Love Brian Moore, but it is a relationship that didn’t begin well.
I’m Welsh you see, and in the 1980s Brian was the “go to” man for us Welsh supporters, who were witnessing an annual thrashing by England. Wales v England 1995, at Cardiff Arms Park, he was a snarling ball of sweat and saliva, he terrified me (and I was sat at the back of the west stand).
Fortunately the French seemed particularly susceptible to his Anglo Saxon charm, and found Brian and co the rugby equivalent of Waterloo. (The battle, not the station.)
Les Bleus front rows would visibly dissolve, physically and emotionally, until they were either totally p’d off, or sent off.
My view of Brian began to change when in a magazine article he recommended a particular Cabernet Sauvignon that was economically viable for me, and it actually tasted good.
I will not dwell on Brian’s playing career, as it gives me horrific flashbacks of trips to Twickenham, and Cardiff, that I, and most of Wales, would wish to forget. But for me it is Brian’s media career that has totally won me over.
He speaks for us, the people who spend our lives in the grip of this wonderful game. He also somehow manages to remain totally impartial and don’t we just love it when he starts on Eddie Butler ?
If someone had told me 20 years ago, that I would writing an article praising Brian Moore, I would have thought they were suffering from an overdose of the afore-mentioned Cabernet Sauvignon.
Don’t change a thing Brian, keep on keeping on, and who knows maybe one day, in yours and my lifetime, we may see the scrum refereed according to the letter of the law.
Now that really would be a result.
Memory added on March 19, 2015
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