Room 101: Austin Healy – ESPN consultant and former England and Leicester star

1. Snooty horse riders
For some reason people who ride on horses on country lanes think motorists have the ability to see around corners and slow right down from 60mph to 10mph in an instant. I live in the countryside where there must be a million acres for people to ride their horses in, yet they choose to ride on the A46. When you fail to crawl past them at what they perceive to be the appropriate speed you either get a withering, condescending look or, worse still, two fingers. I’m tempted to get one of those really loud horns, like the A-Team had, and sound it off as I go past.
TRP verdict:  You’ve got the bit between your teeth on this one…you’re in.
2. False friendships on Reality TV
As someone who has appeared in a Reality TV show (Strictly Come Dancing, 2008), I’m speaking from personal experience here. It makes me laugh when I watch such shows now and see the participants, usually celebrities, greet each other like they’ve made friends for life even though they’ve only just met. Don’t get me wrong, you do get decent friends from shows like that and I’m still in contact with Erin, my professional dance partner, and three or four others. But it is way too easy for people to get wrapped up into thinking they are the centre of everyone else’s world, when they’re clearly not.  As we’re currently seeing on Celebrity Big Brother, people are best friends one minute and arch enemies the next.
TRP verdict:  Anyone that wears Lycra and jumps through walls on TV needs all the friends they can get. You’re out.
3. Foul Play Intervention
Where do I start? I don’t think there enough column inches for me to fit in all the things that annoy me about the game nowadays. One particular bug-bear is players not being allowed to take quick tap penalties. But the one I’ll go for is the increased levels of scrutiny now being placed on foul play. Now we’ve got all manner of people looking for incidents: the ref, 4th officials, the TMO, TV commentators…The end result is that the game has become sterile and completely robotic. I was part of that process during the Worcester v Leicester game, live on ESPN, and I didn’t feel particularly good about it. There was an off-the-ball incident where Matt Smith elbowed Alex Grove in the back of the head, because he’d blocked his running line, and Grove booted him back in retaliation. Things like this used to get sorted out by the players on the field, but now it goes for referral. The autonomy of the referee is being questioned constantly; we have got to give the ref less to look at, not more. If we give them more to look at they’ve got absolutely no chance of doing their job properly.
TRP verdict:  R is for Ref, not referral. You’re in.