18 Nov, 2010 @ 12:40
1 min read

Swopped sides

BRITON Matthew Cook is among the 22 foreigners enlisted by the Spanish national rugby union team to help raise its game.

The Jersey-born flanker is eligible to play for Los Leones having emigrated to Spain five years ago.

His international début came in February in a World Cup qualifier against Russia.

After spells at Jersey RFC and Bedford he now plays for the La Villa club in Alicante.

Surprisingly, most of his companions in the Spanish team are French.

The current squad includes 16 players from the French league and 13 of them were born there.

Spain will certainly need all the foreign talent it can get to leave a mark on the international stage.

The national team failed to qualify for the last three world cups, including the upcoming one in New Zealand.

In Europe, it won only two out of the last 10 games, both against rugby weakling Germany.

Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)

Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press.

After studying Geography at Manchester University he fell in love with Spain during a two-year stint teaching English in Madrid.

On returning to London, he studied journalism and landed his first job at the weekly Informer newspaper in Teddington, covering hundreds of stories in areas including Hounslow, Richmond and Harrow.

This led on to work at the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mirror, Standard and even the Sun, before he landed his first full time job at the Daily Mail.

After a year on the Newsdesk he worked as a Showbiz correspondent covering mostly music, including the rise of the Spice Girls, the rivalry between Oasis and Blur and interviewed many famous musicians such as Joe Strummer and Ray Manzarak, as well as Peter Gabriel and Bjorn from Abba on his own private island.

After a year as the News Editor at the UK’s largest-selling magazine Now, he returned to work as an investigative journalist in Features at the Mail on Sunday.

As well as tracking down Jimi Hendrix’ sole living heir in Sweden, while there he also helped lead the initial investigation into Prince Andrew’s seedy links to Jeffrey Epstein during three trips to America.

He had dozens of exclusive stories, while his travel writing took him to Jamaica, Brazil and Belarus.

He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.

Contact jon@theolivepress.es

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