Scrum of the Earth /

We say Joyeux anniversaire! to Grand Slam French flanker cum coach Jean-Claude Skrela this week in rugby history! A quiet confident type, the 46-times capped man from Colomiers let his achievements speak for themselves. The son of Polish refugees, Skrela was the uncompromising part of the beastly back-row with tearaway flanker Jean-Pierre Rives and agile Jean-Pierre Bastiat that won a Five Nations Grand Slam in 1977.

Success didn't stop there as Skrela coached les Tricolores to their first ever back-to-back Grand Slams in 1997 and 1998 before overseeing arguably French rugby's finest rugby hour, the 43-31 World Cup semi-final triumph over the All-Blacks, in 1999.

It was grim news this week in 1938, when PM Neville Chamberlain hopped off a plane from Munich after allowing Hitler to annex Sudetenland and proclaimed “Peace in Our Time”. And sad too in 1955, as Hollywood’s Rebel Without A Cause James Dean was killed when his Porsche crashed near Paso Robles, California. But celebrations In 1968 a woman gave birth to the first recorded sextuplets in Britain. At odds of three thousand million to one, it would have given bookmakers a right headache had Barry and Sheila Thorns not undergone fertility treatment, the tinkers.

And it's Fortuna dies natalis! as they say in Latin to Australian beach bum Matt Giteau (26), Auckland boss Pat Lam (40), Bath bruiser Matt Stevens (26), Irish full-back Girvan Dempsey (33), former England giant Wade Dooley (51) and All-Black legend David Kirk (47)