or wealth means nothing, it's only material."King, who was "grateful to God" for escaping alive, described how the gunmen stopped his car and another vehicle behind him "They were putting the guns right to our heads It was a terrifying experience," he said "All they took were watches It was over in a couple of minutes.

"It was a shiny doodad, a little bauble, a gaudy little thing that sparkles," he said "A mere pittance when you start talking about your life. DON KING found his fame as the world's most famous boxing promoter of little help when four armed men stopped his car in Mexico City. King, who is known for his stand-up hairdo, had a gun put to his head and was relieved of his wristwatch shortly after he arrived to promote a fight. The showman promoter refused to confirm reports that the watch was a diamond-encrusted Rolex worth $100,000 (pounds 66,000). Rusedski struck 19 aces, lost only 11 points in nine games on his own delivery and produced a perfect game when leading 2-1 in the second set, serving four successive aces. Eleven of his 19 aces came in his last three service games and Rusedski said: "My serve just seemed to get better and better and I felt I could hardly miss." But Rusedski also played well when receiving serve, breaking through in the sixth game and earning the first set after only 22 minutes. The British No 1 gave an awesome display in beating the American Richey Reneberg 6-3, 6-2 in just 45 minutes in their second- round match. Substitutes: J Wyatt (Reading), Manpreet Kochar (Cannock), B Sharpe (Cannock), J Lee (Old Loughtonians).NEW ZEALAND: S Anderson (capt); P Derham; A Timlin, A Hastie, R Tattershaw; J Radonovich, S Towns, D Smith; R Archibald, Umesh Parag, B Hari. Then he broke Reneberg again in the first and fifth games of the second set.A confident Andre Agassi powered into the quarter- finals of the ATP Tour event in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his 13th win this season.Agassi's 7-5, 6-1 win over Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti was another bright point of a good year, which follows a terrible 1997 in which the former world No 1, now ranked 50, totalled only a dozen wins..

GREG RUSEDSKI cruised into the quarter-finals of the ATP Tour event in Rotterdam yesterday. Substitutes used: D Gosling, K Robinson, H Gill.Umpires: P Schellekens (Ned), K Ananthavale (Mas).. England play Malaysia today facing the threat of a wooden spoon game on Sunday.The humiliation would have been worse yesterday but for two penalty-corner goals from Jason Lee, another from Wyatt, and a late goal from open play by Russell Garcia.ENGLAND: J Lewis (Cannock); B Garrard (Teddington), J Halls (HDM, The Hague), B Waugh (Southgate, capt), A Humphrey (Cannock); Kalbir Takher (Cannock), J Pidcock (Cannock), N Thompson ( Old Loughtonians); C Mayer (Cannock) R Garcia (HDM, The Hague), M Pearn (Reading). Not for the first time, they are unable to take into account the well-being of racing - hardly surprising without a punter or bookmaker on the BHB."Hopefully the Office of Fair Trading realises that fair trading is sabotaged when more than 36 per cent of a huge industry is in the hands of one group.