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Has any great rugby player had a more apposite name than Dickie Jeeps, who died on Saturday aged 84?Like the vehicles which share his name the Northampton, England and Lions scrum-half was rugged, durable and operated effectively in all terrains but was probably at his best in the mud, of which there was plenty on the pitches of the 1950s and 1960s.His 24 caps were the most for an England scrum-half at the time of his retirement in 1962. ESPNscrums John Griffiths rated him Englands best ever scrum-half - ahead of Cecil Kershaw and Bernard Gadney - and 22nd greatest player in all positions, when he listed his top 50 in 2003.But perhaps the truest measure of his standing is his record with the Lions, for whom he played 13 tests on three tours between 1955 and 1962. That too was a record at the time, since overtaken only by his 1962 team-mate Willie-John McBride. Unless Lions tours get longer or more frequent, neither probable under modern conditions, he is likely to remain in perpetuity both the Lions most-capped back and their most-capped Englishman.His international career began as, to modern eyes, a still less conceivable phenomenon - the uncapped Lion. He was hardly unknown when chosen for the 1955 tour of South Africa since he had been playing for Eastern Counties since his teens and for Northampton (where he was to pile up 273 first-team appearances) since 1952, had been an England reserve for the past two seasons and played in a trial match in late 1954. But Englands selectors had yet to be convinced he was their man.One anecdote suggests that legendary Welsh scrum-half Haydn Tanner was the advocate who earned him Lions selection along with England incumbent Johnny Williams - who was generally expected to play the tests - and Wales Trevor Lloyd.His ascension to the test team in South Africa has generally been put down to brilliant Welsh outside-half Cliff Morgan finding that Jeeps shorter delivery offered him more options than Williams long bulleted passes. Certainly if the selectors had this combination in mind, they kept it well-concealed, pairing them only twice in the 12 matches played before the First Test. JBG Thomas account of the tour reckons that Jeeps won his test place with a brilliant display in the 36-13 defeat of Transvaal, when he was paired with Englands Doug Baker.So Jeeps made his test debut in front of then the largest crowd in rugby union history, 95,000 at Ellis Park, Johannesburg and in a match remembered as one of the greatest in Lions history. A single moment in the second half of the Lions 23-22 win illustrated the virtues of Jeeps passing from the scrum. As Morgan recalled He threw out the perfect flat, shortish pass which was moving away from me. I had to run and stretch to get it, and as I caught it and swung my body, my great adversary Basie van Wyk just missed my backside. Morgan went in under the posts, and the Lions led 23-11.Jeeps and Morgan played all four tests for a team who were, before the triumphs of the 1970s, regarded as the best Lions ever for the brilliance of their rugby and the 2-2 draw secured against the Springboks. Morgan wrote of his partner that he served you like a dog, he was tough and he knew the game.Jeff Butterfield, a team-mate for club and country provided perhaps the definitive soundbite about Jeeps as The toughest, hardest player around. He was relentless in pursuing a win. He didnt just play for fun. Part of his essential gear contained a catapult : he was a grown-up Just William.It was perhaps that combination of relentless competitor and practical joker - he was in his own words a water-pistol man and once warded off boredom at a post-match banquet by crawling under the top table to set off a firework - that made Englands selectors wary. A first England cap followed, against Wales at Cardiff in 1956, but England lost and it was back to Williams for the rest of the season.The breakthrough came in 1957. He played all four matches, found an ideal outside-half partner in Harlequin Ricky Bartlett, and England won their first Grand Slam since 1928. In the clincher against Scotland he withstood ferocious pressure from the Scottish back-row before having a hand in all three England tries. Another title followed in 1958, when he also captained Northampton.Yet this was an era in which, as Jeeps himself told me in an interview in 2008, you had to start again every year and fight your way back into the England team. County championship form, a series of trials and the Varsity match were all thrown into the mix along with past services.In 1959 the selectors were beguiled by the huge pass and Varsity form of Cambridge Universitys Stephen Smith. Jeeps merely came from Cambridge, where he and his father ran a market garden, which was not quite the same thing.Smith came in and Jeeps played only once, when Smith was ill, against Ireland. It happened to be the only match England won in 1959 (although there were also two draws), and it was unlucky for both the newcomer and England that the opening match against Wales was lost on exactly the sort of Arms Park swamp that would have suited Jeeps down to the ground.To be fair to Englands selectors, they were not the only doubters. His 1955 Lions colleague Clem Thomas reckoned him a scrum-half of durability rather than perception and reported South African rugby boss Danie Cravens view that the Lions would have won the series with Williams at scrum-half.But those opinions are outweighed by others. Clive Rowlands, another ferociously pragmatic scrum-half operator recalled him as brilliant at using the gap between the forwards and the backs. The 1959 Lions selectors took him to Australia and New Zealand where he played five of the six tests, missing the match at Auckland only through illness.Bev Risman, who played outside-half on that tour, remembers He never gave you the ball unless you had the chance to do something. If there was nothing on, he would take the punishment himself. The New Zealand Herald journalist Terry McLean, a demanding and astringent critic, wrote that he had the torso and arms of a heavyweight, and with his courage he would take on anything. He had a furious temper, too.And in 1960, he was not only back for England, but captain - although he probably jeopardised that elevation before the final trial, later recalling :Since we were asked to assemble at Richmond the day before, I wrote to every member of that England team to come to a training session, which I took myself...I got a fearful bollocking.But the bulk of that England final trial XV not only got selected, but stayed together through an entire Five Nations season in which only a missed kick against France deprived them of a Grand Slam. Little else went wrong from the opening minutes in which Jeeps, acting on a suggestion from astute back-rower Peter Robbins, first surprised Wales by attempting a couple of breaks himself then took advantage of their confusion by sending debutant outside-half Richard Sharp sailing through a huge gap to the line.At the end of the 1960 season Jeeps was unbeaten in 14 matches for England (including three draws), since his losing debut in 1956. His last two seasons were less successful, but he was able to quit on his own terms, while still captain, at the end of 1962, finishing with a third Lions tour - to South Africa - in which he played all four tests and was made captain when Arthur Smith was ruled out of the final Test.But this was far from the end of his rugby life. He played, as he had always promised, a couple of seasons for the Cambridge club and, a gifted all-round sportsman, continued to play Minor Counties cricket for Cambridgeshire.Elected to the RFU committee almost as soon as he retired, his restless energy continued to make an impact. In 1976 he became, at 44, the youngest president of modern times and shocked an organisation which still saw no reason why its number should be in the telephone book by instituting regular press conferences at which he was, among other things, trenchantly critical of the quality of English club rugby.There were suggestions that he be granted, exceptionally, a second year in office. That came to nothing but, in an era when rugby administrators rarely did much to impress the wider world, he had been noticed and in 1978 was appointed to chair the Sports Council. He kept the job for seven years, surviving the change of government in 1979, instituting the Sport for All slogan which underpinned policy for many years and standing up to royalty in the same way as he had once defied opposing loose forwards, dismissing as an insult criticisms of Sports Council staff by the Duke of Edinburgh.Visited in his mid 70s at his Newmarket home, he proved a generous host with a clear and trenchant recall of his playing days. Few English rugby lives have come much greater.Air Max 97 Blanche Pas Cher . The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Lions have not announced the hiring, which was first reported by ESPN. Lombardi, the grandson of former Green Bay Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, has been an offensive assistant on Sean Paytons New Orleans staff since 2007. Air Max Plus Homme Pas Cher . 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Nike Air Max 270 React Soldes . -- New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Reis is retiring after a 16-year career to become the goalie coach for the Los Angeles Galaxy.HOUSTON -- Grambling State running back Martez Carter had to remind himself of advice he frequently hears from Tigers coach Broderick Fobbs.Coach always preaches that anytime you make a mistake, it happens for a reason, and you have to have a short-term memory, Carter said.Carter rushed for 136 yards and a touchdown and used a dominant second half to help Grambling State overcome a 17-point halftime deficit and Alcorn State 27-20 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday at NRG Stadium.Late in the fourth quarter, Carter was nearly in the end zone when an Alcorn State defender knocked the ball loose on the 2-yard line. Luckily for Carter and the Tigers, receiver Dominique Leake was in the perfect place to catch the fumble in midair and step into the end zone to tie the game at 20.Like coach says, every mistake happens for a reason.After a blocked extra-point attempt by Alcorn State, Carter used his short-term memory to put the fumble behind him and scamper into the end zone on a 31-yard touchdown run with less than four minutes remaining to give Grambling State (10-1) its first lead of the game.Grambling State cornerback Jameel Jackson intercepted a pass at midfield with three minutes left to secure the win.The game was a rematch of the 2015 SWAC title game, which Alcorn State won 49-21. The Tigers won their first SWAC championship since 2011 and 24th conference title in school history, the most in the conference.They put us in a bind and dominated us in the first half, but our kids continued to fight, Fobbs said. We scrambled and made some plays and got some key stops, defensively, and were able to come away with the victory.After dominating the SWAC in an undefeated run in the regular season, the Tigers found themselves in unfamiliar territory at halftime as they trailed 17-0.Once we came in the halftime locker room and saw how everybody had the same mindset, I wasnt worried at all, Grambling State quarterback Devante Kincade said. I was ready to get back on the field.Kincade threw for 237 yards and two touchdowns on 15 of 22 passing despite eight sacks.Alcorn State (5-6) got 126 yards rushing and a touchdown from DeLance Turner, who had 16 carries.We gave up big plays and those kinds of things hurt, Alcorn State head coach Fred McNair said. Its just the way it happened and thats the way that second half played out, unfortunately.McNair, who was promoted from quarterbacks coach in February after previous head coach Jay Hopson left for Soouthern Mississippi, guided his team past a rocky 1/3 start to return to the conference championship game.dddddddddddd McNair is the brother of the late NFL quarterback and Alcorn State legend Steve McNair.Grambling State will face North Carolina A&T in the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl on Dec. 17 in Atlanta, the same opponent that beat Alcorn State in the same game 41-34 a year ago.THE TAKEAWAYGRAMBLING STATE: The Tigers dominated the SWAC in the regular season, winning by an average margin of 31.7 points but had to overcome a sluggish first-half start to finish the regular season undefeated in conference play.ALCORN STATE: The Braves dominated the first half and led by three scores at the break before losing momentum early in the third quarter and the lead in the fourth quarter.EMERGENCY KICKERAfter Grambling State kicker/punter Jonathan Wallace was injured on a punting play, he was unable to resume his duties as kicker. Fobbs turned to CB Abubakkar Conteh, who had never previously kicked for the Tigers and the team only recently found out played soccer in high school in Canada. With the exception of the blocked extra-point attempt on a bad snap, Conteh delivered, converting two extra points and handling kickoff duties.RUSHING TO CONCLUSIONSAlcorn State won in its two previous trips to the SWAC title game by dominating the ground game. The Braves more than doubled their opponents rushing yard totals in the previous two victories and were on their way to a similar feat on Saturday, leading the rushing total by a wide margin of 173-96 at the half. In the second half, however, Grambling State outgained Alcorn State 79-16, a key turnaround that ultimately flipped the game.PENALTIES GALOREMcNair acknowledged that committing 15 penalties for 134 yards was a major factor in Alcorn States loss of the early lead. Nine of those penalties for 82 yards were committed in the first half. Comparatively, Grambling State committed 10 penalties for 95 yards.UP NEXTGRAMBLING STATE: The Tigers will represent the SWAC in the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl on Dec. 17 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, taking on North Carolina A&T out of the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference.ALCORN STATE: The Braves are expected to return most of their starters on offense in 2017, including QB Lenorris Footman and Turner, and graduate just three starters on defense. ' ' '