Archives for May 2011

Four weeks after I ridiculed the Willie Mason passport saga at Hull KR, here we are watching a fittingly bizarre denouement to the farce.

Unable to persuade the King of Tonga to grant the passport that would have reversed his ludicrous de-registering just six games into a Super League career, the Australian rugby league enforcer is now set for his union debut at Twickenham without ever having played the sport.

His move to Toulon was mooted in my blog last month and has now been agreed for next season. Hours later the 31-year-old was included in the Barbarians squad. So, as he prepares himself to convince his new French employers that he can cut it in club rugby union, Mason's first chance comes for the famous Baa Baas against England and a packed Twickenham.

It is fair to say that my followers on Twitter were joining me in a head-shake at hearing the news. "Ridiculous, he's becoming a laughing stock," said Paul Glover . "What. A. Joke. Are the Barbarians that desperate?!!" asked Paul Anley. "In at the deep end for Big Willie! Very strange twist in a very strange soap opera," said James Burke.

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Since joining Super League in 2006, Catalan Dragons have seldom been anybody's idea of an easy two points.

So when Leeds boss Brian McDermott told me on Friday that this year's Dragons line-up is the toughest side the French outfit have assembled, I thought it was worth looking into.

I was stood chatting to McDermott in the Rhinos physio room after his side had beaten a fiercely stubborn Catalan side at Headingley. It's always pretty bizarre speaking to Mac in this confined space as the players pop in for a post-match rub-down, with the rattle of the team-kit washing machine punctuating his answers.

He was in bullish mood though, and was already looking forward to welcoming his old team Harlequins this weekend in the Challenge Cup.

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Almost exactly three years ago I wrote a scouting report outlining why young Wigan forward Gareth Hock should be in England's World Cup squad.

Hock made the squad, but the following season he tested positive for cocaine and was handed a two-year ban.

He is now 27, and this week signed a new five-year Wigan contract, barely a month back in training. That news provoked a mixed response, and some raised eyebrows, among my media peers and fellow fans, but the Warriors have made it clear that the contract is "contingent upon his continuing exemplary performance".

But how big is the challenge now facing this former international when he returns to Super League next month? It is a challenge not only of convincing his doubters, and opposition-fan hecklers, that he should command respect once more, but of returning to the very summit of this brutal sport.

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