I was blowing Jez Harris's kick wide at the end

I was blowing Jez Harris's kick wide at the end.'QUESTION: Which two Scottish props were joined in wedlock last year? Answer: Sandy Carmichael (50 caps, late 1960s and 1970s) and Alison Brand (one cap, 1992), a romance which started on the training pitch at West of Scotland where Carmichael is entering his fourth year as coach to the women's team.Brand is at present injured, though West of Scotland's league season got underway successfully last Sunday: an 81-0 victory over Glasgow University's women. He was back at The Rec for last weekend's Bath v Leicester draw, when a new partisan element manifested itself. In the introduction to his autobiography, Smelling of Roses, he wrote that he has redefined himself 'more in the mould of Stefan Edberg than John McEnroe' but proceeded to display little of the Swede's reticence in delivering his opinions. So as presenter of Sky Sports' live rugby, would he have any problem recruiting his old colleagues as studio guests? Would Will Carling, 'a captain clot', in part responsible for 'the biggest tactical faux pas witnessed at a high level in the annals of rugby union' (Calcutta Cup, 1990), play the pundit? 'Carling has been keen to come on,' says Barnes, as has Rob Andrew, another who fails to come out of the book smelling of roses. And what of Brian Moore, who has been taking legal advice over allegations of financial mismanagement? 'I can't speak for Brian, but we haven't actually thought of him yet. As far as I know, there's nothing personal between us.'On air, as yet, Barnes has had no reason to be particularly contentious, probably delivering his harshest sentence on Paul Hull, the Bristol full-back, who was taken to task for his tactical positioning. The word at Sky is that Barnes could brush up on the tricks of the trade - throwaway lines, short links - but that he has filled his new position with aplomb.His debut was a dummy run at Bath v Barbarians on 3 September after which, he says, 'the lads were laughing, saying they'd never seen me sweat so much on the pitch'. America3 , Bill Koch's successful 1992 America's Cup defender, in San Diego yesterday (Photograph omitted).

A SIDE-STEP was rarely a problem for Stuart Barnes when wearing his old Bath shirt, but take him off the rugby field and he will tend to play crash-ball with controversy. And I can think of nothing more exhilarating than the prospect of seeing Davies back where he belongs - in the scarlet jersey graced by so many of the game's most lustrous talents.But I can't help thinking that if and when he ever does, rugby union will no longer be the game with which it has been my pleasure and privilege to have been associated for the past 40 years Anyone for tennis?. While Jonathan Davies, the most grievous of all losses to rugby union, was tripping the light fantastic in front of a packed house at Wembley and a domestic television audience comparable with the best in last season's Five Nations' Championship, the Springboks were making their first appearance for 25 years in Wales, the once proud epicentre of the world game but now ravaged by the defections of so many leading players. Fewer than 15,000 turned out to watch a contest of stultifying mediocrity.Given the choice last week between the National Stadium in Cardiff and Wembley, I know where I would rather have been. There could be no more chilling portent of things to come and no starker demonstration of the corrosive effects of the poacher's work than the events of last Saturday.

But this may not be so easy.Having surrendered on the principle that disbarring league players constitutes a restraint of trade, then it would be extremely difficult to exclude them from the one area in which there is substantial financial reward.Complacency remains the greatest danger. They are also confident that they can uphold the ban on league players from ever again representing their countries. In support of this, they cite other sports like golf and cricket where professionals returning to the amateur ranks cannot play at international level. Scott Quinnell made off with the swag in the nick of time.The RFU is taking solace in the fact that, although there may be a legal obligation to allow league players to return to the game, the stand-by period of two or three years will be an effective delaying device. When, as it must, the RFU abandons its stance against payment for rugby-related activities, England's top players will have the opportunity to earn considerable sums of money.Moreover, the ending of the ban means that, in future, rugby league clubs can offer shorter contracts and reduced signing-on fees which might still entice the minor talents from union but would be less appealing to the star performers.

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I was blowing Jez Harris's kick wide at the end

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