Writing On Literature

Times Column 5/02/05 In South Africa, prop forward is the position to play.  The prop is ox-strong and stubborn.  He represents qualities that South Africans traditionally value, and when the Springboks have a charismatic front-row they invariably prosper.  More than that: in the unforgiving arena of Test rugby, an archetypal Bok prop like Os Du Randt can make a virtue out of traditional perceptions of national character. In the days when props were fat and wingers were thin, it was easier to imagine that each position attracted a different type of personality.  The Welsh treasured their nimble and visionary fly-halves, implacable Merlins in the best traditions of mystic Welsh folklore.  The Scots prized their ferocious mongrel breakaways, one among

Times Column 22/01/05 Horse racing is the sport of kings, football the beautiful game.  In Australia and New Zealand, in a phrase less often heard over here, rugby is ‘the game they play in heaven’.  It’s also the game they play in Chile and Pakistan, and the best way to keep up to speed with rugby in the Moroccan championship, or the Nigerian national squad, is via heavensgame.com. This non-profit making website was set up in 2002 with the brilliantly simple idea, not yet on the IRB’s agenda, of treating each rugby nation equally.  A 6-Nations clash between England and France was deemed no more important than a review of the second round of the Spanish Cup.  Each story as

Times Column 8/01/05 The New Year in the Zurich Premiership kicked off with a sell-out.  At Worcester, Bath, Gloucester, Northampton, Harlequins and Newcastle, 64,000 supporters watched live club rugby on January 1st and 2nd.  This followed excellent attendances in Christmas week, when Leeds Tykes doubled a previous record crowd to over 14,000 for their clash with Jonny Wilkinson.  Jonny won, with three penalties and a drop goal, but Leeds are getting closer to that impressive Headingley capacity of 18,000.  To help get them there, it can’t hurt that later this month the England team will be training with the Tykes’ sister club and current Super League Champions, the Rhinos.  So it’s all aboard the England charabanc to Leeds, because if Andy

 Times Column 18/12/04 Not so long ago, Christmas would have been easier for everyone if rugby players had hung up their boots and taken up golf.  Finding a present for a golfer is easy.  You can spend less than 10 pounds for the next thirty years and still not reach the second shelf of pitch-mark repairers.  A rugby-player, on the other hand, needs a gum-shield.  Best get that from the dentist, not Santa.  And that’s it.  Until recently, there was simply nothing to buy.  Rugby union was a game first, and a set of values second.  And to protect those values, it was sincerely believed that rugby couldn’t survive Bill Beaumont putting his name on a book.  Commercialism would wilt

 Times Column 4/12/04 The Oxford-Cambridge match was once Twickenham’s landmark pre-Christmas fixture. It hardly mattered if it wasn't very good, because any rugby at all was better than none. As it happened, the game sometimes lived up to the optimism of its regular 50,000 light and dark blue supporters.  When Cambridge undergraduate Rob Andrew could be judged against Oxford undergraduate Stuart Barnes, the match still had meaning as an elite contest.  Some of the nation’s brightest young players would be scrutinised as they negotiated the pressures of a heaving Twickenham. Tuesday’s 123rd Varsity match is unlikely to offer a glimpse of tomorrow’s stars.  There are only four undergraduates in the starting line-ups, and Cambridge have 30-year-old Johnny Ufton at full-back.