Rugby is my passion. I love watching it, I love talking about it, I love writing about it. Hopefully that shines through in my work for Sky and the Telegraph. But as much as I enjoy the banter, there are some hard and fast rules to commentating. First up, do your research.

I watch every single Premiership game every season, as well as 95% of Heineken Cup games, all the internationals – without fail and often twice – and as many of the Southern Hemisphere games I can squeeze in without the wife threatening to leave me. Secondly, you have to be honest and you can't pull your punches. Finally, and most importantly, you can never, ever forget the Mum Equation. Before I write or say anything, I try to imagine the player's mother sitting next to me. Would I say it to her face, could I live with her reaction? If I wouldn't, it gets canned. Passion with control. That's what it's all about.

Along the way I've played darts with Phil 'The Power' Taylor', sailed in Cowes Week, played golf with John Daly and taken to horseback with the eventer Mary King. Writing up these experiences one thing always strikes me – the dedication and discipline of elite sport may be tough but the sense of life fulfilment and direction is palpable. And that's what's so great about getting to work on programmes like Sky's School of Hard Knocks. It lets me change lives through sport. It lets me show some tough but good kids, that if they open up, trust and make positive changes, then anything and everything is possible.
That's the power of sport and that's why I've got the best
job in the world.