Welcome to Swing Chariot

Welcome to Swing Chariot. The decision to start this blog is by and large down to the fact that I've been recently contributing to another blog, BloodandMud, and it has sparked my interest to get on the blogging bandwagon once again, but this time from a rugby perspective. I've contributed to quite a few different blogs, but the honest nature and like-mindedness of the others on that blog have inspired me to get going on this one.

I used to play, and did so for around 18 years, starting at age 11 in school and actually doing pretty well in the process. I played age group rugby for my county (Warwickshire), and managed to reach the heady heights of divisional rugby, playing for The Midlands schoolboys against England schools in my hey day. However University life saw the social side take over a little more and my rugby found a pleasant level up at Yarnbury in Leeds, before moving to London and playing for Wimbledon rugby club in the London leagues. I'm now what you would call 'retired' at the grand old age of 31 and running forms a large part of my life now.

However, I've been a blogger for nearly 3 years and have an ultra running blog (Trackandtrails.net) which looks at me and my running, but fancy spreading my wings further afield into a sport that has close to my heart for most of my life.

In short, this blog will focus mainly on English rugby, hence the name, but will also pick on subject across the globe. One of my main reasons is also to have a voice about the sorry state of English rugby right now. Since Sir Clive left the stable, things have gone rapidly downhill. I hate it that England is having a rough time of it right now, and follow the team with passion. I travelled to both Australia and France for the World Cup finals, but something tells me that come New Zealand next year, we're going to struggle to hit the quarter finals the way we're playing. Anyway, enough for now. This is just a short preamble and many highly intelligent (insulting!) posts will follow about our game and what needs to be done to put it right!