By Mark Cashman

Late nights watching the Tour de France is only adding to the excitement of anyone lucky enough to be heading to France for the World Cup later this year.

Rugby News has sent a few spies over early to do some recon for us all and we have it on good authority that the one town you can’t miss during your stay is Gordes in the Luberon region.

Wedged in about 45 minutes from both Marseille and Avignon, Gordes is a hilltop village packed with cafes, bars and restaurants and surrounded by some of the best scenery in the south of France.

There’s also a bucketload of wineries nearby, some decent golf courses and a heap of top quality spas and resorts for the backs on the trip.

Everyone loves props doing stuff that you normally wouldn’t expect.

Well it’s safe to say that Randwick tight-head prop Cronan Gleeson has gone viral after the major role that he played in a try scored by his skipper Ben Houston against the Beasties at Woollahra last weekend.

Gleeson scurried his way into the back field midway through the first half of the Battle of the East and put on a superb right to left pass that hit the chest of Jackson Mohi who made good ground before turning it inside to Houston who stormed over under the posts.

It wasn’t that Gleeson just passed the ball, it was the fact that he did that wrist spin thingy that any No.9 would be proud of and it is now a pretty big thing on social media.

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We’re about to launch into the Rugby awards season and like the Logies the boffins at the Sydney Rugby Union have announced their master of ceremonies for the Catchpole Medal dinner.

Experienced campaigners Andrew Swain and Tim Horan will handle the night in what is shaping as one of the big social events of the Shute Shield season.

“I’m an admirer of (Logies host) Sam Pang’s work and will be watching how he goes and see if we can take some of his bells and whistles to the Catchpole,” Swain told Around The Traps earlier this week.

The voting is the tightest it has been in years, something reflected in the tightness of the race to the playoffs.

The SRU gave a taster of who was in the picture a number of weeks ago with this list of “contenders”: Andrew Tuala – Hunter, Archie Gavin – Easts, Archie Hosking – Southern Districts, Ben Pollack – Gordon, Connor Winchester – Hunter, Donny Freeman – Hunter, Hunter Hanniford – West Harbour, Jack McGregor – Gordon, James Lough – Gordon, John Akauola – Gordon, Jude Gibbs – Norths, Michael Icely – Eastwood, Nick Murray – Hunter, Otu Mausia – Western Sydney, Paddy Tagg – Sydney Uni, Prez Tufega – West Harbour, Tristan Fuli – Gordon, Zac Barnabas – Manly.

How they land as the final round of voting looms remains to be seen.

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There was bit more than just a game of footy between Easts and Randwick going on at Woollahra Oval last weekend.

The Beasties held their Back To Easts day and the pre-game luncheon was littered with many of the greats from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

That great Easts man Bob Wilson, who now is happily ensconced on the mid-north coast of NSW, was our eyes and ears at the scene of the crime and he told us about passionate addresses by president Dave Allen and Jim Tate.

“It was everything that makes our game great,” the former author of “Wilso’s Whispers” in the old Rugby News told me.

“Mates from all levels of the game enjoying several cold refreshments and memories from many years past.”

Some of the people in attendance included: John Cox,  Michael Rowles, Andy Tyler,  Bruce Creecy, Lawrie Fahy, Tim Gavin, Dirk Williams, Paul Jelfs, Paul Cramsie, Paul Ryan, ‘Sheik’ Rob McCormick, Michael Lakeman, Kate Brenac,  Heamani Lavaka, Mick Gerathy, Chris Paul, Michael Brial,  Todd Olivier, Tim McGann, Matt McGann, Willy ‘Wonka’ McGann, Dirk Hansen, Andrew Crocker, Scott Bowen, Robert Burns, Darren Gibbons, Mick Doyle, Mark Maunder, George Alexiou, Stuart Brown, Grant Lodge, Allan Eskdale and Paul King.

The good guys from the “other side” included Allen Stutchbury, Joe Picone, Patrick Phibbs, Morgan Turinui, Lachlan McKay, Johnny Tuxworth, Warwick Waugh and Craig Sproule.

‘Wilso’ didn’t disappoint and said he finished off the day with his “go to tipple” – Bundy rum over ice with a splash of ginger beer.

Don’t ever change Bob it could endanger your health!

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One of the great stories to come out of the Back To Easts day involved Jason Little and his 21st birthday celebrations in 1991.

Now that was some time ago and Little was travelling with the Wallabies and in California on a stopover when the milestone birthday arrived.

Bob Wilson was coaching at Belmont Shore at the time and organised a bit of a bash at the Legends Sports Bar for the Wallabies and Little while the LA Raiders cheerleaders were there and they helped the fresh-faced centre celebrate.

Yes they were different times!

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Around The Traps will head to “The Birthplace” at the weekend to take up a very kind invitation to attend Sydney Uni’s Legends Lunch before the vital match against Eastern Suburbs.

This is the third annual running of the get together and I’m keen to hear what former Wallabies Dr Gregg Burrow, Professor Phillip Crowe and Roger Davis have to say.

Looking forward to it.

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West Harbour aren’t in the frame for the Shute Shield playoffs but they as sure as hell are going to play a major role in what teams make it and where they finish in the finals pecking order.

Over the next three weekends they take on Manly, the Wildfires and the Two Blues and judging on their form over the past month they are well within a shout of winning those games.

Around The Traps thought they should have won their game against Gordon if not for a strange refereeing decision late.

They were up for the battle at Chatswood Oval after having a chat to former first grader Mark Tonga before the game.

Tonga’s in a wheelchair after breaking his neck at training some years ago but he gets about and keeps his connections at the club open.

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Around The Traps was lucky enough to get some tickets to last weekend’s Test match at CommBank Stadium.

We arrived early and tucked into some quite nice footy food before seeing former Wallaby Warwick Waugh squeezing his way next to us.

Having someone sit next to you at the Test footy isn’t generally a problem but when you factor in the fact that Waugh is all of 203cm and over 135kg it was like watching a game next to Will Skelton.

Anyways a good time was had by all!

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A couple of weeks back we mentioned a post training ritual at the Warringah Colts and not seems to still be having the right effect.

The Rats Colties are undefeated as they head into Round 16 this weekend with the Woodies colts one win behind them as they finals looms.

Woods Colts boss Dave Telfer is taking over from Ben Batger at Shute Shield level while Josh Holmes, I am told is very much in the frame to be part of the first grade coaching group at Rat Park.

Rats v Woods should be one hell of a grand final.

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Northern Suburbs scrum half Nick Duffy plays the game at such a frenetic tempo that I scratched my head when informed that he would be playing his 100th grade game this weekend against Eastwood at TG Millner.

Watch him on any of the Stan Sport highlights packages and you cannot but be impressed with his “motor”.

Duffy just keeps on keeping on and Norths are always in the game when he is on the field.

While we are talking about TG Millner this weekend could be the last time that the Woodies host a home game with the move to the great north west on the horizon.

It’s sure to be an emotional time for many!