THE first week of January always used to be the occasion of the final England trial at Twickenham – England v the Rest – with similar matches in Wales, Ireland and Scotland although I don’t remember France staging them.
I’ve always rather liked the idea of snarly trial matches – rugby’s equivalent of the vicious man-on-man boat-testing and crew swapping that has been the cornerstone of GB’s great recent success at rowing.
John Pullin insisted they were among the hardest matches he ever played in. Even in the bad old days England always had a handful...