On a bad road day – the sad truth is that most days turn bad the moment you sit behind the wheel – it can take well over an hour to drive from the western outskirts of Bristol to the middle of Bath: the closest English rugby gets to cheek-by-jowl rivalry.
Up in the Scottish borders, you can pass through six of the union game’s traditional strongholds in broadly the same amount of time.

Melrose, where Jim Telfer spent his entire playing career, to Galashiels, where Gregor Townsend cut his teeth?
All of five miles, with Selkirk – John Rutherford, Iain Paxton – another six along the A7.
Trip
...