"The referendum might now be a real issue for the future of Scottish politics, instead of being an area of theological dispute," he said.
It wasn't all Vickery's fault, the scrum being an area of collective responsibility, and no, there was nothing illegal about the Beast's work, despite what Ian McGeechan and Paul O'Connell had intimated in the immediate aftermath of the defeat.
Balcombe is normally a quiet spot – the parish council's latest news is that two springer spaniels were believed stolen – but residents are objecting to the potential for gas exploration on the basis of its being an area of outstanding natural beauty, and close to a reservoir.
North of the A11, hemmed in by the Olympic park and Westfield, is the 1968-built Carpestate estate, a sizeable site of tower blocks, low-level flats, houses and neat green spaces, which in the last 10 years has gone from being an area of land worth next to nothing to a piece of prime property.
Mr Packham said it had lost a significant amount of funding it had been receiving for being an area of high deprivation.
Despite being an area of active research over the last decade, no knowledge of the intrinsic ultrastructural and nanomechanical properties of such bone tissue exists.
