Yes, I agree Hadyn. Wales v. Samoa in Hamilton - that really could be a wonderful game of rugby. (Go Samoa!) It's a great ground when there's a crowd in and they give a damn. The Lions v. Maori match in 2005 was amongst the most stirring games of rugby I have ever attended. The crowd were very nearly as magnificent as the Maori team. And I hope they'll get behind Samoa to a similar extent.

And RB - Fiji v. Samoa at Eden Park. Yes, what a cracker! I'll be there with my boy. Can't wait.

Hear hear, etc. Or hair hair, given we're talking about a "celebrity". Fine writing, Russell. One small point of limited interest to anyone but me: the Herald keeps insisting I made it known that I was not the 46 year old celebrity concerned. I did not. At any stage. The Herald and Fairfax kept calling me to ask me to do so, but I didn't return a single call. I knew it wasn't me, they knew it wasn't me, so the notion that I would give the story more air by publicly denying it was me, seemed artful at best.

Lovely, Graham. Lovely. I always thought that album contained a handful of great songs: How Bizarre, Land of Plenty, Right On. And I always felt Pauly's voice in Land of Plenty was beautifully right in its New Zealandness. (It appealed both to my mawkish sentiment and my latent nationalism.) That's fine praise from Simon Grigg (above). You deserve it: both for your writing way back then, and for your writing today.