CHRIS HEWETT
GUEST COLUMNIST

Apips-and-core Australian with vast experience of top-end rugby on both sides of the Equator sends his season’s greetings from a sunlit corner of Sydney – damn his luck – together with a picture of the Ashes urn. “It was nice of Joe and the team to let us keep them Down Under,” he writes, generosity of spirit oozing from every word.
As wind-ups go, this is fairly easy to take. For one thing, he’s an old friend, a highly successful coach and an invigorating conversationalist blessed with the sharpest of sporting min...