Rugby World Cup winner Nick Farr-Jonesis watching events in France . . . and elsewhere.
You won't see many rugby balls in Gereida camp in Darfur this month, and I doubt there's even one in the whole of Somalia, or the lush green hills that mark the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. For the inhabitants of these outposts of humanity, food is in short supply, and energy is a precious commodity that they cannot waste by chasing a ball around - least of all one that isn't round and has a tendency to bounce in unexpected directions.
In Somalia, it is still the bullet rather than the ball that dominates daily life. In Darfur, sport in general is still an unimaginable luxury for the millions who have lost their homes to civil conflict and who mount a daily struggle for survival.
The luxury that we all take for granted is an activity that rarely features in the numbing daily life of those who live in the midst of natural and man-made humanitarian crises.
At the very same time, sport encapsulates those basic human values that keep people striving for a better future, even when their future is at its most bleak. The triumph over adversity that comes from a game that is snatched from the very jaws of defeat; the heart-pounding exhilaration that comes from saving a seemingly lost cause; and of course the sheer joy of experiencing the teamwork that turns a disparate group of human beings into a formidable unit capable of overcoming the greatest obstacles.
But let us not forget that there is, of course, the despondency of dealing with a crushing defeat. All of these emotions are there in their rawest forms among those who are in the race of survival and as sports men and women, we should have a natural empathy with those who are caught up in floods, earthquakes, droughts or wars.
As long as the "game is not up" in places like Darfur, Somalia and eastern Congo, we too can do our bit to make sure that those who are caught up in the middle of these crises are not forgotten.
As a former rugby world cup winning captain, I have travelled to Africa and to Asia to promote the Tackle Hunger humanitarian partnership between the United Nations World Food Programme and the International Rugby Board. Tackle Hunger was launched at the Rugby World Cup in Australia four years ago and, this year, it is going to be a major part of the World Cup finals in France.
It was an eye-opener for me, meeting kids in the southern African kingdom of Swaziland - a country that is ravaged by HIV infection and the impact of successive droughts that have now left 400,000 people, or more than a third of the population, in need of food assistance. I was equally staggered by the resilience shown by children who survived the devastation of the Asian tsunami in the Banda Aceh region of Indonesia when I visited just weeks after the wave hit in 2005.
In March of that year, the International Rugby Board organised a match at Twickenham between teams of international players from the northern and southern hemispheres. I'm proud to say that the southern team won, but the real winners were the survivors of the tsunami, who stood to benefit from the more than $3 million (€2.13m) that was raised for the World Food Programme that day.
History tells us repeatedly of the incredible power that sport has to engage minds, and focus people's thoughts around pressing issues like global hunger. Think back to Rugby World Cup in South Africa in 1995, when the Springboks triumphed and Nelson Mandela collected the Web Ellis trophy wearing the green and yellow jersey of South Africa's captain, François Pienaar.
Think of Cathy Freeman's run in the 2000 Olympics in Australia when she triumphed in the 400 metres and achieved so much in promoting greater understanding between aboriginal and white Australians. Think too of the recent scenes in Baghdad, where Iraqis of all faiths have embraced and put aside their differences as their national football team won the finals of the recent Asia Cup.
Then, of course, there is Paul Tergat, the current world marathon record holder, who was the recipient of food assistance from the World Food Programme as a young child, and who is now a WFP Ambassador Against Hunger. Billions of people will tune in to watch the games over the next few weeks.
They are part of an audience that loves its rugby, but I like to think that they are also an audience that cares about other issues. All of them should remember how lucky they are to be in a position where they can enjoy this experience. For those who can't be there - the kids fleeing fighting in Somalia, the dispossessed in Darfur, and the wretched in eastern Congo - there is still hope, and the Tackle Hunger campaign reminds us of the role we can play as rugby fans in ensuring they are not forgotten.
Nick Farr-Jones of Australia is a former Rugby World Cup winning captain, and a Tackle Hunger ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme. The International Rugby Board has dedicated Rugby World Cup 2007 to Tackle Hunger