When World Cup winning hero, Johnny Wilkinson came to town, fans turn up to see the genius in action. There’s something unique about him (which this story reveals later). He now plies his trade for French side, Toulon, and when they played London Irish in the Heineken Cup, Wilkinson was majestic at the Madejski Stadium. [...]
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Lions Tour Ends Honourably
I was personally thrilled to see the Lions win the third and final test match with the Springboks. And mathematically ……….. score more points than the Springboks over the three test matches – sorry Springbok fans – I can’t resist the stats. Fantastic series and congrats to the Springboks on winning it overall. In fact, [...]
South African Sportsmanship
I’m in Joburg wondering how the Lions will do on Saturday in the third and final test. I caught the Emerging Springboks game in Capetown and witnessed one of the finest conversions ever kicked in the dying moments to give the youngish Springboks a draw. Then I witnessed another killer kick in the Second Test [...]
Real Madrid Magic BBC 5 Live Interview…
I had a great chat with Eamonn Holmes and was delighted to hear his story about how the Real Madrid fans gave Liverpool’s Steve Gerard a standing ovation as he left the field. Liverpool have this tradition too. So too do Munster rugby & Queens Park Rangers FC (see story in the book). Now I’m [...]
Brian Clough sportsman BBC Nottingham interview…
I mentioned during my BBC Nottingham interview, that local hero Brian Clough and arguably, the most successful football manager in Europe, never allowed any of his players to challenge the referee’s decisions. I was delighted to hear that he used to ask the Nottingham Forest fans to resist using foul language by showing them his [...]
Opposition Fans Sing Our Song
I went to the wonderful 74,500 seater Millennium Stadium in Cardiff last Saturday to watch the Irish rugby team take on the 6 Nations champions, Wales. Both sides were going for glory. Before the kick-off I witnessed a fantastic moment of sportsmanship. It was, in fact, more than a moment, it was several minutes. [...]
Applaud The Opposition – I thought only Liverpool & Munster did that
I heard recently of a US High School, Grapevine Faith, whose head football coach, Kris Hogan, asked ‘what if half our fans, for one night only, cheered for the other team, Gainsville Tornadoes?’. You see Gainsville is a maximum security correctional facility for kids with convictions for drugs, assault and robbery. They play all their [...]
Silence was broken by a dog barking outside the packed stadium
“This was one of those sporting occasions which transcends a game and makes bolder statements about humanity……………….during one of Donald’s earlier, and also crucial, kicks, the silence was broken only by the barking of a dog from outside the stadium.” This is an excerpt from an extraordinarily well written piece by a Kiwi, Martin Moodie, [...]
