As the final of the Rugby World Cup took place over the weekend, it was suggested to me that as the New Zealand squad perform the Haka prior to kick off then perhaps the English team ought to show off our national tradition...............Morris Dancing. Good idea! Why not expand the theme further? The French could perform the Can-Can; Scottish players might like to show their prowess at sword dancing; the Irish could line up for a quick Riverdance; the Aussies might like to give us a chorus of Waltzing Matilda complete with actions..................oh the possibilities are endless. Of course it could all be taken a degree further with each team providing traditional culinary fare for the opposition pre-match. Not sure how playing on a gut full of escargot and frogs legs would go down with the players though. Be worth a try (pardon the pun) just to see what happens.
My brother and his girlfriend returned from their holiday to Australia and the Far East at the weekend. Being the wonderful sibling that I am, I was out of the house at 05:20 to head on down to Heathrow (God’s hell hole) to pick them up. On arriving at the meeting area in terminal 3 I spotted a film chap from Sky Sports with his camera trained on the folks emerging bleary eyed from their overnight flights. Ah ha...........he is obviously there for the Welsh rugby team coming home from New Zealand I thought. I managed to get a prime position in front of his camera and waited for the homecoming fourth-placed chunky chaps to head on through the doors. Eventually, various members of the team appeared kitted out in team polo shirts..............yay! I took a few pictures on my BlackBerry (not that I recognised any of the players) but was a little bewildered at the total lack of fans awaiting their heroes’ arrival. Amidst this excitement appeared my brother and his girlfriend, smiling as they spotted the laminated sign bearing their names and pictures of the cities they had visited. It turned out they had been on the same flight as the rugby folk and it was not the Welsh RFU team, but a Rugby League team (I have no idea which one) instead. The last time I ran into anyone famous (I use the term loosely here) at the airport was on another occasion when I was picking said sibling up (there is a theme developing here) and Black Lace wandered past. Fortunately there was no chorus of Agadoo coming from them otherwise I might have felt compelled to deny my own nationality in embarrassment.
My brother did make me chuckle when he said the baggage carousel had a huge crate travelling around which belonged to the rugby team. It was clearly marked up with its contents “Crutches and Neck Braces”.................excellent!
Back to reality and the past week has seen the deaths of two talented figures in motorsport. The first was the IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon who was caught up in a multi car accident at the Las Vegas circuit and had his car flip over then hit the barrier. The second took place at Sepang in Malaysia when MotoGP star Marco Simoncelli crashed on lap two of the motorbike GP and suffered fatal injuries. Whilst both these incidents are tragic and the loss of young lives is never good, they both died whilst doing the job they loved and had chosen to do. The big money to be made in motorsport is undoubtedly an attraction, but all the drivers and riders have the burning ambition to be the best they can and win the trophies regardless of remuneration. I only hope I do not have to comment after the next F1 race on a similar tragedy. R.I.P. Dan and Marco, your passion for your chosen sports will be missed as much as your vibrant personalities.
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