“Rugby must lionise the spor t’s individual greats”

Rugby’s most outspoken and influential journalist

RECENTLY, THE great Toulouse scrum-half Antoine Dupont received the Pat Marshall Memorial Trophy. This award is voted for by the membership of the Rugby Union Writers’ Club and is presented annually to the club’s chosen personality of the year. It is also one of the oldest individual awards in sport since it was first presented in 1976.

The late Pat Marshall was a doyen of the media box who wrote for the Daily Express. Almost every great player or character has won the award and Dupont was rightly impressed as he looked down the list of winners.

Rugby is seen as the ultimate team sport. And rightly so. It is said that no one can thrive in any department of the team unless someone else is thriving in another. It is that communal activity that is always celebrated, the team spirit, the sense of going into the sporting trenches alongside colleagues. But if we