Yes, Andrew, that is the greatest try of all time. If anyone still needs cheering up after watching Gareth Edwards score against the All Blacks, I recommend this tremendous interview with another giant from the past, ex-England forward Andy Ripley, now facing the ultimate challenge against prostate cancer. What an extraordinary guy:
He is intelligent, funny, charming, eccentric, a terrible show-off, numerically brilliant, huge, fit, a world record veteran indoor rowing champion, 59 and, possibly, dying...Ripley doesn't have taboos. He will talk about anything. Love, death, sex, God and penile dysfunction. Thanks to the hormone treatment he is on, monthly injections of Zoladex to drastically lower his testosterone, he has discovered his feminine side.
"I love shopping now. And what about washing? You get a pile of dirty clothes, put them in, put the thing in [he means washing powder], don't forget the fabric softener and they come out clean. It's great." "You haven't started wearing your wife's shoes as well, have you," I ask suspiciously. "No, I'm not a cross-dresser. Plus my feet are size 13."
His thoughts on the professionalization of rugby - and sport generally - are also worth reflecting on. Has something been lost along the way? Definitely:
I've had such a privileged life. I did sport when it was a window on a great world but not the only world you inhabited. They wouldn't want me to, but I feel a huge sympathy for professional sportsmen now. It seems such a narrow and narrowing life. It makes them fascists because they're special, they're continually being told they're special and mainly because they are so single-minded they have no room for compassion. They have to be like that because professional sport is about 'one-nil'. All the other stuff is just noise.
Clive Woodward's account of his early club rugby days in London is similar - sure, the top team was adult in its approach, but ultimately anyone could join the club and play at some level, however lacking in skill or talent. My games master at school just took it as read that we'd "join our clubs" after leaving (I wonder if any of us ever actually did this?), by which he would have meant Bedford, Northampton etc.
Posted by: James Hamilton | Tuesday, February 06, 2007 at 02:06 PM