The Times - UK (2022-04-30)

the times | Saturday April 30 2022 17

News

“Everyone’s older than me, everyone’s
bigger than me.” When a tearful young
player blurts out how he is struggling
on the rugby pitch one of his team-
mates comes to the rescue with a pep-
talk that has inspired fans the world
over.
The moving moment between two
young boys was captured by Sedbergh
School, a boarding school in Cumbria,
which was filming a training session
during an Easter rugby course.
During the exchange, the tearful boy
who finds tackling too tough is being
comforted by a coach when a smaller
player runs up to him. He places his
hands on the boy’s shoulders and says:
“Listen to me. Trust me. Look at me,
Bob.
“I am the shortest kid here, it doesn’t
matter if you’re short, if you’re young. It
doesn’t matter if you’re tall, or if you are
fat here. You are a brilliant rugby player.
Do you understand that? You are in-
sane! You are actually insane for your
age. Right, give me a hug.”
The two boys embrace and as the

Rugby boy finds touch with a moving pep talk

Will Humphries smaller player puts his arm around his
friend and leads him back into the
action, the coach declares: “Best team-
mate ever.”
The school posted the video online
with the message: “We recently
captured this amazing moment, which
happened last month on our Easter
rugby camp.”
Graham Higginbotham, the coach
involved, said it was a “magic moment”
between the boys, Bob and Jack, which
left him “really emotional”.
“Bob was being stretched in the
session from a rugby point of view,
which you need, and Jack recognised
that and went and supported him so
well,” he said. “It’s phenomenal really,
such a young person who came to help
his team-mate, and bear in mind they
had only met two days before. They
weren’t friends before the course.”
Higginbotham said these kinds of
moments often happen on the rugby
pitch but are rarely captured on
camera. “What I heard was really the
core values of rugby and the course,
which we try to teach the children,” he
said.

The video has drawn praise from

rugby players, teams and fans from

around the world, with England Rugby

and the All Blacks saying that it

represented the “spirit of rugby”.

Many have commented online, say-

ing they have been left in tears watch-

ing the maturity and kindness shown

by the young boy.

One social media user said: “Whoev-

er is the parents of this young man, you

should be so proud to have raised a

gorgeous human being.”

The All Blacks said: “That is the spirit

of rugby.” England Rugby tweeted:

“Best. Teammate. Ever. We love this.”

Sedbergh School was founded in 1525

by Roger Lupton, provost of Eton Col-

lege and chaplain to Kings Henry VII

and Henry VIII.

Among notable alumni are Adam

Sedgwick, an Anglican priest known as

the founder of modern geology.

Simon Beaufoy, the award-winning

screenwriter of The Full Monty and

Slumdog Millionaire, and Will Carling,

the former England rugby captain,

were also pupils at the school, which

lies on the boundary between the Lake

District and Yorkshire Dales National

Parks.

Abbie Ward, another former pupil,

plays rugby for Harlequin Ladies and

England.

Right, give me a hug: The young

player embraces his team-mate

patrick kidd

TMS

[email protected] | @timesdiary

A nudge from

Her Majesty?

Ben Wallace, who has recently

topped popularity polls of the

Tory grass roots, could become

the Queen’s 15th prime minister. If

he does, the defence secretary

may owe it all to HM. Robert

Hardman writes in his new royal

biography that Wallace was a

Scots Guards officer at the Palace.

One day the Queen asked about

his ambitions. He said he wanted

to go into politics but had been

rejected because he was too

young. “They should think again,”

the Queen murmured. To his

surprise, Wallace was called by the

selection panel the next day,

saying they were extending the

shortlist. He became an MSP in

1999. Wallace, below, wonders if
      the Queen gave them a nudge. It’s
      either that or she didn’t feel
      confident being protected by him.

Gordon Ramsay may have a tough

reputation but Angela Hartnett, his

former pupil, says he has a soft side,

unlike the other difficult chef she

worked with, Marcus Wareing.

“Gordon has kind eyes,” she tells

GQ. “When Gordon was bollocking

you, you always felt there was love

behind those eyes. Whereas with

Marcus, I used to think there was a

chance he really might kill me.”

second time unlucky

The novelist Anthony Horowitz’s

next project is a murder mystery

play with the Icelandic crime

author Ragnar Jonasson. “I revere

The Mousetrap and that’s where

we begin,” he said at the

launch of Jonasson’s

new book. “Nobody

has done a murder

mystery on stage as

entertainingly, as

cleverly and as

unguessably as

that.” You don’t need

a huge cast to fox the

audience, he adds. Their

play will be set in a bookshop and

feature just four suspects, like his

favourite Agatha Christie book,

Cards on the Table. “I read it

recently and was bamboozled. I got

it completely wrong,” he says.

“What was remarkable was it’s the

second time I’d read it.”

do look back in humour

At a memorial service for John

Bryant, former deputy editor of

The Times, Jeffrey Archer said his

friend ran the London marathon

24 times, with a personal best of

2hr 21min. They did it once

together, finishing in the less stellar

time of 5hr 26min but Bryant

gallantly handicapped himself by

running it all backwards. “I was out

of breath,” Archer said, “while he

managed to talk the whole time,

pointing out that we were about to

be overtaken by a lady pushing a

pram, a caterpillar and a letterbox.”

Jack Davenport appeared in three

Pirates of the Caribbean films

before his son was born in 2010 and

likes to watch them together if only

to prove that he was young once.

“There’s a big fight in the second

one which took for ever,” the 49-

year-old actor says, “but I can show

my son and say: “Look, Dad could

bend over without groaning.”

creative writing

Posh schools like to curry favour

with influential parents but it can

go too far. Jonathan Aitken told the

Old Etonian Association this week

that one of his classmates was

Crown Prince Birendra of Nepal,

who was listed in the directory

with all his family’s royal titles. The

last of these upset the grand official

who had accompanied him.

“This can’t be published,” he

said. “It means ‘son of God’.”

The boy’s housemaster did not

bat an eyelid at this

blasphemy. “My dear

fellow, don’t worry,” he

said. “We have the sons

of many distinguished

fathers at Eton.”