The dinner, which will start from 7pm on June 3, will also feature former England star Martin Bayfield, Willy Los who played for Tonga and ESPN rugby show host Justin "Sambo" Sampson.

Eales was capped 86 times by Australia, including 55 games as captain and represented Australia twice in winning sides at both the 1991 and 1999 Rugby World Cups. He is one of rugby's true ambassadors.

He also led Australia to back to back Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nation victories in 2000 and 2001, to victory over the British and Irish Lions in 2001 and retired from rugby in September, 2001, at the age of 31.

Bayfield played for England 31 times between 1991 and 1996, and at six foot, 10 inches is also one of the tallest players in the history of the game. Aside from legitimately being described as one the biggest people on the after dinner circuit, Bayfield is also regarded as the best speaker on the circuit.

He also writes for London's Daily Telegraph, broadcasts for Radio 5 Live in the UK and has acted in the Harry Potter films.

Los was capped by Tonga during the 1995 Rugby World Cup and is no stranger to either Bangkok or Thai rugby. After recently completing MC duties at the inaugural Bangkok Interna-tional Tens tournament, he has also performed the role of judge, jury and executioner during tour court sessions for British Club Rugby section during the Manila Tens.

Apart from playing for Tonga, he also played for Auckland and North Harbour clubs in New Zealand as well as six years playing professional club rugby in Japan.

Sampson has regularly appeared on the Rugby Show and at international rugby matches for Star Sports since 1999. His day job for the past seven years has been as Director of Advertising and Sales for Southeast Asia for ESPN Star Sports.

Before that he was the Singapore national team coach for four years and was instrumental in developing their fund raising and sponsorship programmes.

He has also played and coached in Japan. "Sambo" will

be the MC for the evening as

well performing the role of auctioneer for the many fine items that will be auctioned on the evening.

The purpose of the dinner is to fund the costs associated with bringing the stars to Thailand and they will be holding a coaching clinic for the junior Lions players whose ages range from four to 18.

If their coaching clinic is as good as those held by John Mitchell in 2004 and David Campese, Brian Moore and Richard Loe in 2005, then the morning will be something for them all to remember for many years to come.

Sponsorship opportunities still exist and there will be opportunities to meet each of the stars for photo opportunities prior to the dinner.

For more information, contact Bob Merrigan, the secretary of the Bangkok Lions RFC, at robert.merrigan@echarris.com, or Bruce Hill at info@bkklionsrugby.org.

Alan Parkhouse

The Nation