The scrum and the tackle are the two really contentious areas of the game. If you get those two aspects right, most rugby matches will work in your favour.

The objective of a referee is not to get mentioned. I tell a lot of young referees that not being mentioned is king. If you can achieve that, that then it has been a pretty good game.

Coaches will do what they can but it doesn't necessarily bother me. You are an international referee for a reason. If things like that are going to ruffle your feathers, don't bother doing the job.

If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer.

But then southern hemisphere teams are more skilful than their northern hemisphere counterparts, which means games can be easier to referee.

As you become more proficient, fewer people can offer you advice, although in truth, that's when you need it the most because the stakes just keep getting higher and higher.

Big guys like you and me aren't allowed to whine.

Racing shirts should be sold on big, thick rolls like paper towels.

I have three tools at my disposal - my whistle, my body language and my talk. It is a question of how I marry them up to try to get the players around to my way of thinking.

My job is to persuade people to toe the line and play within the laws of the game.

Rowing is such a fine sport. Everyone goes backward, and the leader can see his opponents as they struggle in vain.

The batshit kind of love that makes no sense at all… and at the same time… all the sense in the world… That is us… You and me

Now or never was the time.

Grieve and mourn for yourself not once or twice, but again and again.

Nature conceals her secrets because she is sublime, not because she is a trickster.

Music, being identical with heaven, isn't a thing of momentary thrills, or even hourly ones. It's a condition of eternity.

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

Sometimes the Lord brings us low before he can lift us higher.

The biggest risk of all is not taking one.

For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death.

This year, more people will use cocaine than will read a book to their children.