Planet Rugby

Technical hitches: It's a well known fact that the youth of today are a whiz with all gadgets electronic but there was a particularly painful illustration for one eminent Irish journalist in Paris over the weekend.

In the interest of protecting the innocent - and he really was in this case an innocent abroad - we won't reveal names.

His problems began when he discovered he had left his tape recorder back in Ireland and so, being the true professional, he went out and bought one.

As he waited to get on the train to Versailles where the Irish team was initially based for their Six Nations Championship match in Paris, he took out the tape recorder to put in the batteries.

A young fella of about nine or 10 came over and offered to show him how to work the new gadget and where the batteries would go. The journalist in question smiled, handed over the tape recorder and his new friend duly obliged, receiving €1 for his kindness.

The two boarded the train whereupon the youngster entertained the passengers by singing into the tape recorder and then playing it back.

Four stations later the youngster jumped up and pointed to the name of the station - he had earlier informed the journalist that it would be eight stops to Versailles - smiled and simply alighted from the train, disappearing from sight as the doors closed.

The bemused journalist could only chuckle at the youngster's audacity as for the second time he found himself with no tape recorder.

The wrong Horgan?

According to the statistics people at Saturday's Six Nations Championship match between Ireland and France in Paris, Anthony Horgan made a monumental impact when he came on as a replacement.

He was the joint fourth highest ball carrier with seven, had the most off-loads (four) and threw in a couple of errors for good measure.

Given that Anthony Horgan came on with just two minutes to go in the match at Stade de France it is fair to assume it must have been a case of mistaken identity and it should have been Shane and not Anthony that contributed the aforementioned statistics.

Jersey etiquette

It is interesting to note the difference between the unions in terms of exploring sponsorship options on the Test match jerseys. Wales, for example, have the word Cymru under the three feathers, sport the Rockport logo (team sponsors), the Reebok logo (kit sponsors) and the Welsh flag on the collar.

They also include the name of the fixture (Wales-Scotland, for example), the date of the match and also the number cap - i.e., the 556th player to represent Wales - on the bottom of the jersey.

England have similar stitching in the latter respect although they differ by illustrating the number of caps of the individual player.

Sanctity in Scotland

Former Leinster coach Matt Williams, now in charge of the Scotland team, decided that one of the first things that he would do was ban anyone from using the Scottish dressing-room at Murrayfield. That would apply to Scotland under-19, under-21 or even the national side if they happened to be training there.

He maintained that there should be a certain cachet to becoming a full Scottish international and that one of the perks would be to run out from the home dressing-room at Murrayfield. You had to earn the right to be there.

His views contrast starkly with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) who came up with a novel idea for 200 "very special VIPs," prior to Saturday's Six Nations Championship match between Wales and Scotland, the latter providing a nice symmetry to the tale.

For £299 those guests were provided with a tour of the stadium at about midday, some four hours prior to the kick-off, that included a trip to the Welsh dressing-room on a guided tour of the stadium. They were also allowed pitch-side.

Those who subscribed were able to go into the dressing-room and see the name plates that hung above each peg, see all the paraphernalia that accompanies an international rugby team and also the jerseys, socks and shorts neatly hung and in place for the home team.

Could you picture the scene a few hours later when a Welsh voice pipes up "anyone seen my socks?" A kind of Goldilocks and the Three Bears moment. You know what these souvenir hunters are like.

Seriously though, it shows the difference in attitude, with one union looking to develop commercial remuneration and another imposing Corinthian values.

Williams is not alone in his views, as England coach Clive Woodward is a like-minded soul. Prior to Munster's European Cup final against Northampton at Twickenham, he asked that the England dressing-room at Twickenham remain sacrosanct and that neither team use it.

Did you know . . .

l That in the 2003 Six Nations Championship there were 55 converted tries, 19 unconverted tries, 65 penalties and 11 drop-goals.

l That there was a 74 per cent success rate with conversion in the SNC 2003 down two per cent on the previous year.

l That the average number of points per game in a Six Nations match has dropped from 53 (2001) to 51 (2002) and it fell further last season to 47.

l Of the 15 matches played in last season's championship that 10 were one by the team scoring most tries.

l That there were 74 tries scored in total, one fewer than the years 2000, 2001 and 2002.

l That GC Lindsay of Scotland holds the individual record for most tries scored in a match in the tournament, dating back to 1887.

If you didn't then this column would like to point out that nether did we until we read the excellent Six Nations media guide provided by the tournament sponsors, The Royal Bank of Scotland.