Mark Webber invited guest at England vs Australia game

[DIEHARD]

OFF THE MARK

When I was at school, my sport was rugby league. The Australia team's assistant coach nowadays is a guy called David Furner, who used to babysit me when I was a nipper.

But believe it or not, although I've seen countless rugby league games - and the Wallabies play rugby union several times - I had never seen the Kangaroos play rugby league.

So it was a great experience to go to the Australia v England Four Nations match at Wembley on Saturday as David's guest.

It was a tough game - much closer than Australia's 36-20 victory scoreline suggested.

Australia rugby league player Darren Lockyer
The guys invited me down to the dressing sheds straight after the game to see the team unwinding after the win.

It clearly meant a lot to them and it was good to be involved in that environment - a very different one from what I'm used to.

They have a lot of young guys on the team. At 35, I still feel young, but some of these guys were 10 years younger than me - and weigh 115kg. That's the same age as Sebastian Vettel - and twice the weight!

I went back to the hotel with them on the team bus. They asked me to vote for my top three players, and I gave out some model cars and miniature race helmets as prizes.

I was also fortunate enough to spend some time talking to Darren Lockyer, one of the biggest stars in rugby league, who is retiring at the end of the season.

Like all the guys who are truly great in their sporting field, he was sharp and switched on.

He only has a few matches left in his career and we had a chat about what his life is going to be like when he finally hangs up his boots.

I told him that a lot of great drivers had made that decision - and not all of them have done it at the right time.

It's always a difficult judgment to make, and it's even tougher when you're still getting the results, as Lockyer is. But he is comfortable with the decision he's made.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/form...e/15665145.stm

[DIEHARD]

Really passionate Rugby League fan and huge Canberra Raiders supporter.

He is also a very skilled Formula 1 driver too in my books.