As a young man my winter sport was rugby union.

For a while I played for a team called the Overseas, which was made up of mainly expats living and working here in Malta. Rugby is a rough, tough game and I was extremely fortunate in that I didn't suffer any really bad injuries. A few grass burns and the occasional trampling, but at the time that I was playing an expat teammate was not so lucky. In one game he was kicked around to the extent that he suffered life-threatening spinal injuries and ended up in a wheelchair without the use of his legs.

Recently - and in my opinion far too late - the issue of serious sporting injuries has been getting the attention it deserves. So much so that even Rugby's ruling body are looking into ways to make the game safer. This urgency has been hastened by the fact that, in response to recent publicity, many parents in the UK have stopped their kids from playing the game, purely on medical grounds.

And although rugby may be the prime offender, it does not have a monopoly on danger. Association football or soccer has also come under the safety spotlight of late after a number of professional players have suffered life-changing injuries, particularly from heading the ball. The former West Bromwich Albion striker, the late Jess Astle, is a case in point. He suffered years of ill health and early onset dementia, after retiring as a professional footballer, as a result of constantly heading the ball.

Now I am not suggesting that we should suddenly soften up our kids and stop all contact sports from being played. But I do believe the Rugby Football Union and other ruling bodies should take a good look at their on-field practices and make the sports that they control as safe as humanly possible.

Still on a sporting note

Have you noticed how various nationalities deal with those ghastly football after-match interviews on TV. Cue sweaty player standing in front of the camera and uttering inanities to off-camera interviewer. They are all terrible, some more so than others, but they do vary in their dreadfulness depending on whether the interviewees are local, or Italian Serie A or the English Premier League. But whatever nationality they are they all have one thing in common: they all exude an aura of rather being anywhere on earth than in front of a TV camera doing the post-match autopsy.

The local technique is the most basic - and goes something like: "Rajtu Challie fuq x'xellug, crossiar il ballun... shuut... gol!"

The Italians are very... well Italian about it, even when they happen to be something else - say Swedish: "So Zlatan, yet another match-winning goal... but the pass from Gianni was pretty special too, no?"

"Not really. My swivel and shot was what was special."

But for true banality, the EPL takes first prize: "Congratulations Wayne... man-of-the-match once again."

"But like the important thing like... was to get like the three points like... innit."

"Right... and do you think the team are really beginning to play together like a team at last?"

"'Deffnutly' like an' I just wanna like say... like... the mose' important thing like is to like make sure we got like them three points... like."

Pearls of wisdom, delivered with panache and style, in the manner of an elite member of Mensa.