As I write this, Five Men Standing stock is arriving in Whitcoulls stores around the nation, and it’s also available via online retailer Fishpond.

And not forgetting our cousins in the great western island*, it should also be turning up in Angus & Robertson stores around Australia.

So if you’ve got a rugby-mad relative that you’re struggling to find a Christmas pressie for, I humbly suggest you grab a copy, if only for the esteem that will be bestowed upon you as a wise and canny giver of gifts. Undoubtedly people will write sonnets and sagas praising your perspicacity and benevolence, and these words will echo down the ages.

But of course, the joy is in the giving, not the eternal fame. So grab your readies and get cracking!

* Hmmm. It’s only been a little under six years since I departed the shores of Oz, and already my homeland has been relegated to a Kiwi territory. Still, when the All Blacks crush the Wallabies next year into so much as a fine patina of yellow, I too will revel in the glory as they raise the Webb Ellis cup in triumph. When in Rome…