When JPR started at openside
■Andrew Trimble, one of a veritable battalion of ex-players to migrate from the dressing room to the commentary box, summed up the roar of a full-house for Ulster-Racing last weekend by telling BT Sport viewers: “This is the Kingspan.’’
No, it’s not. It’s Ravenhill. Always was, always will be. Naming rights are a valuable commodity but one club, or in this case one province, striking a commercial deal with a sponsor doesn’t mean that its previous name has to be wiped off the face of the Earth.
Ravenhill has been around as a rugby ground since 1923, long enough to make a name for itself. IN THE event of Eddie Jones putting his off-thewall scheme for Jack Nowell’s redeployment into action, the Exeter wing will not be the first back to start on the openside of the scrum. Strange to say, it has happened before, at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Instead of coming off his long run from full back at the end of Wales’ misadventure in Australia more than 40 years ago, JPR Williams packed down on the openside of the scrum. He did so for reasons very different to Jones’ proposed reinvention of Nowell.
Wales had simply run out of back row forwards, a deficiency which left coach John Dawes no option but to pick his old London Welsh sidekick at No.7 for the only time in his glittering career. JPR responded by busting the proverbial gut, as per usual.
He would probably have finished up on the winning side had the Wallabies not robbed the tourists through a Paul McLean drop-goal which those of us who saw it swear to this day missed the posts. Neutrals referees hadn’t been thought of back then, never mind the TMO. ■According to the BBC, the audience for Newport County’s giant-killing of Leicester City at Rodney Parade peaked at 5.2m. At a conservative estimate that would be at least five million one hundred thousand more than the Dragons’ live viewership in the PRO14 and, for that matter, the English Premiership on BT.
Satellite, of course, pays vastly more than terrestrial television. It also shrinks the armchair following to a level not far above those reserved for secret societies.