Bevan Rapson: Loose cannons light up the Rugby World Cup

Mike Tindall. Photo / Getty Images

Here's to the guys who say the unexpected. Things get pretty dreary when everybody sticks to their sanitised scripts but, happily, a few figures in and around this World Cup tournament have refused to do so.

Samoan midfielder Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, for example, has been not so much a loose cannon as a runaway trainload of assorted heavy artillery, careering from one incendiary tweet to another.

Whatever you think about his arguments - and his central point about the unfairness of the draw is indisputable - his fearlessness and brio have made a refreshing change from the cliches and caution we usually get from sportspeople, particularly in this country.

You can understand how this situation has developed here. Our culture frowns on anybody coming across as over-opinionated or up themselves. With sportspeople, we prefer the laconic to the loquacious.

We're encouraged to fret about what someone, somewhere might think about anything that's said by a public figure. Supposed controversies play out with tedious predictability.

Not with Fuimaono-Sapolu involved.

Israel Dagg was another to skip free of convention's confines when he was asked about a try celebration. His wacky clues ("The laughing bear drives the motorcycle"?) were an injection of fun amid the deadly serious business of All Blackness. Good on him for running the risk of being thought, gulp, "up himself".

Even Steve Tew and IRB boss Mike Miller surprised us with an open expression of top-level infighting. Their blustering gamesmanship has little to do with sport but at least brought a festering issue into the open, reminding us that while we enjoy the international rugby, the corporate types will square off over money and power. It's what they do.

You also have to enjoy the professional stirrers, scribes from here and abroad who specialise in challenging the groupthink. The best are unpredictable, although somewhere that dastardly Stephen Jones will be twirling his moustache and tying heroines to the rail tracks.

The man accused of leaking the Mike Tindall footage was another to defy expectations, first with the grandiosity of his proclamations ("Mr Tindall, you gave your word to God, Queen and country") but later with an entertainingly pithy "Don't Tindall". Sorry Mike and Zara but the phrase is destined to become part of the lexicon.

Expect it to be used loud and often in the event of tipsy flirting when fans head out to rejoice and others to commiserate after the quarter-finals this weekend. Temptations will arise but please, don't Tindall. Get a room. And watch out for that laughing bear.