It's a boy! I can't think of a better way to open this week's pre-Christmas missive than by announcing to the world that we three are now four.
Yes, the lovely Hayley battled through an exhausting 41-hour labour to gift us with a bony bouncing baby boy. Our first son Sullivan bowed in on Wednesday to the delight of friends and family, especially big sister baby Bea. Maybe I should rename her baby A. After all she was first.
Both Hayley and our new son are doing well; hats off to Hayley who was a real warrior throughout.
Just when I thought life couldn't get any better, last week I was knocked off my euphoric cloud when the Chiefs went down with an 18-11 reversal at Sale.
There's a lot I could say about this game in rain-drenched Manchester. Those who say "it always rains in Manchester" were certainly on the money last Friday night. Rain, our Chiefs played the first half in near monsoon conditions, with water lashing down in veritable stair rods. The wind too whistled and swirled around a very inclement – and rather empty – AJ Bell Stadium, making life real tough for our lads.
As if the weather was not enough to contend with, referee Wayne Barnes conjured up not one, but two yellow cards in quick succession, reducing the Chiefs to just 13 men. I suppose I could harp on about how well Chiefs battled when outnumbered by two, in the event they did handle the handicap well, but that was not the story of this game.
Chiefs were okay and did well to battle back to claim a losing bonus point, but in reality we were beaten by a competent Sale who got the simple things right to out-muscle us and grind out their win.
For the record, Steve Diamond's Manchester men are hard to beat on their own turf – indeed that lot from the Recreation Ground are the only side to have taken a win away from Sale at home.
It looked to be a lost cause for our lads, with even a bonus point seeming out of our reach, but never write off the Exeter Chiefs when there's still time on the clock. In typical Chiefs fashion the lads went up a gear and took the game right back at Sale. At last, with just 10 minutes or so remaining, we started to get into the game to actually play some attacking rugby. Our own force of nature Thomas the Tank was at the heart of a Chiefs power play to score out wide, reducing the lead to seven with still precious minutes on the clock.
What appeared an unlikely win was beginning to look possible as Steeno stepped up to take a difficult conversion, on a difficult night. Both sets of fans fell silent and held their breath as Gareth hit the ball perfectly, sending it on a flight line to dissect the uprights, only for a massive gust of wind to hold the ball up and parachute it short of the target.
It just about summed up the Chiefs' Friday night in Manchester. We did okay, but never really got into this one with any front-foot rugby.
Fair play to Sale, they stifled any effort we made as they bludgeoned on to grind out the final minutes to take the win.
Hey ho, it's Christmas, look on the bright side, we managed a losing bonus point and, as commander Rob put it: "Premiership rugby points are hard to come by. Sometimes you have to settle for a losing bonus that just might be important come the end of the season."
Moving on, I see some Premiership fat cats are challenging the salary cap. Let me state my position on this one by posing the question 'is Wayne Rooney worth his £300,000 a week?' That's over a million pounds every month for kicking a bag of wind about a football field!
In my view it's an obscenity. Many Premiership soccer counterparts are fine athletes, but let's get real and keep rugby's feet on the ground. It's about the sport and not the designer hair cut and Ferrari in the car park. Support a reasonable salary cap before the agents and prima-donnas muscle in to inflate player costs to unrealistic and unsustainable levels.
At nearly £5m per year, the budget provides over £90,000 a week for a club to fund player salaries, it doesn't grow on trees and has to come from somewhere. Enough for now on this one.
Moving on, I would like to take this opportunity to belatedly congratulate Matt Jess, Will Chudley and Don Armand on their contract extensions. The continuity that the squad now enjoys certainly underpins a lot of what makes the Chiefs so special and to see the stalwart Jessy along with two young-uns commit for some time is a great fillip at this time of year.
Finally, I rounded off a big week in my life by running out onto the field of play with my teammates in Exmouth. We went 7-0 down in the first three minutes against Barnstaple but managed to power them out of the game with the Mighty Muff Mighty Maul. The Barum Boys had no answer and Exmouth ran out 28-17 winners.
Having not slept in three days, yours truly was blowing feathers when I trudged off the field to meet the Lovely Hayley, big girl B, now all of three years, and my new three-day-old son Sullivan. It was a good feeling.
Cradling Sully in my aching arms, I walked my boy onto the field for the first time, with Bea holding my hand. It was another good moment in a magical week for me and my family. As the ancient quotation puts it, this is the season for peace on Earth to men of goodwill. I'm certainly full of good will and trust you are too. My very best wishes to you and yours for a wonderful Christmas.
Until the next time, enjoy the holiday and stay safe.
