91Èȱ¬

He played for Wales from 1980-84, during which he won 16 caps and captained Wales. He has a successful career as a sports commentator with 91Èȱ¬ Sport and is The Observer's rugby correspondent.

"But please, Sir, can't we go back to talking about how boring everything is?"

I know, I know. As soon as you see words like 'routine', you feel your eyelids grow heavy. This is like hypnotherapy. 'Routine, practice... you are growing sleepy. Routine ... soon you will be in a deep sleep.'

But I suppose you have to make plans for everything. You have to rehearse and fine-tune. If something can be done without preparation it's probably not worth doing twice. Unless it's cleaning your teeth ... (Note from editor: please don't wander)

Sorry. It's all about nerves. The most nervous I ever was? Not before a school exam. Or a rugby international. Or a commentary. It was my driving test. I was very twitchy beforehand. But once it started I was OK, and sort of fell into the routines that I'd been made to go through time after time after time during lessons.

It was slightly different, because there, in the driving test car, you're on your own. Well, obviously the instructor's there, but he or she hardly counts as a best mate on this occasion. (Ed: stop wandering again). It's a solo mission.

On the rugby field you're part of a team. It's easier to be dragged through the drudgery of practice if your mates are going though it with you. You help each other along.

Even a commentary is a team thing. There are loads of people working in sound and on cameras, in the stadium and in the outside broadcast vehicles. One huge team. It's a comforting thought. That you're not on your own. That there's a team doing everything they can to make the whole thing work.

Part of the comfort of the team experience is it means help is available if you make a mistake. Miss a tackle on the rugby field and there's Terry Holmes covering for you. Look at Wales in the last five minutes of their more recent game in Paris. They were defending with no real organised shape because they were all out on their feet. But they kept going, covering for each other, filling in for one another. It was brilliant.

Being carried along on the team thing makes you less afraid to make mistakes. If the players in a team don't trust each other they don't take risks or help each other. But when the team is tight-knit, they are more than the sum of their parts.

And what has all this to do with exams? Well, taking an exam in the spooky world of education is a bit of a half-way house between the loneliness of the driving test and the Welsh team pulling each other along in Paris. In the exam room you're obviously on your own. But it's also a shared experience. There can be a lot of other nervous people around you, with their heads down, praying that the right questions come their way.

You're in this together. And the more you've gone through all the boring routines and practices along the way together, the more you will get through this exam ordeal together.

You've helped each other absorb all the 'stuff' in the build-up to this. Now the stuff will help you. At the driving test, when you're on your own, the 'stuff' kicks in. Well, it doesn't exactly kick in because your clutch control would be lousy (Ed: You're doing it again). But it eases in. All the routine and rehearsal were leading to this. The boring stuff will help you now.

So, be bored together. It'll make you all happy.