But since when have goalkeepers been average, either physically or mentally?L R Rouse was the goalkeeping star at the end of the last century and he was a big man. When Sheffield United won the FA Cup in 1902 their goalkeeper was Billy Foulke, who was a towering 21 stones.It's a heavily flawed argument. If you chopped 1,000 feet off the top of Everest more climbers would reach it. But where would be the achievement? Goals are the triumph of football and surely even Fifa can see the folly of devaluing them.O NE section of the commu- nity which unreservedly welcomed the RFU's proposal for playing the Five Nations in May were the bookmakers. Home international rugby is already in the top five of sporting betting. Moving the matches to May would bring them even more business.I trust the unions are taking note. When you pay 10 per cent tax on a horse-racing bet, 1 per cent goes to the Horseracing Levy Board.

When you bet on another sport, that 1 per cent goes to the bookie. I suggest that rugby has a word with its friends in parliament. Now they are professional, the unions have to be aware of all potential revenue.. SITTING next to the man who jointly leads the world rally championship as he threads an S-bend on a narrow, slippery track at 130mph, you don't say: "Right then, about this rivalry within the team. What's the low-down on that?" You say: "Aaaargh!" It is a sure-fire technique for disarming interviewers, and one that Colin McRae has down to a fine art. Going into next week's RAC rally, the final round of the championship, McRae and his 555 Subaru team-mate Carlos Sainz are tied at the top of the title table on 70 points each.

But instead of plotting tactics for the RAC, the pair spent last Wednesday piloting a few fortunate guests around a special stage in Warwickshire. I found the experience terrifying and exhilarating in equal measure, but sensed that McRae would rather have been elsewhere "We do this one day a year," he said. "And one day a year is enough." All the same, he conceded, the stage was useful training for the RAC "We're not holding back," he said, worryingly "We're going fairly quickly. It's a nice, fun course, and we can swing a bit wider on the turns, play about and not worry about losing time."I was more worried about losing my lunch. Derek Ringer, McRae's regular co-driver, whose fireproof overalls I had borrowed, shared the concern. "Don't mess up my suit," he warned.McRae's appetite was unhindered by his duties: he even had room for profiteroles with chocolate sauce at the end of the lunch-break.

This is perhaps not surprising given that his diet during the RAC Rally will consist largely of specially prepared high-carbohydrate drinks."When Colin first came to the team he was not very interested in physical fitness," David Williams, the Subaru team doctor and fitness expert, recalled "But he has realised that being fit aids his driving. He enjoys his level of fitness and works very hard at it." He has even got used to the high- carbo drinks. "His favourite flavour is lemon and lime," Dr Williams revealed.Physical condition is just one of many aspects of Colin McRae's professional life that have changed since he first emerged on the rallying scene as the Scottish rally champion in 1988."His driving style has changed quite a bit in the last two years," said his father Jimmy, who is also a former Scottish champion "Colin was always fast, but he had accidents. Recently he has learned that you don't have to drive flat out the whole time to win a rally. He has learned when to back off and when to go flat out so that he keeps the car in shape, and that is the difference between winning individual rallies and winning championships."This new laid-back approach was put under severe strain in last month's Catalunya Rally in Spain, when McRae apparently ignored team orders and took the lead from Sainz on the last day of the event. He eventually handed the event to Sainz by checking in late at the final control, but not before a public stand-up row with the team boss, Dave Richards.The relationship between McRae and Richards is still "a little strained" according to the driver, but he has resolved that he will not let it affect the team's performance on the RAC rally, and he promises a diplomatic "clear the air" chat with Sainz before the cars line up on the starting ramp.But the incident enhanced his reputation as the Wild Man of Rallying, an image that those who know him say is quite unjustified "That's all nonsense," Jimmy McRae said.

"It may have been a little true of his driving in his early days, but out of the car he is really pretty quiet." Colin certainly seems quiet in conversation, almost introverted, but his extra- curricular pastimes are hardly those of the shy, retiring type: extreme skiing, motocross and quad biking. Isn't he just taking his work home with him?"Absolutely not," Colin insisted. "The joy of motocross or waterskiing is that it's not my job. Sure, if I go out in a rally car to play at home, that's fun. But rallying really isn't so much like that these days, it's all very serious It's big business."Big and expensive.