SCIENTISTS believe they have come up with the equation pointing to an England victory over Ecuador in today’s World Cup match. Wayne Rooney’s pace as a sprinter plus his marathon runner-like stamina equals the perfect footballer.

They have used computerised data from digital photographs taken of Rooney every one-tenth of a second throughout a match. It shows he covers 7.3 miles in a game. Of this, 4.5 miles are covered at the speed of a middle distance runner, a third of a mile like a sprinter and the remainder at walking pace.

His moves have been analysed by Ken Bray, a visiting fellow at Bath University and a theoretical physicist who has turned his attention to sport. Bray said: “People are keen to know if Wayne Rooney is the perfect footballer. The answer is probably yes.”

• A group of Oxford students have stripped for a nude calendar to raise money for the children of Ecuador. The black and white pictures feature undergraduates at St Peter’s College in familiar locations such as a library, a punt and a student bar.

The choice of an Ecuadorian charity — Cenit, based in Quito, which helps working children with healthcare and education — is a coincidence. Several students are planning to work for Cenit this summer and they posed before they knew who England’s opponents would be.

• A prison governor has banned the display of the England flag by warders for fear of upsetting foreign inmates. Phil Taylor, governor of Bullingdon prison, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, said overt support for the national team would “invite conflict”.

Prison sources also said an aide to Taylor told them they risked being seen as “white supremacists”.

“If you want the flag of St George to become a racist symbol, this is the best way to go about it,” said Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association.

The instruction to take down flags at Bullingdon, which has 960 inmates, 20% of them foreign, came in a “governor’s order” last Tuesday. Taylor added: “We have a responsibility to minimise the potential for conflict.”

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