That rugby remains very much a man’s world in terms of the coverage of it was evident from my observations at the tense and highly enjoyable bottom-of-the-table tussle between home team London Welsh and Sale Sharks — the winners by a one point margin — at the Kassam Stadium on Sunday.

Of the 20 or so journalists in the media suite, none was a woman. Indeed, the only female I saw there all afternoon was the young lady who helpfully removed the cap from my first bottle of SA Bitter, supplied by London Welsh sponsor Brains of Cardiff. On the terraces, though, there were plenty of women, testimony to the popularity of this fast and skilful sport — and perhaps of the strapping lads that take part in it.

On Sunday there were two so famous that even I had heard of them, in the London Welsh fly half Gavin Henson and his Sale counterpart Danny Cipriani, so tattooed as to make even David Beckham appear unadorned.

Both seemed to my unpractised eye to have played a blinder. For a more informed verdict you must turn to our online sports pages for the authoritative report, with reaction, by our expert Ed Mezzetti.

Among the crowd arriving and leaving the ground I met many friends and acquaintances, confirming, as I suspected, that rugby is watched by ‘my kind of people’.

One chatty chap, previously unknown to me, turned out to be the brother of Frances Filson, who worked for The Oxford Times between 1968 and 1970. Anyone who remembers her — she wrote lots on university life — might like to know she is happy and well, a mother of two, living in France.