There were any number of reasons for his obvious discomfort - picked by Jack Rowell to play the role of a human catalyst, a link-man working in tandem with his outside half and centres, it took England precisely 38 minutes to give him the ball - but to the "Big is Beautiful" brigade, the problem was as plain as the bloodied nose on Robbo's face He had been overmatched. It was almost exactly two years ago that South Africa, newly crowned as world champions, swaggered into Twickenham, kicked England's collective backside until the red rose turned red raw and made such an unholy mess of Andy Robinson's long-awaited return to the Test arena that the Bath flanker was back among the has- beens before he could say Nelson Mandela.Robinson later admitted, albeit through gritted teeth, that he had never felt so helpless on a rugby pitch. Neil Back squares up to the Springboks at Twickenham this afternoon having spent most of his career proving himself. Chris Hewett talks to a natural-born fighter who may have finally found a sympathetic home for his unique talents. These are dangerous waters and Neil Back knows it. Replacements: B Ross, R Card, A Healy, C McKenzie, E Evans, K Morgan.. Replacements: D Humphreys (London Irish), N Hogan (London Irish), E Halvey (Shannon), J Cunningham (Ballymena), R Corrigan (Greystones), A Clarke (Northampton).CANADA: J Stewart; J Pagano, D Lougheed, R Toews, W Stanley; G Rees (capt), J Graf; R Snow, M Cardinal, R Bice, J Tait, M James, M Schmid, J Hutchinson, A Charron. "We almost beat Wales this summer and we're not here to make up the numbers."IRELAND (v Canada, Lansdowne Road, tomorrow): K Nowlan (St Mary's); D Hickie (St Mary's), R Henderson (Wasps), B McCall (London Irish), K Maggs (Bristol); E Elwood (Galwegians), C McGuinness (St Mary's); N Popplewell (Newcastle, capt), R Nesdale (Newcastle), P Wallace (Saracens), P Johns (Saracens), M O'Kelly (London Irish), D Erskine (Sale), V Costello (St Mary's), K Dawson (London Irish).
It's a match we have to win."Canada are at full strength having made 11 changes from the midweek side that lost 26-10 to Ireland A in Belfast on Wednesday night.They are boosted by the return of their captain Gareth Rees, who has recovered from a stomach bug.The Wasps fly-half is confident his side can make a lasting impression "We can push Ireland," he said. The atmosphere and environment may be different but our approach won't be. And if you add up all the knocks and injuries we have I think 11 players are unavailable for selection."From a small country that's a big hole in our pool."Ireland may be odds-on favourite but their injury worries and the strength and fitness of the Canadians has given Whelan plenty to think about."They have an Irish coach who knows our players and style intimately," he said, referring to the Cork-born Pat Parfrey, a one-cap Irish international against the 1974 All Blacks and now a doctor in New Foundland."We'll approach it in exactly the same way mentally as we approached the All Blacks game. Ireland's only surviving Lion from the trip to South Africa is the Saracens prop Paul Wallace. With Wood absent the captaincy is handed to a Lion of older vintage, Nick Popplewell, while Victor Costello comes straight into the side to replace Miller, with Eddie Halvey staying on the replacements' bench."Miller's loss is a blow to us," said the Irish team manager, Pat Whelan "We've now lost three out of our four Lions this year. The Leicester No 8 has been struggling with ankle ligament damage and finally admitted defeat yesterday and joins fellow Lions Keith Wood and Jeremy Davidson on the sidelines. Eric Miller has become the third Lion to pull out of Ireland's international against Canada at Lansdowne Road tomorrow. There is a glossary, descriptions of all the sumo rules and techniques, including all the methods of winning a bout, statistics with the wrestler's ranking, weight and height and links to other sumo sites.The glossary is essential reading to understand the differences between the various rankings from a yokozuna at the top, to an ozeki, a seriwake, a komusubi and maegashira at the bottom.Konishiki ended his career as the first non-Japanese ozeki and there was a certain amount of controversy that he never gained the title of yokozuna.Channel 4's flirtation with sumo lasted all too briefly and I always enjoyed Lyall Watson's considered commentary.The Official Japanese Sumo Association has its own website in English which contains the latest results, a good beginner's guide and details of the greats.And if you're short of ideas for that problem Christmas present, how about The Big Book of Sumo which comes with its own specially strengthened coffee-table You can order via Atrium Books.- Edward Abelson.
This contains two columns, by the sumo experts Ken Coller and Michael Cohen, which have descriptive details of all the bouts. But his popularity is such that he is the only sumo wrestler to have his own web site, where you find all his details and print-off his handprint. The best site to keep you up to date with Japan's No 1 sport is Sumo Now!. Last Saturday these pages featured former footballer-turned racehorse trainer, Mick Quinn. He was affectionately known as "Sumo" by fans because of his girth. Also last week there was a report that the Hawaiian-born sumo wrestler Konishiki, "The Dump Truck", had had to retire as his knees would no longer support his great weight as it edged over 43 stone.
"I don't have first-name terms with my staff, though I call them by their first names." It's all about standards, apparently. If "Sir" became "Peter", the entire fabric of society would be rent asunder No bad thing too, if you ask me.. Poor petals.More than most sports, racing, like its kissing cousin, hunting, embodies the British class system, the jockeys virtually given classes in forelock- tugging "I'm sir or guv'nor," Walwyn said. "There are a few jobs and chores to perform, then we have lunch and get on with the racing It's hard work." Indeed Jobs and chores And lunch And then there's all that racing. Not too difficult if you own the company.As they lurked in the ring between races in their white coats and trilbies, they looked like a sinister version of the Red Cross men who used to visit POW camps But life is tough for Horne and his colleagues. "You've got to have a company that will let you have the odd day off," Sieff said.
To be a steward you have to give up lots of time for no money, which means they tend to be rolling in it.There was Mark Horne, who owns a printing firm, the Hon David Sieff, of Marks and Spencer fame, and Richard Hambro, whose name speaks for itself. But the programme centred on the work of the stewards, and was a fascinating portrait of the privileged at play. It was a tangential cameo in a programme whose title hinted at far more than it could possibly deliver, being as it was a portrait of The Jockey Club, the august body that administers discipline in racing and is, as the programme put it, "the most exclusive club in the country"."She's a bit kinky but she's a pretty nice filly," said trainer Peter Walwyn, which also promised more than the programme could possibly deliver. This, anchorman Trevor McDonald told us with a grandiose excess of ambition, made it "the vote the politicians can't ignore".At the Countryside Rally in the summer, blood-sporters congregated in Hyde Park, to be addressed, among others, by Michael Heseltine, and in The Englishman And His Horse the previous night (C4), there was a nice shot of a girl - presumably a hunt supporter but Labourite - shouting "F--- off you bastard!" as Hezza took the stage. "Lots of my friends take great pleasure from it."By the end of the programme, 750,000 people had voted in a phone-in poll.