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From Wimbledon:

It was when the scoreboard packed in at 47 games apiece in the fifth set that you genuinely began to fear for the players' sanity.

When France's Nicolas Mahut and the USA's John Isner strolled out on to Court 18 just before 1400 BST on Wednesday to polish off their first round match, two sets apiece, barely anyone gave them a second look. The first set had lasted 32 minutes, the second 29. "A quick spot of tennis," you can imagine a spectator saying, "and then we'll pop off for lunch."

nobody would have been surprised to hear a Red Cross aeroplane drone overhead and start dropping food parcels.

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If you were to see England defence coach playing with his iPhone during a team training session, you should fight the temptation to shout at him and tell him to leave his emails till later.

He'll be watching a video clip of the move just completed, filmed from both the halfway line and an elevated camera behind the posts and sent directly to his phone by the team analyst. With a drag of the finger he'll then show the players in question exactly where they went wrong, and what they should be doing instead.

Forget clipboards, chalkboards and screaming from the touchline. Rugby analysis has been revolutionised, and the professional game altered forever as a result.

In charge of England's set-up is former Bath captain and coach with Tony Ashton (son of former England and Ireland coach Brian) and Mike Hughes (analyst for Britain's Olympic track cyclists in Beijing) embedded with the elite squad, others with the Saxons, under-20s and under-18s and a backroom support team at the company's offices in Wiltshire.

"I'm a practical guy - I don't believe in ghosts," says Hall, and when you see how much data is collected, analysed and used, his meaning becomes clear.

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You think you know all about Andrew Symonds. You've heard the wild tales of excess, gaped at the stand-clearing sixes, watched him marmalise bowling attacks and his own reputation in equal measure during his rollercoaster years of top-flight cricket.

Sitting with him in the early summer sunshine at The Oval, the surprises start early.
His preferred reading material? ". It's an Australian magazine about pig-hunting.

"It's a pretty blokey magazine, but they have women in it too. There's a 'Boars and Babes' section. Women in bikinis sitting on big old pigs." He grins. "I don't know how many they sell, but they must be doing alright."

Symonds is fresh off an overnight flight from his native Queensland, the marquee signing for as they prepare for . A week shy of his 35th birthday, he's looking remarkably limber for a man supposedly carrying more baggage than any other active cricketer.

"I'm in the World XI for sleeping - I could sleep anywhere, any time," he says proudly, but this is only part of the story.

Fifteen seasons have passed since Symonds first announced himself to the cricketing world by smashing a world-record 16 sixes in a total of 254 not out for Gloucestershire against Glamorgan.

You'd expect him to be growing weary. Instead, there is a fresh spring in his step, a new calmness about his character. The dreadlocks of old have gone; the enjoyment of his younger years returned.

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