SpongeBob glad of his place in the Oldies XV

TWENTY years ago this very week on the banks of the Clyde, New Zealand won the Junior World Cup, trouncing Ireland in the final.

- PETER JACKSON

The Baby Black untouchables, a status reflected in their collective tournament record of 274 points over five matches, have grown old enough to be middle-aged. They are in their early forties now, their playing days all long gone except for the one they used to call ‘SpongeBob.’

Jimmy Gopperth’s marathon, already long enough to outstrip every Olympian emperor of endurance from Emil Zatopek to Haile Gebrselassie, shows no sign of ending. By the neatest of coincidences, this Thursday’s 20th anniversary of Jerome Kaino’s kids cleaning up in Glasgow also marks Gopperth’s 41st birthday.

A fortnight or so later, he will be back on the treadmill warming up for a second season with Aix-en-Provence. Far from sending their evergreen Kiwi off towards the sunset, his employers thought highly enough of his first season’s work to renew his contract for another.

It will be the 23rd of his professional life for old SpongeBob SquarePants, so-called because the squareness of his shoulders reminded a few team-mates of the-then newly-created cartoon character. Even for all the commercial success of his life on the ocean seabed, the original SpongeBob is due to resurface soon for his 15th season which puts him a long way behind his rugby namesake.