By Duncan Wood
August 6 2002

There has been no word from Peter Thorburn with regard to the Bristol Shoguns captaincy. However, Agustin Pichot has declared to the media that he does not want to reclaim the position he held in 2000-1.

We ran a story on this issue a few weeks ago when it became apparent that Jason Little wouldn't be returning to see out the second year of his contract and that Bristol now lacked a skipper.

Agustin Pichot has been quoted in the media in the last couple of days as saying that he doesn't want to be considered for the role. Gus was the captain in 2000-1 but the pressures of leadership seemed to take the edge off his game. He looked to be back to his best last season when Jason was the skipper.

"I'm going to concentrate on my game rather than being captain. There are a lot of other players who could be good leaders of the team and I'm sure one of them will get it."

Peter Thorburn has echoed the views of Dean Ryan with regard to the captaincy issue i.e. that he is looking for several leaders on the pitch all capable of shaping the destiny of a game. However, the reality is that a skipper does need to be named.

In my previous piece, I debated the claims of Paul Johnstone, Garath Archer, Alex Brown, David Rees and Neil McCarthy. All have their merits.

The fact is that it really has to be someone who is almost guaranteed their place and it has to be someone who is not going to be disappearing on international duty on a regular basis.

It's a tricky one and I honestly think that it could be any of the players mentioned above. I just have have a hunch that it could be Arch...