There is nothing quite like late drama in sport — but spare a thought for the writers

In control and with a commanding lead over France deep into the second half, Wales looked set for a famous Grand Slam win in this year’s Six Nations – even more so when French forward Paul Willemse was sent off with 11 minutes to go. It seemed for all the world that the title and the clean sweep was decisively in Welsh hands.

But when the visitors were themselves reduced to 13 men with Taulupe Faletau and Liam Williams sent to the sin bin, the tide turned. Wave after wave of pressure came until those yellow cards told in the worst possible way. French full-back Brice Dulin crossed over the line from the last play of the game to secure what looked an impossible 32-30 win, breaking Welsh hearts and keeping France’s own championship hopes alive.

“It was one too many attacks and certainly our discipline didn’t help us in the last 10 minutes,” a distraught Wales head coach Wayne Pivac said afterwards. “It was quite chaotic.”

It was sure to have been equally chaotic in the Stade de France press box, too. The last-minute rewrite is what any sports writer fears most. That moment completely out of your control when a carefully crafted summation of events is rendered completely meaningless by a twist of sporting fate. Add in a late Saturday evening deadline and the gravity of the events we had just witnessed and it is an awful lot of copy to rework in not a lot of time.

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In the age of online journalism, time is always of the essence. If you’re not first, you’re last, and every second counts when breaking the big stories. A live match report is no different. The very best writers are able to file as the referee’s whistle blows, regardless of any late twists and turns.

It is the beauty of the job, of course, and even the most fraught reporter would admit that those pressure moments are often what really brings the best out of you as a writer. Most would also privately hope those moments aren’t too regular – for the sake of their blood pressure, if nothing else.

So next time you witness a last-second match-winner, spare a thought for those thousands of journalists consigning their reports to the recycling bin and frantically writing a new one.

Yours,

Ben Burrows

Sports editor