As for Twickenham committee types who must explain to the corduroy-trousered species known as Surrey Man why they even dreamed of selling the stadium… nope, not them either. It’s not even Gonzalo Quesada, the latest poor sod to be appointed head coach of Italy.
This column’s hot favourite, in a one-horse race, is Phil Waugh, the 79-cap flanker from Sydney who, since June of last year, has been fighting one fire after another as chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union. He may be the first CEO in the history of team sport to trade in his business suit for a set of flame-resistant coveralls with added thermal protection.
Waugh was a brilliant player whose brilliance would have been more widely recognised had he not spent his prime competing for the same Wallaby shirt – or, occasionally, operating in the same Test back row – as a certain George Smith, who, whenever the generations of dial-shifting Aussie opensides come up for discussion, is invariably ranked above the Simon Poidevins and David Wilsons, the Michael Hoopers and David Pococks.
This story is from the February 25, 2024 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the February 25, 2024 edition of The Rugby Paper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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