There may be a few of you who are familiar with Arthur C. Clarke but before you click the Wikipedia link let me inform you that he was not a great All Black fullback or probably even a rugby player. He was the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a famous science fiction book and movie followed by a second edition aptly named 2010: Odyssey Two. How does this trivia relate to rugby and Rugby Forum you ask? Read on.

Well, we are back. RF kicked off in simple mail format back in 2001 as a weekly mail to subscribers. The dream was to create a forum for rugby friends to discuss the game, air their views and an outlet for this armchair critic to share his rumblings. It was in essence a blog although in those days the word blog or blogger wasn’t even used!

Anyway, I digress, there were weekly mails for 6 years but with technology and security improving it was easier to tackle Jonah Lomu than getting mails through firewalls and spam filters. Mention Stuart Dickinson (the referee) in the mail and it set of obscene/offensive language filters despite the abovementioned acting like an abbreviation of his name in tests involving our beloved Springboks.

In 2007 we seized the weekly mails and tried blogging only to be sidetracked by events, sort of like Harold Macmillan’s quote when asked what could blow governments off course, his reply was, “events dear boy, events”. So despite great intentions and a pending World Cup tournament in France, RF stopped.

So, after a hiatus of 3 years RF is back in 2010 so see it as 2010: Rugby Forum Two and we hope to contribute regular articles to the site on all matters rugby and related. Feel free to send any comments, ideas and questions to me at lucas@rugbyforum.co.za and we look forward to a new decade of rugby!