He’s a die-hard rugby union fan, but the sport, sadly, isn’t much practised where Leigh Watkins lives, in the small regional town of St Arnaud in western Victoria. St Arnaud has AFL, netball, golf and even hockey teams but the only local signs of the game Watkins loves are the posters and jerseys he has hung in the pub he owns, the Farmer’s Arms. “There’s no rugby around here,” confirms St Arnaud Football club spokesman Jason Smith. By contrast, rugby is ubiquitous in Watkins’ hometown of Pontypridd, in South Wales; it’s a social as well as athletic pursuit, akin to a religion. “It’s our national sport in Wales. In the same way that religion brings a community together, so does rugby,” Watkins said. Watkins gets homesick, so he can’t wait to support the British and Irish Lions rugby union team at the MCG on Saturday, playing against Australia’s Wallabies, with a crowd Rugby Australia expects to reach more than 90,000.