Twelve thousand miles from home, some rivalries still bubble

One of the downsides of all these evening kick-offs is that it’s well past midnight before you shut down the laptop.

Couple that with a series of early morning flights and this trip has all the ingredients of an old fashioned rugby tour.

In those days returning to the team hotel after the midnight hour was a given, having availed of the local hospitality and post-match festivities. We didn’t have to worry about camera phones, twitter or social media and in most instances the press were actually in tandem and out with us. The modern player has no resting place or sanctuary outside his hotel room nowadays. Not on a trip like this anyway.