Rugby
The spirit of the game is alive and well on the public playing fields of South East Wales. Eurig Thomas of Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd wonders how the professionals would handle the challenges they face just to get a team out.
Picture the scene. Wales versus England. Six Nations - the big one.
It's 2pm at the Millennium Stadium on a wintry Saturday afternoon. BBC cameras are focused on John Inverdale, Jonathan Davies and Jerry Guscott who are eagerly discussing the possible outcome of the day's main event.
A fervent crowd of almost thirty circle the field, mostly made up of family, friends and girlfriends (not forgetting the subs) awaiting the arrival of both teams. But there is a problem.
Inside the Welsh changing room the mood is a strange mixture of subdued chaos.
Hung over
Both Stephen Jones and Martyn Williams are nursing the mother of all hangovers after going out on a works do the previous night. It was an offer they could not refuse because it was a free bar - stupid not to go.
Laurence Delaney, despite retiring from rugby a number of years ago, has been dragged out of bed to fill one of the front row positions because neither Iestyn Thomas nor Martyn Madden are fit to play.
Colin Charvis is chasing people who haven't paid their deposits for the Easter tour to Prague in his underpants - he forgot his shorts at home.
There's no sign of the ref and to make matters worse Mefin Davies, to the disgust of his team-mates, has just called Steve Hansen to inform him that in order to keep the peace at home he can't play today because he has to take his wife shopping!!??!!
Luckily for Wales they have some time to find a replacement as the game will have to be delayed by 15 minutes due to the fact that Jonny Wilkinson, Jason Robinson and Neil Back got lost in the car on their way down to Cardiff.
Team spirit
An incredible scenario for an international I agree but not one that is too unfamiliar to those that play practically beneath the shadow of the Millennium Stadium on Llandaff Park Fields - grassroots teams of the game such as Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd 2nd XV.
Formed in 1967, Clwb succeed in running two teams come rain, hail or shine. The 1st XV take part in competitive fixtures throughout South Wales and the 2nd XV, despite the occasional obstacle in raising a team, are the reigning Division 2 Champions in the Cardiff & District League.
Responsibility for organising a team, opposition, kit, flags, post protectors, match ball, water bottles and first aid fall on the shoulders of one or two thankless individuals. They do it not for fame or money but for one simple reason - a love of the game and their club.
Love not money
Contrary to the current trend of paying players to play, Clwb charge squad members a ten-pound monthly sub for the privilege of playing!
With top-class players reportedly earning over £100,000 a year and average players receiving £100 a game even in the lower leagues its heartening to learn that true amateur clubs still exist. Perhaps its time for a few of the cash-strapped premier league sides to introduce this scheme?
The beauty of rugby is that it is a game that can be played by all shapes and sizes - and this is no more apparent than at the grassroots level of the game.
If you have yet to be convinced of this, simply pass by the Llandaff playing fields on your next visit to the Millennium Stadium.
It's ironic that they play so close to the well organised, media drenched circus that is international rugby and yet so very far away. Perhaps the real irony, however, is that one could never exist without the other.
