Then four come along at once...

Below is the fruit of my shameless approach to having pictures with as many current and historically significant players as humanly possible. This was at the St Columba's College annual Sportsman's Dinner, always a good bash and an excellent fundraiser put together by Jimmy Lewis, our Old Boys 'Organiser-in-Chief'.  Rick O'Shea PA'd the event really well and I will be skimming down the Sky channels to catch him on Scrum V and RaboDirect commentary much more than I already do. He was a very funny man. 

First up, my rugby hero, Schalk Brits. Players like him and Keith Wood give a two fingers up to those effeminate backs and cynical pundits who believe a front row's role is to bend over and push, occasionally scrape back a ball in a scrum and throw the odd lineout. He is the rugby equivalent of Gareth Bale, and that is no exaggeration. 

Former Scotland international and British Lion Scott Hastings, what a bloke. Spoke to him about the local rugby scene as well as his role as an analyst for RTE. Gave a good account of his depth of rugby knowledge when being cross examined by the somewhat inebriated Old Boy crowd.

Former England Prop Victor Ubogu next. Hilarious man, especially when he dropped a clanger about some professional rugby coaches being 'too teacher like' not realising there were about 30 teachers in the room at the time.

Finally former Scotland international, Grand Slam winner and British Lion, Craig Chalmers. I love his articles in Rugby World, and he liked it when I referred to his pieces as containing 'brutal honesty'. He does some punditry for Sky Sports 7s coverage and he has just taken over as Head Coach at Chinnor RFC in Oxfordshire, who currently reside in National 2 South. Could not have been friendlier.

Credit to the game this lot. They didn't sit in the corner looking like they wanted to be anywhere else other than the Hilton on the A41 near Bushey, getting involved and working the crowd well into the late hours. In the future if you see me out and making a beeline for a professional player, iPhone at the ready, please intercept me. I am very wary of gaining a reputation as being the rugby equivalent of a screaming teenage girl at a One Direction concert.