We stopped exercising and listened up. Mr Marlow had been a top player in his day. We knew this was true because of his cauliflower ears. The left one especially was flattened and lumpy from having been in too many scrums and rucks. Mr Marlow’s ears had given the Green’s our other name. We didn’t often use it as a name ourselves. It was the rival teams, especially the Reds, who did. Whenever they called us the Cauliflower Ears, which was each time we played them, they used it as an insult. But we took it as a compliment, just as Mr Marlow suggested. We’d even put it into our team slogan to show how proud we were of it. Grubber had written the slogan. He was good at writing poems. ‘This is a noteworthy day,’ Mr Marlow continued. We all nodded. It couldn’t get any more noteworthy than this. The Greens were in the Grand Final for the first time ever. ‘Repeat after me,’ said Mr Marlow. ‘This is a noteworthy day,’ we repeated. ‘It’s the Grand Final of the Junior Home World Cup.’ ‘It’s the Grand Final of the Junior Home World Cup.’ ‘And furthermore .
