Latest Blogs

 Times Column 23/10/04 Something is stirring in the land of the rising scrum. At the end of May, Japan outclassed Canada to claim the IRB Super Powers Cup, inspired by 20-year-old fly-half Kyohei Morita. And this autumn, after the fifth weekend of the increasingly competitive Top League, five teams are tied one point behind front-runners Kubota Spears.  Last Saturday alone, Toutai Kefu, Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Glen Marsh and Pita Alatini could be seen in action in Tokyo, with standards rising so fast that not all of them were on the winning side. Off the pitch, at a glitzy central Tokyo hotel, former prime minister Yoshiro Mori was introduced on Monday as the president of Japan’s 2011 Rugby World Cup

 Times Column 9/10/04 This season, the well-dressed Zurich Premiership player will mostly be wearing - white socks.  Already four clubs, Sale, Bath, Newcastle and Leeds, have sent out teams in the latest rugby fashion, and the country hasn’t seen so many men in white stockings since the court of Charles I. This surprising new fad is unlikely to be a coded welcome to Prince Harry. So what can be the reasoning behind the decision of four separate Premiership Clubs to choose socks for away-day matches in a colour which might fairly be considered junior schoolish? If not downright netballish.   Ever since professionalism, kit in rugby has been an issue.  This is partly because as an amateur sport rugby had

 Times Column 25/09/04 This rare close-up of George W. Bush in sporting action was recently discovered and published by the Los Angeles Times. The caption is from the Yale University yearbook of 1969, and the key question is the same for American voters as for rugby adepts.  Can playing rugby, and the way rugby is played, provide any clue as to the character of the man?  Traditionally, rugby encourages a rainbow of virtues including stoicism, co-operation, dedication, and of course courage. There is also responsibility, decision-making and patience - not a bad list of boxes to tick for an aspiring political leader. Bill Clinton, another rugby-playing President (spooky, you might think, if you weren’t already beginning to suspect the often

Times Column 11/09/04 Fifty-one thousand people turned out at Twickenham last Saturday to swing a bottle at the launch of the Zurich Premiership 2004/5.  A new campaign begins, and in rugby, the winter season in hostile weather most closely resembles a naval campaign. From about the time of the Battle of Trafalgar, and not only because in Europe the French are still the biggest obstacle. All the clubs know where they plan to go, with a fair wind, and at every level of the game from Premiership to South Lancs/Cheshire 4, everyone has a chance at glory. The professionals get the treasure.  The rest make do with rum and sea-shanties, but as in those Master and Commander Men o’ War,

  Deux artistes un ecrivain   Quand êtes-vous déjà mort? J’essaie de ne pas penser à la mort. Je préfère penser à la vie. Qu’est-ce qui vous fait lever le matin? Mes enfants. Que sont devenus vos rêves d’enfant? Des rêves d’adulte. Qu’est-ce qui vous distingue des autres? Comme tout le monde, je crois être différent des autres. Vous manque-t-il quelque chose? Tellement de choses… Pensez-vous que tout le monde puisse être artiste? Quoi qu’on crée, il y aura toujours quelqu’un quelquepart pour trouver que c’est de l’art.  D’où venez-vous? De l’étranger, du sud-ouest, de la ville voisine, de la porte voisine: tout dépend où je suis. Jugez-vous votre sort enviable? Par qui? Il y a des gens mieux lotis,

By Ernest Hemingway Translated from the English In the autumn the season was starting and there were games everywhere, but the luxury coaches left without us. It was cold in Milan, and getting dark very early, but with the street-lamps on and the lights in the shops it was nice to look in at the windows. There were still bargain rails out on the street, and some early powdery snow caught in the lapels of the coat-collars.  There were sports shops with last year's replica shirts on sale-rails blowing in the cold wind, spinning round on hangars so we could see the names over the numbers on the back.  Every afternoon we were all at the hospital. There were different