Evening Standard

Saracens prop faces a challenge to make the Lions front row but the shock pick is not daunted

Evening Standard

Matt Stevens laughs at the idea his selection for the Lions was due to Warren Gatland needing the prop to bring a club feel to the squad in Australia.

As we meet at the Saracens training ground, the 30-year-old, who was runner-up in the The X Factor: Battle of the Stars in 2006, says: “I like the social activities [of the tour] but it’s more about enjoying each other’s company.

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Evening Standard

Ask the man who set up UK Anti-Doping three years ago whether he is confident that UK sport is clean and his answer is sobering.

“Do you know what, I don’t know.” says Andy Parkinson. “The only people that can tell you are the athletes themselves. What I can say is we’ve got one of the most robust programmes, as many tools as we possibly can have to catch drug cheats.”

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Evening Standard

Trevor Birch was the man who welcomed Roman Abramovich into Stamford Bridge but he did not last long under the billionaire.

In fact, it was little over a month after the £140million takeover at Chelsea in 2003 that the Russian decided to replace Birch with Peter Kenyon as chief executive.

But then Birch sensed early on that he was not on same wavelength as the oligarch.

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Evening Standard

Back in 1990 when Sir John Madejski bought Reading, he marked home victories by making what he felt was a simple gesture of thanks to his players.

“I would take them to the bar of Elm Park [Reading’s old ground] and buy them a drink. I can’t do that any more because they now have all these sports scientists, nutritionists and God knows what else. But I still go into the dressing room before a game and give them a talk.”

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Evening Standard

Brian Barwick may seem an unlikely Rugby Football League chairman. His life has been all about the round ball game; a former editor of Match of the Day and chief executive of the Football Association, he grew up in the 60s singing You’ll Never Walk Alone while Bill Shankly made Anfield a feared name in English football.

But as we meet in his office in Twickenham, he is keen to talk about his new dream of the climax of this November’s Rugby League World Cup Final at Old Trafford. Pointing to a huge picture on the wall of Jonny Wilkinson about to score the drop goal that won England the union equivalent in 2003, Barwick says: “Ten years ago I was in Sydney to see him land that kick. If Kevin Sinfield [the England captain] lands the same sort of kick at the same time, it will have the same impact.”

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