GAME ON

After his performance for England in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the Telegraph described winger Paul Sackey as “a beautifully fluid and devastating runner with a nose for the try-line… brave and secure under the high ball [but] also highly competitive and physical in the tackle”. Yet, despite his successful club and international career, Sackey actually came to rugby fairly late in life — at the age of 14 — when he was sent to John Fisher School in Purley, described by sports journalist Brendan Gallagher as a “perennial nursery of rugby talent”.

Forced to play, Sackey found little enjoyment in the game at first. “I was Number 8 — a forward — so I was getting hurt a lot, which didn’t help the love develop,” he laughs. “But, as I got older, I started to notice that my friends were playing on a Saturday and going out afterwards and then talking about it on Monday in school. I saw the camaraderie and I started