April 2008 Archives

In the last eight months I've watched nearly forty games of rugby in person and countless others on television and, though I can't be 100 per cent sure, have probably seen more than 150 tries scored.

The other day at Goldington Road someone asked me which is the best try I've seen this season and I had to be honest and say I couldn't recall one that stuck out head and shoulders above anything else.

Given the itinerant nature of my job - I watch most sides quite regularly but none week in week out, it occured to me the quest to find try of the season should probably start with the playes, officials and supporters of our local clubs.

Dan Norton has scored a couple of crackers for Moseley as have James Aston and Uche Oduoza for Bees. Of all West Midlands National League sides Coventry probably integrate forwards and backs better than anyone else which means Butts Park must have seen a few quality ones.

And even though Stourbridge's season ultimately ended in the disappointment of missing out on promotion they have had some great fun along the way,.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself that this is the best job in the world. I've been a sports fan all my life; one of my first memories is being in floods of tears the night England's footballers went out of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico City; one of my favourite memories is watching from the press box as Tamworth won the FA Vase at the old Wembley in 1989; one of the things I want to do before I die is watch a Major League Baseball game in the United States.
I get paid moderately well to spend my working hours reading about sport, looking at pictures of sport, talking about the best ways to cover sport in The Post. I work with people I like who (mostly) share my love of sport and, yes, I do very, very, occasionally get into sports events for nothing.
And now, the editor's gone and made the job just that bit better by asking me to blog about sport.

I am not by nature the sort of person who views change with suspicion, instead I try to take the view that if something is inevitable the best course of action is to find positives.

I could never, therefore, be described as a traditionalist. To me traditions are not entities that have existed since the beginning of time, they have themselves developed through changing circumstances. If they have a beginning so they must have an end.

But I do get a bit touchy about the Six Nations. Rugby Union has known unprecedented change in the 13 years since professionalism was introduced. Virtually nothing has escaped untouched, neither the club game nor the representative sport.

Yet there are certain non-negotiables that give rugby its defining character. Principles that separate it from rugby league or other versions of football. The Six Nations is one.