The Planet Rugby website has a number of interesting pages and none more so than the one which purports to have found doppelgΣngers for a number of celebrity rugby players.
Jonah Lomu is pictured beside 100 metres Olympic champion Marion Jones, surely a slight on the American sprinter, but nothing compared to the look-alike chosen for England flanker Neil Back.
Back is pictured alongside the shorn head and equally small-statured Jimmy Somerville, formerly the front man in the pop group Bronski Beat. The group which penned the species-twisting lines "Jonah was born in a whale/He made his home in/A fish's abdomen" were of course one of the biggest gay groups of the 1980s. Somerville himself is openly gay and is a public supporter of gay rights. There was no suggestion at all that a strong young English lad like Back had anything more in common with the affable pop star.
Tuning in to the ref
NTL, the Irish entertainment and communications group, has recently signed up to sponsor Ref!Link in what appears to be a good move for fans. Ref!Link is a device that will allow rugby fans in Lansdowne Road for Ireland's match against England on Saturday to hear the referee's comments live.
The device is actually a radio link to the referee which transmits live to the supporters in the ground by means of headphones and a small receiver. This gives anyone with the link the chance to hear the real reasons for the official's decisions made during the match. Ref!Link will be available for purchase at designated outlets within the grounds of Lansdowne Road, where it will retail for £8.
Bad news is that the sets cannot be used after the match as the battery, which cannot be replaced easily, lasts for only two to three hours. There was, though, a significant interest when the offer was available for England's match against France last April when 8,000 sets were picked up.
Brave young Turks
Australian Schoolboys are to go where League fears to tread. Just a day after the Australian Rugby League team cancelled their tour to Britain, Australia as well as New Zealand have gone ahead and picked a touring squad of schoolboy players for a tour of Japan, Britain and Ireland beginning next month.
The fearless youngsters arrive in Ireland from Scotland to face Ulster Schools in Belfast on December 15th. Three days later they play Leinster in Dublin before a December 22nd game against the Irish Schools in Cork. Who said League was tougher?
Unwell finger
Gary Longwell (right) was featured in the Ulster team programme for the province's home European Cup game against Wasps on October 5th. The 30-year-old Belfast-born lock was playing in his 100th game for Ulster and answered a number of frivolous questions over a two-page spread.
For serious injuries suffered he replied "none", and for favourite party piece he answered "breaking nose". Given that less than a week later the unfortunate international was denied a chance to play in what would have been his fifth international because he broke his little finger in the last training session before travelling to Wales, the serious injury answer may have to be revised.
But never mind, the second row's favourite film is The Shawshank Redemption.
Shower of spacers
Typing IRFU into your computer can be a cosmic experience. Thinking you are heading down the super highway towards Irish rugby's blessed website, you could be in for a surprise.
For IRFU is actually the Swedish Institute of Space Physics or Institutet For Rymdfysik. You can, for instance, dip into "wave generation in an inhomogeneous plasma layer" or "interaction between radiation and earthspace".
If that doesn't tickle you try "systematic ionospheric interaction experiments". But if you truly want to be bored just click into the Irish Rugby Football Union website and read the Laws of the game.
Rugby Speak
"It was just rubbish and completely untrue. Never at any stage have I mentioned the chance of me not touring. We're quite happy with the way we stand at the moment, we're happy to tour."
- Australian vice-captain Daniel Herbert on the side's proposed tour to the Northern hemisphere.
"Let's see if we can score all 61 (points) in the last five minutes."
- Irish hooker and captain Keith Wood when asked whether Ireland would have a chance of over-hauling England's points aggregate next week in Lansdowne Road.
"You can have the most talented group of players in the world, but if they are conservative they won't go anywhere."
- Former Irish coach Brian Ashton, who will be in Dublin this week with the England team.
