Chris Hewett hears the inspirational master marksman admit that there may not be many more grand knock-out occasions left for him. It had just turned seven on the Reading services clock and for the uniformed adolescents behind the Burger King counter, a quiet Sunday evening had suddenly transformed itself into something resembling rush- hour on the Piccadilly line. Toulouse received 60,000 applications for the 26,000 tickets; a sufficiently upbeat statistic to persuade even Cliff Brittle and his provincially motivated muckers at Twickenham that the future of this particular tournament has the word “club” stamped all over it.. This afternoon’s Heineken Cup semi-final between Bath and Pau may be a watershed for the fading glitterati of English rugby, but for Jon Callard, it is a match to be savoured. The visitors’ sublime streak has realised 31 tries – more than twice as many as Bath – in their seven Heineken ties to date.

At the same time, their violent streak has earned them a heavy fine and an admission ticket to the Last Chance Saloon from the competition organisers.Tomorrow’s second semi-final, the all-French affair between Toulouse and Brive, has generated even greater interest. Rather like Brive last time out, however, they have long identified this match as an absolute priority. While they went down 29-9 to Bourgoin in the French championship last weekend, it should be noted that they spent the entire morning of the game glued to a video of last month’s Bath-Cardiff quarter-final.Nicholas Brusque, universally tipped as the next great French full-back in the tradition of Villepreux and Blanco, will play after recovering from knee trouble. Pau can also look to the withering pace of Philippe Bernat-Salles on the right wing and a David Aucagne-Frederic Torossian partnership at half-back that almost personifies the beauty and the beast conundrum at the heart of French rugby. Assumptions about Pau are two a penny – received wisdom says they are lethal at home but fragile away, that their collective discipline is non-existent, that the back five of their pack is not up to much – but then, we all dismissed Brive as the original non-travelling fly-by-nights until they crept into Cardiff and blasted Leicester out of the water in last season’s final.Certainly, Pau have yet to demonstrate an ability to maintain composure in the face of adversity, to “dog” a victory against quality opposition on foreign territory. “We are operating at a major financial loss and while Andrew is happy to invest for a while, he has still got to see the potential for a commercially viable business.”There are three options: improved facilities at The Rec, a new stadium in Bath, or decline.” As if to illustrate the point, only 8,500 supporters will sardine themselves into the council-owned venue for today’s game, as opposed to the 18,000 or so who wanted to soak up the Pau experience.Disconcertingly for Bath, they simply do not know what to expect from Joel Rey’s combustible band of Jekyll and Hydes. Namely: how is it possible to second-guess a French side lavishly equipped with 240 different moods?Robinson knows that if he and his side get their answers wrong against Pau in this afternoon’s Heineken Cup semi-final at the Recreation Ground, the consequences could be calamitous.

It is too early to say whether last Sunday’s unprecedented 50-point shellacking at Saracens has sent the most successful English club side of them all into freefall, but another impotent display today would set off more alarm bells than the Windsor Castle fire.They have quite enough problems, thank you very much, without seeing their season effectively neutered by the Frenchmen. Tony Swift, the club’s chief executive, warned yesterday that failure to improve cramped and obsolete facilities at The Rec could eventually cost Bath their multi- millionaire backer, Andrew Brownsword, and leave them up to their eyeballs in the smelly stuff.”Either we solve the stadium problem or we slide down into the third or fourth divisions,” Swift said. It is being billed as the biggest game in Bath’s history and just for once, the hype has a basis in fact. The West Countrymen have won every national prize umpteen times but never the Heineken Cup. Chris Hewett wonders whether they can put recent traumas behind them and reach the final at the expense of some French unpredictable opposition.
Charles de Gaulle once asked how it was possible to govern a nation with 240 different kinds of cheese. While Andy Robinson, the embattled chief coach of a Bath team at crisis point, is charged only with meeting the aspirations of a rugby-mad city rather than an imperial power, he has been pondering a similarly unfathomable question all week. “But as a player, we will never replace him.” Wales’ next game is a Five Nations’ warm-up on 7 February against Italy.Cardiff begin the defence of their Swalec Cup against Division Six A East leaders Abercarn at Cardiff Arms Park with thoughts of their captain uppermost in their minds.The team manager, Peter Manning, said: “It has been an extremely difficult time for everyone at the club and Gwyn’s condition has always been in our minds.”I know it is asking a lot but we just have to try to be professional and to concentrate on the match and on playing well.”Players, too, were quick to send good luck messages with Scott Gibbs, the Wales, Swansea and Lions centre, saying: “It’s a huge blow, but hopefully Gwyn will be able to pursue his promising medical career.”.

Both started their careers and made their names with Llanelli.One of the new breed of professional rugby players, he never lost his love for the game, as his determination to battle back from numerous injuries during his career showed.The Wales coach, Kevin Bowring, paid tribute to the player he had pencilled in to lead the national side in the World Cup that takes place in the Principality in 1999.”There is no doubt that in Gwyn’s short playing career he has earned enormous respect,” he said.”We hope that Gwyn’s knowledge and advice can support the team in their World Cup build-up,” Bowring added. There may be dramatic changes for the better, you never know, but I cannot give a timescale.”Dr Jones revealed that Gwyn’s younger sister, Eluned, a student studying Welsh at Cardiff University, has given up playing rugby after only taking up the game a month ago.”It was her decision,” he said. “I have played rugby and been involved in it all my life with various Welsh squads for the last 25 years and I have never seen an injury like this.”The injury has come as a great blow to the rugby fraternity and Wales in particular. Gwyn Jones captained the Under-15s against Scotland in 1988 and went on to play five times for the Welsh schools Under-18s in 1990-91.He played in the all-conquering Wales Under-19 team that went to Canada and then very quickly graduated into the Wales Under-21 and A teams.A Welsh speaker, he attended Llandovery College and also played for the Welsh Students. His Wales debut came against Italy in 1996, and he took over as captain 18 months later on the Welsh tour to North America.He led the side six times, winning the three Tests in the United States and Canada, defeated Romania by 70 points in August, and beat Tonga. His last match in charge was the loss in their first-ever match at Wembley against the All Blacks. He was already regarded as an intelligent captain who led from the front.The 25-year-old was emulating his great uncle Ivor – also a flanker and captain of Wales as well as a Lion – when he was appointed to lead his country.