BACK in the day of thriving local newspapers and soaring sales in the Welsh communities they served, each and every one had its own rugby reporter.
Almost without exception, they defended their players, their team, their town with a passion which suggested most had university degrees in the feudalism of Medieval Europe.
No other part of these sceptered isles ever matched the intensity of the coverage of the papers circulating in every nook and cranny across the Welsh rugby belt. Most of the old reports have long gone and, sadly, the few who survive have become fewer still.
Barrie Thomas s...