From his first days as a freelancer for The Sunday Times, our rugby correspondent has written with a voice that has both enthralled — and, he admits, infuriated. Here are some of his best bits

Read a selection of Stephen Jones’s reports for The Sunday Times from when he first wrote for the newspaper as a freelancer in 1980 to last autumn’s glorious World Cup final victory for the Red Roses.

One of Jones’s earliest reports in The Sunday Times, as a 25-year-old freelancer, was on Harlequins 0, Rosslyn Park 6

“The score in black and white might well give the impression that this was a pretty poor match. You’d be wrong. It wasn’t pretty poor, it was absolutely dreadful. There was no invention, no continuity and very little excitement.”

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