How this football man was wooed by rugby

Nub News editor Philip Evans continues his series looking back over his 55-year career in journalism, many years of which have been spent covering East Devon.

Sport has dominated my life, mainly football and cricket, but as a youngster I also played tennis and table tennis to a reasonable standard and ran for Dorset in the English School's Cross County championships.

In those days schools either played football or rugby. With no rugby teams in this area, at Lyme Regis Grammar School (later to become the Woodroffe School), it was strictly football and cricket.

In a previous article in this series I wrote about my early reporting days on the Express & Echo in Exeter and how I had to cover sport on a Saturday afternoon for the Football Express.

My first assignment was to cover a match at Honiton RFC but I had no knowledge whatsoever about the complicated rules of rugby.

An old reporter called Tom Woodbridge came to my rescue and wrote the required 200 words at half time with 100 words plus the result at full-time. He presented me with a book of rugby rules before he died.

I also recalled that working for the Echo on Saturday's meant I had to give up playing for my home team but I usually got a game for the Exeter Press X1 on a Sunday. It didn't improve my football skills but did marvels with my capacity to drink beer!

I had no idea that in those days I would attend some of the greatest rugby events in the world whilst working for one of the game's great players and characters – Tony O'Reilly, now Sir Anthony O'Reilly.

Tony was the ultimate boss of the Independent News & Media Group, based in Dublin, as well as his high profile position as CEO and chairman of H J Heinz in Pittsburgh.

Tony was also an Irish international and I think still holds the record for the most tries scored on a British Lions tour.

Stories about Tony O'Reilly's rugby career are legion and one of my favourites was when he was recalled to the Irish squad when he had already become a much admired businessman with the Irish Dairy Board.

By this time Tony had his own chauffeur who carried his kit into the dressing room, I think at Twickenham. You can imagine the ribbing he got for that, especially from the likes of Willy John McBride.

Tony asked for a pair of socks but was told they were not provided by the Irish RFU and that he had to provide his own.

Tony was having none of this and decided that he would run out onto the Twickenham turf with no socks if necessary. Socks were soon found for him and from that day on the Irish players never had to provide their own socks again.

Part of my duties for Independent Newspapers Ltd was to run a sports publishing subsidiary with our portfolio including a number of Premier League football magazines, an American football magazine, a Basketball paper and a number of one-off publications for big sporting occasions.

We also owned Rugby News. With newspapers in South Africa and Australia, we were investigating the possibility of making some of these worldwide.

Tony had hospitality facilities at Landsdown Road in Dublin, Parc de Princes in Paris and at Twickenham so I was able to see many of the top rugby matches and that's how I became so interested in the game.

Like many other soccer fans, I'm disillusioned with professional football so if there's a clash between a good rugby match (Six Nations or the like) and a Premier football match, I would probably choose rugby, especially as my son Darren and son-in-law Barry, who lives in Ireland, are big rugby fans.

However, my biggest rugby experience was editing Rob Andrew's World Cup Diary 1995.

Rugby aficionados will recall this was the World Cup won by the Springboks held in South Africa and few will forget Nelson Mandela, resplendent in a South African jersey, presenting the Web Ellis trophy to the South African team after their historic win over the All Blacks.

I spent three weeks in South Africa, following the England team around. We provided Rob Andrew a camera and microphone and he recorded each day's events and activities on a daily basis. I then picked up the film and tapes from his hotel and transcribed them overnight.

It gave me a thorough insight into the commitment our international stars whilst on tour and the efforts they were made to keep boredom away during an international tournament. Their schedule was punishing and their professionalism awesome.

For example, after a training session every morning, Rob Andrew would return to the training ground to practice his kicking. He must have kicked hundreds of balls every day.

This, of course, was the World Cup where England beat Australia in the quarter-finals with a last-minute drop kick from Rob Andrew.

I didn't see much rugby but it was hugely exciting being in South Africa who organised the tournament brilliantly. At each venue they set of a World Cup camp with marquees representing each competing nation serving their own national dishes and drinks and with large screens for the local population who could not afford the ticket prices to see the games.

When Rob Andrew returned home he became rugby union's first full-time professional in the newly-created role of Director Rugby Development for Newcastle United Sporting Club.

When it came time to leave Independent Newspapers and return home to Lyme Regis, my farewell party was held in Tony O'Reilly's hospitality box at Twickenham.

Next week in my final part of my 55 years in journalism, I write how I thought I had bought Pulman's Weekly News – but it didn't quite work out that way.

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