Six Nations and the indefinable art of captaincy

Captaincy is one tough gig, but has the job description moved with the times?

LEADER: Peter O'Mahony faces the press in Marseille.

The great Welsh rugby journalist JGB Thomas put a list to paper once of the qualities needed to wear an armband. The skipper, he wrote, had to keep their committees happy, appease the supporters’ clubs, attend all training sessions, study the opposition, make diplomatic speeches and stand absolutely above reproach.

This was over 50 years ago, so not all of that remains true, but Doug Insole’s tongue-in-cheek take is as on-the-money now as it was in the mid-20th century. The former England cricket captain had it that his role demanded the skills of a PR professional, an agricultural consultant, a psychiatrist, an accountant, a nursemaid and a diplomat.