I used to play Open Side Wing Forward and occasionally Inside Centre at School, and later in the Army in the Far East (I've got a long scar on my chin from a bad tackle in Singapore). And I played for a while for the umpteenth fifteen of Gloucester RUFC (nowhere near the big boys).

An uncle of mine was capped for Wales Schoolboys (with the name of Hector MacDiarmid McKelvie). The family has a split rugby personality between Wales, Scotland, and New Zealand - the schizophrenia will show next year with the (proper) World Cup - it's the same with the NZ side of the family (apparently they were indignant that Woodward wouldn't play Gavin Henson during the British Lions tour).

My younger daughter became an enthusiast (for Scottish rugby) at Edinburgh University - spectating, that is: I don't think they have a girls' rugby team, yet.

I had a bizarre conversation in a lift in an hotel in Los Angeles round about the time of the first Rugby World Cup - this American guy overheard us talking, and chipped in that "real men play rugby" and that everybody else should look out in a few years when the American team will give them a run for their money. Well, they have put up a respectable show, but I reckon Canada's a better contender.