A lot of very good players still play purely for fun and they are being denied this chance.I don't think contracts should be a major problem; football now seems to have solved the club v country rows. I think clubs should hold the contracts on the understanding that players are released for international duties.Keep transfers to a manageable level by limiting them to off-season. On 1 August, a club should have a squad that should not change. Maybe, as in Italian football, there should be a window in the season when transfers are permitted.Rugby is wasting an opportunity with the Five Nations. I think we've got to have internationals on 10 consecutive Saturdays. Also, as someone who is, say, trying to sell the game, I look at the Divisional Championship with despair.England selectorI don't think it can remain.

Nobody is going to buy a new player if that man can't play for 120 days. For the moment, though, I think some clubs would like it to stay - just as a lifeline.England contracts are definitely going to come out before the South Africa game My worry is that they will clash with club contracts. I hope club contracts include a clause which allows players to play for England.Money will talk and I don't know how you stop that unless that money comes from a central source such as the RFU. Maybe there should be some restriction on movement: it does make it easier if you know you've got your players for a certain length of time.From my England perspective, I want to see players less tired when playing for England. So there's a case for the league being earlier in the season, leading into European competitions and the internationals in April or May..

THE 17th hole here, which has been changed to the specifications of Seve Ballesteros, has gained a notorious reputation during the Volvo Masters this week. However, it is not just the penultimate hole that drives Europe's finest to distraction. In yesterday's third round Bernhard Langer, one of only three players with a chance of winning the Order of Merit and a huge cheque, was on the leaderboard until he came to the 15th. As par threes go, the 15th provides no relief whatsoever. It is 237 yards and Langer went through the green and on to a cart path at the back. The German's pace of play is generally in the tortoise class and heads were turning grey by the time he had finished the 15th.

He wanted a ruling on where to drop the ball at the nearest point of relief. It looked as if that would be in the middle of a bush, but Langer was saved from that predicament and was allowed to drop on a stretch of grass. Then he duffed his chip into the rough short of the green and took a double-bogey five. At the 16th he dropped another stroke and suddenly, for Colin Montgomerie, everything was coming up roses. In the European pecking order Big Monty was second, just behind Sam Torrance, with Langer in third place.

Montgomerie shot a third-round 69 and, at one under par for the championship, is in a position to win not only the battle but the war. Three others, Ian Woosnam, Per-Ulrik Johansson and Alexander Cejka, are also at one under, one behind the Swede Anders Forsbrand.Valderrama, the venue for the 1997 Ryder Cup, is a course for Braveheart. Not many people enjoy playing it but Montgomerie is an exception. He has an impressive track record here and this partly explains why he has won the Order of Merit for the last two years.Torrance, on the other hand, has never won it and the 42-year old Scotsman is in his 25th year on the European Tour. He lost ground with a 73 in the third round and, at four over par, is five strokes behind Monty and four behind Langer Today Sam will play it again "I've got one more chance," he said "If I can shoot 66 .. you never know.