Administrators should emulate departing correspondent’s unflinching take on the game and preserve its spirit
H
e never won an international cap nor played a single minute of professional rugby. So why did a national newspaper devote four and a half pages of its sports section to celebrating him at the weekend? There have been generational British & Irish legends who spawned less coverage than Stephen Jones in recognition of the latter’s 42-year stint as rugby correspondent of the Sunday Times.
Just think about that for a second. Forty-two years of journalistic thunderbolts and lightning, some of it very, very frightening for those in the firing line. One or two world heavyweight champs have landed fewer career knockout punches than our mate Steve dished out in print every week. If you were to compare his writing to one of the players he most admired, it would probably be Martin Johnson: direct, unflinching to the point of obstinacy, fiercely committed to the sport he adored. When individuals of that calibre step aside, they leave a sizeable hole.
They may be striking a slightly different tone in New Zealand, of course, where Steve’s Sabbath sermons were never in danger of winning any popularity contests. Who can forget the establishment in Queenstown which, for a while, had a urinal with his face in it. The irony was that he respected the greatest All Blacks as much as anyone. What he disliked was the po-faced notion that Kiwi rugby was somehow exempt from external criticism, particularly from irreverent voices north of the equator.
