As more has been discovered about dementia and its victims, Test rugby has made me wince more than smile this autumn
It was one of those tackles that seemed to stop the game dead. Midway through the first half of England’s match against
France on Sunday, the French centre Yoram Moefana came fast up the middle of the pitch, ran slap-bang into two English forwards, Billy Vunipola and Sam Underhill, who teamed up in a tackle that didn’t just knock Moefana back the way he came, but seemed to arrest the entire French team and roll them all back down the pitch like a wave retreating from the beach. During the pandemic, you’ve been able to hear almost every last detail of these matches. There were only 2,000 fans inside Twickenham, and the crack of the collision seemed almost to echo around the grandstands.
You could hear it as clear as you would if you were watching it from down on the sidelines. Any other time, the thump would have been lost among the sound of 80,000 fans. And even this time, the crowd made plenty of noise.