play the game

"We are trying to play the game a different way," he told BBC Sport.

He might not be old enough to play the game Grand Theft Auto V, but that didn’t stop a 13-year-old from stealing his parent’s car and leading South Pasadena police on a brief chase before pulling over, authorities said.

“What I’ve understood about myself and my place in this is that, in order to be successful, you have to play the game,” Gadsby said.

“It’s part of it, though. Like I told the guys today, Saturday at 7:30, nobody’s going to care what you had or didn’t have. You got to be ready to go play the game. You’ve got different obstacles that come up, and you’ve got to go face them. We’ll deal with it, adjust how we need to, but no excuses — gotta be ready for Saturday.”

And the operatives could depend on one hard-edged principle: that those who style themselves as men of the world know there is an iron fist in every velvet glove, understand what might await them in the shadows and so, having decided to play the game, they will obey its rules.