MARTIN JOHNSON

Firstly, congratulations to Australia for managing, against all the odds, to put 11 fit players onto the field for the opening Ashes Test. The amount of pre-series talking they’ve been doing would have relieved the stubbornest of donkeys of its hind legs, and quite how they managed to avoid a collective bout of laryngitis must be a source of wonderment to even the finest medical brains.
T’was ever thus for an Ashes series in Australia. “This is war!” “Mental Disintegration!” “We’re going to target the captain”. Give us ...