1) Marc Dal Maso
It was arguably the best sporting moment of the year. It was definitely the biggest rugby union international upset of all time. In the 84th minute of their Rugby World Cup pool-stage match against one of the pre-tournament favourites, South Africa, Japan trailed by just three points. Ignoring the chance to kick for goal and secure a draw, Karne Hesketh went over in the corner to secure Japan just their second ever World Cup victory – coming 24 years after their first – and their boulder-like pack fell to their knees and started to sob.
All around the world, people – most of whom had no affiliation to the tier two nation, and some who had no interest in rugby union altogether – jumped up and down deliriously; in pubs, in front of their televisions at home. It was a victory finished with a flawless, flowing move in the backs, but ultimately won in the forwards. Japan had taken a first-half lead after doing the unthinkable, driving South Africa’s mammoth pack back over their own line to score their first try. Led by their captain Michael Leitch, the pack had then won more turnovers than the Springboks and despite having just 42% of the ball, kept their discipline, conceding only eight penalties to South Africa’s 12. Two more victories followed in Pool B, over Samoa and USA, and Japan remain the only team to ever win three matches in the pool stage and not qualify for the quarter-finals.
Before the tournament Japan’s coach at the World Cup, Eddie Jones, had highlighted his scrummaging coach, Marc Dal Maso, as a key component in the Japan setup. “I don’t think I’ve seen an aspect of play, in all the coaching I have done, improve so rapidly as our scrum has under Marc.” After the South Africa victory, Jones – who surely wouldn’t have got the England job without the win in Brighton – again picked out one man for special praise. “It was thanks to our scrum coach Marc dal Maso that we were able to match one of the greatest scrummaging nations on the planet,” he told the Daily Mail.
A quiet, reserved man who did his work away from the limelight, Dal Maso’s contribution is all the more remarkable with the recent news that the former French hooker is battling Parkinson’s disease, something he only revealed this week. “The problems started when I was 30 and still playing,” he said. “I was not feeling well, tired all the time, and my sister, who works in medicine, suggested I had tests. A scan revealed Parkinson’s disease and I am on medication morning, noon and night. I had offers to coach Toulon and Racing Métro, but I feared they would say my career was over if I told them about my Parkinson’s. I did not tell Eddie when he asked me to become Japan’s scrum coach and working there gave me confidence. By speaking now, I hope I can get a message across.” MB
2) Ida Guehai
Back in March, the award-winning Ivorian children’s author Fatou Kéita angrily told her country’s national assembly that she was going to change career. “I’m not going to write any more, instead I’m going to become a professional footballer,” she declared. “Then I will have public acclaim, a medal and a villa worth 30 million CFA Francs.” Of course that was rhetoric by the 50-year-old who was drawing attention to the huge disparity between the level of state support for rich footballers and relatively poor writers. And of course she was only referring to the footballers of the men’s national team. Because the women footballers get crumbs in comparison: whereas little expense was spared to help Yaya Touré and his team-mates finally win the Africa Cup of Nations this year, the country’s female footballers were left to prepare on a shoestring for their first ever participation in the World Cup.
Ida Guehai secured that surprising qualification by scoring the only goal in a victory over South Africa. Les Eléphantes were then given just one friendly match to prepare for their debut on the global stage. And their opening game was against Germany, no less. There was a certain inevitability about what followed: a merciless 10-0 tonking. Weak-willed players would have revolted or thrown in the towel. Instead the Ivorian women quickly took on board the lessons of their defeat and applied them for the next game, a narrow 3-2 defeat by Thailand in which the Africans hit the crossbar three times. They performed ever better in the next match, losing only 3-1 to a fine Norway side. As Cameroon flew the flag for African women’s football by sensationally reaching the knockout phase, the Ivorians did so by showing quality and determination in the face of adversity and an embarrassing start, and for that they, too, deserve acclaim. Guehai, for one, deserved even more than that and the 20-year-old was duly signed from Juventus de Yopougon by Sweden’s Kristianstads. PD
3) Carlton Williams
Here’s one you can try at home. You don’t need equipment, just enough space in which to lie down and an obsessive’s commitment to refusing to do so despite every muscle and remnant of good sense ordering you to. In July, Carlton Williams, a Welsh builder living in Australia, attempted to beat the world record for the number of push ups completed in an hour. Why? “To prove once and for all that the Welsh people are physically, socially and spiritually superior,” joked Williams. At least we think he was joking. What is certain is that Williams knew the rules: because it was his own record that he was trying to break – apparently the 1,874 push ups that he did in an hour last year were not enough. For those of you eager to beat that, here are the rules: both hands must remain flat on the floor for the full, uninterrupted 60 minutes and you must lower your body until a 90 degree angle is attained at the elbow in order for a rep to be added. Oh, and your revised target as of July is 2,221. “I didn’t really feel that much pain,” said Williams. “I got a shoulder injury – that was my biggest problem … after a while you just get used to it.” Do let us know how you get on. For inspiration, here’s footage of Williams doing his thing. That man is 50 years old. PD
4) Danny Mullins
It is good to know that sportsmanship is alive and well in 2015. And while kicking a ball out of play to allow an injured member of the opposition to be treated is worth a clap, it has no real bearing on the outcome of a match and certainly doesn’t dent a player’s pay packet. Being a jockey has its highs and lows, figuratively and literally, but in between the brief moments of victory, there is the constant travel, the strict diet (which can cause a variety of mental and physical challenges), some struggle to earn a living at all. Winning is everything, and trainers, fans, and the media pay very little attention to those that fall by the wayside.
Not that this mattered one little bit to the Irishman Danny Mullins who effectively sacrificed his own race at Roscommon in September to save his fellow jockey Jody McGarvey from a calamitous fall. McGarvey, riding Old Supporter in the On-Course Vets Handicap Chase, stumbled over an early fence and as the horse struggled to stay on its feet, it reared its neck back to clash heads with its rider, who was knocked out cold by the impact. With another fence fast approaching, Mullins – riding on McGarvey’s right shoulder – acted quickly and decisively to save his compatriot from falling by dragging him back into the saddle, just as McGarvey came to his senses. Both riders failed to finish the race because of the incident, but it was a remarkable bit of camaraderie between two opponents.
“I’ve not seen anything like that before in any of the races I’ve been involved in,” said McGarvey afterwards. “My saddle slipped and I had gone past the point of no return with a one-way ticket. I was preparing to hit the ground. I wasn’t really aware what was happening. I was fighting a losing battle and then I felt Danny pushing me back on. I certainly owe him a drink or two!”
Mullins was not the only superhero to save a fellow jockey from a nasty accident this year. Bryan Cooper and Robbie Power both fell independently of each other at the same hurdle at Gowran Park in November, with both crashing to the ground in a heavy double fall. Both horses, Gunnery Sergeant and Neverushacon, abruptly got to their feet unharmed and started galloping off in a blind panic, with Power still attached to his, dangling by a thread, after catching his foot in the stirrup. But before Neverushacon galloped off, with Power helplessly imitating a rag doll, Cooper got to his feet to halt the horse in his tracks. MB
5) Sarah Outen
Sarah Outen first made her name in 2009, rowing for 124 days to become the youngest ever person and first woman to cross the Indian Ocean single-handedly. In April 2011, she set off on “London2London”, a self-propelled, solo, round-the-world trip to raise money for charity. It took her four and a half years, but last month she finally arrived back at Tower Bridge, her initial starting point. Having cycled across Europe and Asia, through the brutal heat of the Gobi desert and rowed across the Pacific Ocean, she was physically tested to her limits – suffering bouts of pneumonia and severe allergies – but revealed to the Guardian it was the mental struggle that weighed heaviest on her shoulders. “The hardest parts of the journey came from within,” she wrote. “Six hundred miles off the coast of Japan, one month into my row, a tropical storm raged for three days, damaging my boat too severely for me to carry on safely. Alone, in life threatening conditions, with unknown outcomes is a perfect recipe for post-traumatic stress.” Outen was rescued, went home to recover and returned to become the first ever person to row from Japan to Alaska – a journey alone that took her five months – before encountering grizzly bears and -40°C conditions in the US state. A cycle across North America and another solo journey across the Atlantic later, she finally completed her 25,000-mile journey on 3 November. MB
6) Kath Cassidy
When Kath Cassidy started working at Newcastle United, JFK was still alive, The Beatles had just brought out their first studio album and the north-east club were still winning trophies. If that seems a long time ago, it’s because it is. Mike Ashley – who Cassidy still claims never to have met – wasn’t even born when she first began pouring cups of tea for players, managers and journalists in 1963.
The carousel of personnel in these three professions seems to be eternally spinning with new faces, but Mrs Cassidy has remained a constant, but finally hung up her tea cosy in October of this year, to widespread acclaim. Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger were among those to pay tribute to the 88-year-old but as an avid Newcastle fan, she is likely to treasure more the words by Alan Shearer – “It won’t be the same without you” – and Kevin “one and a half sugars” Keegan, who said: “Players can be replaced, managers can be replaced, but people like you, Kath, are irreplaceable.” Peter Beardsley said: “There have been some real heroes down the years but you have been the real legend. I remember in the 1990s when Kevin was here, we always thought we’d win when we saw you before the game.”
Mrs Cassidy, who retired after suffering a stroke and a heart attack, has overseen 29 managers in total, once interrupting a Graeme Souness press conference to deliver the Scot his brew. For every home match, she unhooked a picture of Jackie Milburn from her living room, carried it in her bag to St James’ Park and hung it up in the press centre for good luck. So devoted to her task was Kath that she never witnessed a live home game until 2012, but she was made guest of honour by the club when Newcastle faced Norwich earlier this season. United won 6-2. MB
