NOTHING out of the ordinary.
NOTHING out of the ordinary.
Those five words from respected rugby coach Ian McGeechan pretty much put the Danny Cipriani v Josh Lewsey training-ground brawl to bed.
Of course, some of my friends among the Fourth Estate bigged up the confrontation, which is no surprise given Cipriani and Lewsey and Wasps and England team-mates.
It seems glamour boy Danny was properly knocked out, suffering a bust lip and superficial cuts.
At least it gave him the opportunity to ask Kelly Brook to kiss it better. I don't think I'd be alone in saying I'd get mullied by the whole team to earn a smacker from Ms Brook.
In no way would Kelly try to laugh off any violence in rugby but it is a highly-charged, physical-contact sport which sometimes spills over into fisticuffs.
Training pitch contretemps have been going on since Noah was in the colts team. Even our five-a-side games at the Mail have been known to boil over and we couldn't fight sleep.
Wasps director of rugby McGeechan said: "This sort of thing happens every week. I'm quite chuffed it was two backs involved.
"Look, what's new? These are rugby players after all."
It sometimes has it's serious side – one hero from West Hartlepool's side which won promotion to the Premiership a decade ago ended up in court on assault charges after a training-ground incident.
The player protested his innocence and was subsequently cleared at Teesside Crown Court.
In football, John Hartson almost kicked Eyal Berkovic's head off in a dust up at West Ham.
But thankfully, most incidents are over and done with and forgotten by the time the two brawlers have reached the showers.
These fights are nothing new.
Indeed, former England coach Jack Rowell – and a born and bred Poolie to boot – never tried to discourage it during his highly-successful tenure with Bath.
His players would say he loved to see his squad snarling and scrapping at the training ground because come match day Bath would produce a robust performance to flatten their opponents.
Jack won eight national cups and five league titles during his glorious reign at the Recreation Ground so it's clearly a policy which did Bath no harm.
No-one wants to see their husbands/ sons/ dads coming home with facial injuries from a training session, but it does occasionally happen.
In Cipriani and Lewsey's case the battle started because of a dispute over missed tackles – coaches would want their players to care passionately. They would be a bit miffed if the pair simply shrugged their shoulders in a moment of indifference.
One good thing about it is that Cipriani actually made the newspaper headlines for events INSIDE the white lines.
Over the last 12 months or so, Danny has appeared in the press for everything but his rugby skills.
First up her dated one half of the Cheeky Girls, Monica Irimia, no disgrace there, then he scrummed down with a pretty model called Larissa Summers, only to discover Summers used to possess more than just a pretty name.
It turned out Larissa had been born Darren Pratt! Oops.
As if that wasn't embarrassing enough, he'd been dropped by England after being seen emerging from a nightclub just two days before what would have been his test debut. Danny was just dropping off some tickets ... swear down!
Talking of swearing, after he finally made his England debut he let a rude word slip live on telly!
And what's he doing now? Only 'courting' Kelly Brook!
No wonder Lewsey decked him – he was only doing what millions of men all over Great Britain wanted to do to him.
IT IS that time of the year when people who are too old and as slow as milk floats dust off their boots.
That's enough about West's leading W's – that's Peter Wilkinson and Tony Wilson before you start having any other ideas.
Sunday sees the staging of the annual Peter Willgress Memorial Game.
West Amateurs will tackle – and believe me there will be no prisoners taken – a Hartlepool Invitation XV at Brinkburn (kick off 10.30am ... or something very close!)
Peter, who was better known as Wilf, died after falling ill following a West Third XV match at Harrogate in 1992. His memory lives on and quite right too.
Please go along and support Sunday's match and drop into bar afterwards.
HARTLEPOOL Rovers broke a 33-year-old club record when they thrashed Wallsend 89-0 in Durham Northumberland Division One.
But the headlines surely belong to Seaton Carew, who passed the 80-point mark for the second week in a row.
They followed up a 88-0 rout of Jarrovians by thrashing Yarm 83-15, which was their first home fixture.
Keep it up boys.
Also, Tech deserve 10 out of 10 for getting their season up and running.
True, they lost at home to Redcar, but the fact they are playing again is cause for celebration.
Email to a friend
Print this page- VIDEO: 999 call police car ploughs into house
- Toon target set to seal ‘dream’ move
- TRANSFER RUMOURS - Thursday, May 24: Newcastle, Demba Ba, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City deny Tevez rumours, Man Utd, Porto
- TRANSFER RUMOURS - Friday, May 25: Man city, Man utd, Spurs, Arsenal,
- Arrests after trap driver injured
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Hartlepool
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: East
