But if someone else went down we have Tom up our sleeves.
Back home, his wife, Mary, given the news that Tom was missing, presumed wounded, refused to accept the inevitable.
As talks resumed at Stormont to revive the assembly, under the chairmanship of the Northern Ireland secretary, Paul Murphy, and junior Irish foreign minister Tom Kitt, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness urged the hardline DUP to strike a deal as quickly as possible.
Tom Smith was also very good at reacting to current events.' In 1917, you could buy suffragette crackers.
They did rally to a degree on this occasion, with a goal in the 41st minute as Tom Soare's testing delivery was turned into the net by McPake.
Under cross-examination by Fairfax's barrister, Matt Collins, Hockey was asked why the North Sydney Forum membership forms referred to providing practical support to Hockey and used the words "business and community leaders supporting Joe Hockey MP".
Durkan could, as Tom Kelly argued earlier this year, find solace in a bigger, more professional club called Fianna Fail, where he can make a comeback in the green, white and gold colours of the Irish Republic's official 'Republican Party'.
On ITV Tom Bradby provided charm, insight and a good array of guests, Adam Boulton was a commanding presence at the heart of Sky's programme – but they lack the ambition or sense of occasion the BBC brings and their secondary presenters offer charm, but less expertise.
All his new team-mates thought their coach was joking – "You would be hard-pressed to think anything other than that the hair dye had finally seeped into Kevin Squire's brain," one told the North Devon Journal – but, sure enough, Collins bought himself a new pair of boots and featured at No8 against a rather startled Newton Abbot.
On a sad, black-edged day for rugby's brotherhood it speaks volumes for Jerry Collins that his untimely death is being mourned far beyond New Zealand and his native Samoa.
Collins said a picture was emerging of Savile as a risk-taker and an opportunist who surrounded himself with dubious characters.
