It was the great Sid Waddell who once enthused at the darts: “As they say at the DHSS, we’re getting the full benefit here.”
The Ospreys might say the same about Olly Cracknell.
Not so Wales, who haven’t shown the slightest interest in the back rower since they called him up for the 2017 Six Nations, didn't use him and then forgot about him.
But the facts are these: over two seasons Cracknell has made 568 tackles and 370 ball carries in all competitions.
Had this term run its course he would probably have gone beyond 600 hits since the start of 2018-19 and completed more than 400 charges forward.
It’s graft that might have persuaded Alexei Stakhanov, the legendary superstar miner from the old USSR, to call over to Cracknell had the pair teamed up alongside each other: “Slow down yer mug — they’ll only up our targets.”
Probably, Cracknell would have had none of it.
So what’s with Wales treating him as if he’s some kind of invisible man?
In their defence, it isn’t as if the back row has been exactly shabby during the time Cracknell has been in Wales — the Yorkshire-born player has a grandfather from Llanelli and registered on the Welsh Rugby Union’s website as an exile in 2016.
When someone as capable as Thomas Young has only three caps and Ollie Griffiths boasts only one Test appearance that saw him play for just two minutes, Cracknell can console himself that he’s not alone in being passed over so frequently.
But Young is an exile and Wales tend to think twice before picking such sorts, while Griffiths has been hit by an A to Z of injuries.
So Cracknell may quietly wonder what he's done wrong.
The 6ft 3in, 17st 5lb didn’t even make it on the 2017 Wales tour to the southern hemisphere, when the whole world and his pet mouse seemed to accompany Robin McBryde and his coaches for the Tests against Tonga and Samoa.
Fair play, Cracknell never once let his head drop.
He toughened up mentally and physically during an eight-month stint in South Africa as a teenager, paying his own way after enjoying a tour there with Leeds Grammar School. A member of Borders’ academy in East London, he trained up to four times a day and played at places like Loftus Versfeld and Newlands.
Rupert Moon then lured him to RGC 1404, along the way famously negotiating a deal with Edwards’ butchers of Conwy to supply the youngster with plates and plates of meat to beef the kid up, to borrow a line from Moon.
It worked, with Cracknell putting on a extra poundage and acquiring some muscle through many gym sessions.
It wasn’t long before he had moved south to the Ospreys, where he quickly impressed then coach Steve Tandy with a series of consistent and gutsy performances.
Tandy relished his honesty on the pitch.
Even in games when the Ospreys were in danger of being overwhelmed, Cracknell never went missing, always stepping onto the frontline to put in important tackles. “He’s a mountain of a player,” the coach once said.
Maybe hard graft on its own isn’t enough these days.
Perhaps a back rower has to bolt on a few bells and whistles to his game.
“I’m looking to get over the ball more,” Cracknell has previously told WalesOnline. “It’s something I want to do.”
He had ambitions to try his luck as an openside back then and did play a lot of games in the number seven jersey last season, with Dan Lydiate at six and Morgan Morris at No. 8. But he is probably more effective as a hard-hitting and combative blindside.
Perhaps seeking space a bit more might help his carrying game yield more ground for his side, though he could counter that someone has to try to test the opposition on the advantage line.
Wherever he plays he doesn’t spare himself.
The casual rugby observer might see him simply as a heart-and-soul player who earns his corn by crashing into people and earning vital centimetres on the gainline.
Viewed through such a lens, it’s hardly a glamorous way to make a living.
But he won’t mind that.
At the Ospreys, his coaches rate him as one of the Ospreys’ best value-for-money performers, a selfless individual who sometimes makes 50 or so contributions a game when all the stats are added up. Consistently, he does his bit for the team. When he has an off day, you know the side will have problems.
As a player, he is not wildly dissimilar to Ross Moriarty, with the team-mates of both understanding their worth.
Still only 25, Cracknell has time on his side.
But his challenge is to change the thinking of the Wales selectors.
If he fails, it won’t be because of any lack of effort.
