On Saturday, against Taunton RFC, second row player Jim Brownrigg led the team out and, after a thumping 65-14 win, led them back in again.

Captain for the day, Brownrigg led by example and although he wasn’t voted in as captain by the team around him, according to coach Ben Harvey, if he had been put up for election, ‘he would have been one of three players the others would have voted for.

‘As it was he fulfilled all the criteria. He is an automatic choice on the team sheet -one of the first names I can pencil in – he has had Premiership experience and he demands respect for the way he plays.

‘He is a selfless player, putting the team first, which is what you need; he doesn’t say a great deal, but he would be the first man to lead (you) out of the trenches. Players automatically respect him for what he does. I think he had his best game of the season last Saturday.’

Initially, when I spoke to Ben, asking him what made a good captain, he was stumped, and I had to phone him back again.

Both he and I agreed that you need to be intelligent . . . not intelligence in the Einstein mould, but intelligence for your sport.

Jim has that kind of intelligence; and, I would argue, a good captain often does things instinctively – without being told by a coach what to do or say and without consciously debating an issue . . . knowing, for example, when to put an arm around one player or knowing when to kick the butt of another, if that’s the best way to motivate them.
And afterwards? . . .

After Jersey had beaten Taunton I watched how Jim thanked his team-mates, making a point of shaking hands with each and every one of them, a squeeze perhaps, or a word or too . . . a little enough thing but evidence that for him, at least, the game wasn’t over after the final whistle had been blown.

Ben Harvey was right to ask Jim to lead the team and I would be one of the first to say that the coach, not the captain’s team mates, should have the final word.

In truth, allowing the other players to vote for a captain can be a disaster, just waiting to happen. Most of us have known captains chosen because they’re the best player; because ‘it’s their turn’ at the club; because they’re the one with the biggest mouth, the most opinions . . .

Yet none of those are reason enough to appoint a captain who you’ll want to follow, wherever they lead.

Being the ‘best’ player, for example, and being captain as well often places too much responsibility on your shoulders; being captain because you’ve been at the club for 20 years and it’s your turn now, shows no kind of logic, while being the loudest player on the park is a definite ‘no’ because the more you have to say, the more the people you’re shouting at don’t want to listen.

Personally, the best captains I’ve ever seen are football legend Bobby Moore, who captained England 90 times; cricketer Mike Brearley who was famously described by Rodney Hogg as ‘having a degree in people’; and such a motivator that he galvanized a disillusioned Ian Botham at that time to such effect that England won the Ashes, 3-1, in 1981; and rugby’s Martin Johnson, because he was the sort of person you would automatically follow when and if he told you now was the time to leave the trenches.

And locally? – Well, I’d rate Mattie Hague as one of the shrewdest captains this Island has seen. Self-effacing, charming enough in any competition. But so dedicated to the game and his team and in his own, quiet way, totally, totally ruthless.
I’d not be the first man to do so, but I’d follow him out of the trenches.

And so to the Tour de Bretagne. It was a superb spectacle, tremendously well organized, demonstrating as it did just how good Jersey folk are when volunteers are needed . . . why, even our own Julien Morel took time off to marshal the course! – And he, and many other people like him, are one of the major plus points to this Island. Ask for help to marshal the Itex Walk . . . someone will volunteer . . . the Swimarathon? – someone will volunteer. The French leg of a cycle race which features hundreds of riders (but no Jerseyman!) and someone will volunteer.

However, don’t ask my opinion about Sunday bus timetables for even if the buses were free that particular day, they were few and far between. Meanwhile, as for the cyclists themselves? – simply awesome . . . traveling at speeds downhill of 80 km an hour or, along the Five Mile Road in practice, over 50 miles an hour . . . if only the honoraries had been out there with their speed guns!

Guernseyman Tobyn Horton is a lovely man and a good enough cyclist to finish in the first 30 in the first stage of the Tour de Bretagne on Sunday.
On that same day, however, he was being eclipsed by another Guernseyman’s marathon performance . . . for Lee Merrien came 12th (fourth British runner) in this year’s London Marathon.

Thirty six thousand people ran on Sunday . . . so the scale of his performance eclipses Tobyn’s (who came in 99th on Monday’s stage) although Lee, who has now qualified for the European Championships, was unhappy with his run – he was aiming for a time under 2r 15min (he ran 2hr 16min 47sec) – while he also aimed to be one of the top three Englishmen to finish.

Considering that a month ago he had an Achilles heel problem, I reckon that he actually did far better than most of us would have thought possible; but then to be a successful sportsman I suppose it’s inevitable that you’re never entirely happy with what you’ve achieved, always believing you can do that little better.

But let Lee tell you about his preparation according to his website where he threw in, in a matter-of-fact kind of way, how he’d included the Guernsey 10 km as part of his preparation. For having already run 10km before the marathon, at what he described as ‘at race pace’ he ‘threw on my (Guernsey) vest, turned around and ran the 10k . . . Unfortunately the second 10k slowed down a bit’ but it was ‘nice to have some company (to talk to).’

Lee is the type of runner I used to hate running with and against (I could never run and talk at the same time) while there is, from reading his web page, a kind of naive arrogance you have to admire.

Lee didn’t want to finish fourth Brit home. He was aiming for third place – when most other runners would have been pleased enough just to make it to the finish!
But then there’s nothing wrong in expecting to do well . . . and I’m reminded of England stand-off Danny Cipriani who said of his, and any sport: ‘Arrogance is something that any sportsman needs. It’s about feeling good. It’s impossible to lose ability, but you can lose confidence . . . You have to make sure you’re mentally right.’

Lee has a similar self-belief . . . after all, what right has he to believe that he would beat tens of thousands of other runners, and then complain he wasn’t even higher up the field (and quicker, too!); while in turn is it really arrogant to know how good you are?

The British public have always preferred our heroes to be self-effacing, modest kind of people . . . to say they’re ‘lucky’ rather than ‘pretty damned good’.

Anyway, I’ll miss Cipriani who’s now gone to Australia where, if you’re pretty damn good at any sport, you’ll tell anyone in earshot you’re pretty damn good!

In the meantime I’ll be keeping an eye open for Lee Merrien. He reckons he can run a whole lot faster than he did last Sunday. And, if he believes he can do so, injury permitting, he probably will do. Self-belief is a wonderful thing. As Cipriani would have it: ‘The most important part of a sportsman . . . is his top two inches.’

Finally …. Well done St Paul’s FC. Six trophies this year? – Now that can never be put down to ‘luck’ can it? Proof positive of a skilful team with an extraordinarily good, focused, and motivating young manager.