When the human being eclipses the sportsman

Sports interviews, particularly in football or boxing, are all too often either choreographed hype or bland platitudes.

Personality is hijacked to make way for some PR message and that message often boils down to meaning the square root of sod all.

Earlier this week, however, I was fortunate enough to interview England's Shontayne Hape. By his own admission, the Bath centre has hit a sticky patch.

He has come in for plenty of stick of late and while he has been way off his best, some of the criticism has smacked, frankly, of the amnesiac.

What most impressed me about Hape, pictured, on Tuesday was his honesty. So often the sportsman can eclipse the human being. Occasionally, we need to be reminded that the human being bit comes first.

Gobbledygook or genius?

'Freedom within structure'. It sounds like middle-management gobbledygook, doesn't it? Or, even worse, like one of those slogans Big Brother's totalitarian regime issues in 1984.

But freedom within structure is now Martin Johnson's stated philosophy for the England rugby team. Speaking to centre Shontayne Hape, pictured, after England's spine-tingling triumph against the Aussies, he said: "The coaches have been talking about freedom within structure and know that if it's on, it's on. That's probably what caught Australia out at times."

All very nice. But what the Dickens does "freedom within structure" mean?

It's tempting to dismiss it as so much hot air, a bit like all those political slogans that go on about "liberty and equality". If you grant people freedom then they ain't going to remain equal for long. And by the same train of thought, if you grant a team a licence to be free, then they aren't going to keep their structure for any great length of time.

But that response is a bit facetious and is refuted by the way England played on Saturday.

Team manager Martin Johnson has not cultivated a reputation as the profoundest of thinkers during his career on and off the pitch; he's the beetle-browed hard-man, not the beetle-browed thinker. But it may be that he's out-foxing plenty of people at the moment.

If you want a definition of Johnson's freedom within structure, then look at the first try England scored against the Wallabies.

The structure came from a succession of crash balls and the way the forwards piled in to secure a rapid recycling of possession. The freedom came in the way the forwards and backs off-loaded to one another once they sniffed a hole in the Wallaby defence.

Never mind about providing verbal definitions of freedom within structure. All you need to know about it was contained in that expertly executed try.

Finnish rugby? Yes, it made me laugh too

Here's my column from today's Bath Chronicle. Similar stuff can be read here.

Have you heard the one about the female American powerlifter, the useless Scandinavian rugby side and the England star who got locked in a chapel? Believe it or not, they all have Bath Rugby connections.

It's been something of a surreal week here at Bradshaw Towers, I can tell you. The usual pattern of matches, press conferences and interviews has been broken by a few welcome curveballs.

First, there was the peculiar vision that greeted me when I walked into GG's steakhouse next to The Rec following Bath Rugby's win over Cardiff Blues.

Full-back Jack Cuthbert could be seen posing for photographs next to a woman with the shoulders and biceps of David Flatman (see above right). It was like something from Greek mythology, akin to stumbling across some hybrid beast. The smiling ripped blonde, it turned out, was Liz Freel, a top powerlifter from the States who was in this neck of the woods for a competition at the University of Bath.

My requests to discover whether she's being lined up as front-row cover for David Wilson have so far been stonewalled, although I hear she's handy in the lineout.

Then came the call from the Bath Film Festival.

No, they don't want me to star in another film. But they did tell me about a quirky movie night involving the unlikely combination of a hapless Finnish rugby side and Phil de Glanville.

On Tuesday, the Little Theatre will screen a documentary called Freetime Machos. After the film, ex-Bath and England centre de Glanville will hold a question-and-answer session with the movie's director, Mika Ronkainen.

The film's premise – to follow the fortunes of the world's most northern rugby side – may not be the most instantly appealing but for anyone who's played in a league of whatever standard, there's bound to be something that resonates.

The documentary is billed as a comedy – inevitable, I suppose, when you mention the words 'Finland' and 'rugby' in the same sentence.

But if you fancy watching a quirky account of rugby and male friendship, then get down to the Little Theatre for 6.30pm on Tuesday evening.

Next up in my week of oddities was a briefly alarming telephone interview with Bath and England centre Shontayne Hape.

Speaking from England's training base at Pennyhill Park Hotel in Surrey, everything was fine and dandy until, with a hint of rising panic in his voice, Shontayne informed me he'd locked himself in a chapel. Not long after the line went dead.

I'm pleased to be able to report that communications were soon restored and the silly billy soon realised he wasn't stuck after all. Just don't come similarly unstuck against the Wallabies, Shontayne!

Tickets for Freetime Machos (certificate 15) are £8/£6 (concessions) or £11/£9 for the balcony and available in advance from the box office on 01225 463362 or 0871 902 5735.

Afternoon tea with Shontayne Hape at the Royal Crescent

Amiable England centre Shontayne Hape spoke to me as Bath officially launched their season. Take a look at the video.



Keep a look-out for my in-depth feature on Hape's off-field alter ago - DJ Shape - in the forthcoming official Premiership Rugby magazine. It should be out in mid-September.