Forward to victory

Posted by Nell Mead at 18:00 on 16 Oct 2010

If you wanted to learn to scrummage, who would be your dream coach?  Someone who's proved themselves in the international arena, maybe?

Last week, the lucky School of Hard Knocks boys were given their first scrummaging lesson, by not just one, but two former British Lions legends: Scott Quinnell, who has been with the programme from day one, and Jason Leonard, the world's most capped forward (114 caps for England, since you ask).  It really doesn't get better than that.  Here, they're demonstrating how to bind on in the front row, and the optimal body positions to adopt, in order to get maximum power into the scrum.

After the scrummaging lesson, they learned about lineout play, and participants Adam and Derek experienced being lifted in the lineout for the first time, which I think they quite enjoyed.

At the end of the day, the boys played a conditioned match against a team from Streatham and Croydon Rugby Club, where we've been filming.  

I can't tell you the result - you'll have to watch the programme to find out - but it was unbelievably exciting, with much screaming and dancing around from me and the coaches.  And I don't think I'll be in too much trouble with Sky if I reveal the result of the post-match drinking competition, which ended in a narrow victory for the School of Hard Knocks boys!

After all the excitement, I managed to catch up with Scott and Jason, and (after some grown-up discussion of the boys' injury status etc) I asked Jason for a picture, which he kindly agreed to.  I've been a big fan of his since I was fairly small - and yes, he was one of my teenage crushes, which naturally I didn't mention!  So this is a photo of Jason Leonard and me, taken on my phone by Scott Quinnell.  Did I say the boys were lucky?  I think I win!