PLEASE accept my humble apologies if I seem to be making less sense than usual this week but as I write the blood is coursing through my veins at a dangerous rate of knots as the clattering noise from my keyboard deafens me while my fingers type away at 100 miles per hour and I don't think I've blinked for the last two hours and it's all down to the sugar rush from eating too much chocolate. Phew!
Not just any old chocolate, you understand, but one of the most glorious items of confectionery from my childhood: a Jameson's Raspberry Ruffle. Well, three of them, to be exact. One after the other.
I just couldn't resist the 'Plain Chocolate Cov
ered Coconut and Raspberry Fondant Creams' when I stumbled across them in a supermarket on a recent holiday.
I'm not a compulsive or obsessive person but there was a time when I couldn't bear the thought of not having a ready supply of Raspberry Ruffles. If I remember rightly I used to buy them by the satchelful en route to collecting my repeat prescription of acne cream from the local chemists.
I won't be buying any more. To be honest, they are expensive for what they are. And not very good for your health, especially when consumed in bulk.
Which brings me on nicely to the recent spate of bulk buying of overseas talent by Super League clubs.
Forgive me if I'm wrong but wasn't the end of promotion and relegation meant to wean clubs off their compulsive purchasing of journeymen Aussies and Kiwis? Wasn't the stability that comes with the brave new world of franchising supposed to bring about a situation where clubs give home-grown players more first team opportunities?
It seems not.
Even though the Super League season has run two third of its course, three clubs – Castleford, Wakefield and Wigan – are currently awaiting the arrival of new signings from the former colonies.
Matt Petersen (Wakefield), Mitchell Sargent (Castleford) and Tim Smith (Wigan) could all arrive this week, just in time to further reduce the pool of players available to England coach Tony Smith as the World Cup looms.
The perceived wisdom says that clubs have to look Down Under because of the paucity of talent that exists in this country, both within the Super League Academies and the National League.
Or could it just be the case that some clubs – and I exclude Wakefield Trinity from this charge – just find it a trifle easier to dig up a Digger rather than spend time and resources developing domestic talent?
Wigan's track record over the last decade is shameful and the poignancy of their new scrum-half's arrival in a week which sees them fail to supply a single player to the England squad for the Test against France ought not to be lost on anyone.
As for Castleford, it will be interesting to see whether Sargent fares better than some of the Aussie flops who have failed to light up Wheldon Road this season such as Tom Haberecht, Brendan Hlad and Michael Korkidas. Anyone who claims there is not a single English forward playing National League rugby who has more to offer than those is deluded, deranged or just plain daft.
Wakefield did play their part in turning former York City Knights winger Peter Fox into a prospective international, just as they did with full-back Matt Blaymire, who was a member of Great Britain's train-on squad.
The Wildcats also feature Danny Brough, Jamie Rooney and Jason Golden, all of whom learned their trade in the National Leagues as did Huddersfield winger Danny Kirmond, Hull centre Richard Whiting, Leeds prop Ian Kirke and countless other Super League players.
Now that relegation has gone, clubs have no excuse not to be looking to a future which has no place for the kind of short-term Aussie fixes that leave me sick to the back teeth.
Or that just might be the Raspberry Ruffles.
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