It has been the season of fond farewells. By Saturday evening even Mr Indestructible himself will have played his final game of top-level club rugby. Lawrence Bruno Nero Dallaglio was never destined to go quietly and a grand final against Leicester at Twickenham is a fitting stage. Poor old Richard Hill - who bowed out in a meaningless league game in Milton Keynes - never did quite share his England colleague's sense of theatre.
Nor are Dallaglio and Hill the only European-based notables strolling into the oval-ball sunset. Gareth Llewellyn won 92 caps for Wales, a record until Gareth Thomas and Colin Charvis sneaked past him. Dave Hilton propped up Bristol and Scotland with distinction, only to discover belatedly that he was not technically eligible to wear the thistle. Paul Volley did a fair amount of Dallaglio's donkey work for years at Wasps without ever winning a full cap while Stuart Abbott's injury problems have deprived us of one of the game's sharper sidesteps. Rob Fidler grew up with Gloucester and finished his career with Bath, earning respect on both sides of the west country divide.
Over in France another famous jawline will disappear when the French captain Fabien Pelous bows out. His former Toulouse colleague Christian Califano is signing off at Gloucester to enter local politics in the Midi-Pyrenees region as a member of the Socialist Party. In Ireland they are doffing their caps to Anthony Foley in the grand manner following Munster's second Heineken Cup success in three years. Paul Burke and David Humphreys, two fine fly-halves who seem to have been around for ages, are also calling it a day. Denis Hickie, Keith Gleeson, John Kelly, Mark Taylor, Paul Gustard, Nick Walshe, Mark Mayerhofler, Zak Feu'anati, Donnie Macfadyen ... the list is long and impressive. If you are still playing top-level rugby in your mid 30s these days you are doing very well.
If there is one man who really merits a global fanfare, however, it is someone who has not played Test rugby for almost 30 years. It is meant as a compliment to say there has been no one like him since. Imagine being a good enough sportsman to rugby for England and score a century against West Indies! In 1975 he scored a then-record 19 points in the Varsity match and won his first cap against Australia in the notorious 'Battle of Ballymore' when the Gloucester prop Mike Burton got sent off in the second minute. As a kid I applauded the bearded super-hero from afar and imagined he must be quite a man. Three decades later I am fortunate enough to count him as a friend and admire him infinitely more.
Alastair Hignell, in fact, may just be the bravest, most inspiring person I have ever met. We often talk casually about courage and determination but Higgy must have a titanium core. For almost a decade he has soldiered on for BBC radio while battling the degenerative effects of multiple sclerosis. The listeners would never have guessed and Higgy would be the last person to tell them. I have seen him physically crawl up stairs and drag himself into commentary positions at venues, some of them extremely well-known, where the disabled facilities have been little short of disgraceful. Never once has he whinged or moaned or been anything less than spectacularly good-humoured and modest. He will not be 53 until September but is now preparing to take a breather. This Saturday he will deliver his final broadcast from Twickenham and all his colleagues will miss him enormously. If you can tune in, or send a few pounds to the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre, please do. Good luck to all those hanging up their boots but Higgy deserves an extra special cheer.
May day
On the subject of good causes, the Newcastle back Tom May is attempting to raise £25,000 for the north-east charity Just for Kids. He will be cycling around all the Premiership rugby grounds, starting on Wednesday May 28 and finishing at Twickenham on June 3. Anyone seeking more details should click here.
Union festival points the way ahead
The future of rugby union is a hotly-debated topic. The sport's rulers, clearly, would love to conjure up its own version of cricket's Twenty20 format for those who found last Saturday's Heineken Cup final slightly too heavy-duty. Personally, I suggest they go and have a chat with a guy called Roger Woodall. The latter is the driving force behind this weekend's Bournemouth Sevens, a bold two-day festival venture which seeks to combine rugby, entertainment, live music and fun, with camping facilities and Austin Healey thrown in. It is hoped that 10,000 people will turn up. It is not quite an oval-ball Glastonbury but Roger's brainchild could just be the shape of things to come.
