It's the morning of the Rugby World Cup final. On the TV it's England v Australia, and in the club bar it's Dave, chairman of the Greyhawks Rugby club, against the rest of the world. Dave never made it from the "England Possibles" team into the "England Probables", but in his young protege, Jake, he sees a boy with a golden foot who - like Jonny Wilkinson - could go all the way. He loves the lad like the son he never had, and he loves the club with a passion. But with the election for club chairman looming, it looks as though Dave will be ousted by Matt, the first-team coach, a man whose taste for dirty tricks makes Richard Nixon look like Mother Teresa. And Matt's an Australian to boot.
Written by Chris England, who with Arthur Smith penned the West End hit An Evening With Gary Lineker, this couple of hours has almost no redeeming features, except perhaps the most important one: it is good-naturedly enjoyable. But the play is clumsily constructed: the dialogue is all about setting up the plot and the punchlines rather than character, the plotting is improbable if not impossible, and the cast shout a lot.
Yet for all these failings, you don't mind too much, and after a gallon of lager it is the kind of show that you would probably find yourself thinking about quite affectionately. That's because the game of rugby that the characters have gathered to watch, although unseen by the audience, lends a sense of drama to the proceedings, and because Norman Pace finds the flawed humanity in Dave. This is turkey-twizzler theatre - almost entirely without nutritional value, but reasonably tasty. It's on in the wrong place, though; its natural home is Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms in August.
· Until July 2. Box office: 020-7907 7060.
