A round-up of today's other stories in brief
England in hot zone
No doubt which team took on the professional game full throttle. England, invariably at the top end of the championship, bolted out of the traps from a position, which was already dominant. Never below second place until 2004, when they ended up third before slumping to a post-World Cup slump last year with a fourth place.
Rebuilding from the Martin Johnson era, England, nonetheless, have been by far the most successful team of the home nations since the game turned professional 10 years ago, when they won it with four wins from four. They won again in 1996, 2000, 2001 and 2003, France stopping them in 2002 from winning three-in-a-row. But as graphs go, England's profile stays in the hot zone almost all the time.
News good for Matt
Matt McCullough's body appears to be all right despite it taking a few studs from Llanelli's Dafydd Jones last week when the mist descended in their Celtic League match. While the news for the Ulster second row is good, the Welsh will miss Jones for the next three weeks, which means he will not be available for the Six Nations opening game against England at Twickenham.
The flanker received a red card from referee Peter Allan in the Ravenhill Road match before appearing before the WRU's disciplinary Committee at the Millennium Stadium. The case for stamping was proved. However, the committee decided that Jones did not make contact with McCullough's head but did make contact with the player's arm and upper body.
The player was reported to be remorseful. For stamping that was, not missing McCullough's head.
Where are they now?
When Bath coach Brian Ashton came across Dylan O'Grady playing for Sale, he noticed a certain aggression about the flanker that struck a chord. Soon after Ashton was appointed to the Irish coaching job and O'Grady was invited over during the 1997-98 season. His one and only cap came against Italy in Bologne before the player slid out of sight.
O'Grady, it appears, held down a job as a bouncer at Fridays Nite Club in the outskirts of Manchester. It was there he was arrested for "conspiracy to supply cannabis to undercover police officers" and was sentenced to nine months in Strangeways Prison in Manchester. Having played for Ireland he then watched the 1999 World Cup from Strangeways, much to the amusement of the other inmates.
O'Grady by then had served a 20-month ban from the game of rugby for head-butting an opponent and on release joined the second division English club Flyde. In 2004 reports in papers noted than he was returning from a second ban, this time for 12 weeks for becoming embroiled in a brawl with the opposition playing a match with Flyde. Nicknamed 'Dangerous' his 12 weeks out of the game was for again head-butting an opponent and verbal abuse.
"Most nights I just used to stand at the door with the wrestlers listening to the music and taking the piss out of the weirdos," he said of his bouncing days. His precise location now is not known.
'Rock old boys meet
Craig Doyle, the former Blackrock boy and BBC presenter, was seen in the Irish rugby team headquarters yesterday conducting an interview with none other than former Blackrock boy and Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll. As it happens Doyle was recently voted Ireland's sexiest man while the Irish captain was in recent years also voted Ireland's sexiest man.
Perish the thought that some young girl might have inadvertently stumbled into the Killiney hotel and encountered both red-hot 'Rock males engaging each other in heavy rugby conversation. Why, the fallout would have been heard as far away as Sion Hill.
Old ones are the best
The changing fortunes of Welsh rugby as spoken by the two Gareths.
"We've lost seven of our last eight matches. Only team that we've beaten was Western Samoa. Good job we didn't play the whole of Samoa" - Gareth Davies prior to last season.
"The crowd were fantastic, they were watching in the best stadium in the world . . . and we gave them what they deserved." - Gareth Thomas after winning 2005 Six Nations last year.
