Good old boys

While much of the Will Carling biography currently being serialised in Britain's Daily Mail comes across as crassly self-serving, there are a few gems which illustrate just how arrogant and backward the Rugby Football Union were when the game started to open out and become professional.

At the start of the 1993-94 season Carling was taken out to lunch by the RFU president Ian Beer, who was also the headmaster of the elite public school Harrow. Carling had prepared himself for a general conversation about the state of rugby, his captaincy etc. But Beer's main concern was the standard of Carling's after dinner speeches.

"They have to improve Will," he said. "They should be important to you. People at those dinners are the guests of the RFU. They come to hear the thoughts of the English captain."

Beer was the headmaster who refused teacher Roger Uttley time off to coach the England side. Uttley had to leave the team hotel and head back to Harrow as England went out to face Australia in 1988.

Beer, forever missing the mood, always accompanied the players onto the pitch in the pre-match ritual. The players hated this intrusion. But on one occasion Beer had to welcome the queen to the ground and could not take part. So he sent a letter to Carling.

"Tragically, I can't walk the pitch with the players," he wrote. "Do apologise and do say that I'll be with them in spirit. Today I am up to my eyes in Royalty."

Carling read the note to the players amid a outbreak of manic laughter.