THE ROLLING MAUL
Stephen Jones debates the biggest issues in rugby union in his weekly e-mail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, December 3, 2008. 2300GMT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
England hierarchy sorely out of touch
For sheer, total and utter misconception about the media and the views of England rugby supporters, the utterances this week of the England hierarchy take the biscuit. Bear in mind now that we are in the fifth year of the England management asking for patience, claiming that the revival of the England team from the grisly and apparently bottomless pit into which it has sunk is a work in progress.
This was Rob Andrew on Tuesday. "They [England followers] understand what the team is going through, where the team is in the Test cycle and what Martin Johnson has been handed in terms of trying to rebuild..." His overall contention is that it will be a "long job".
In every one of those assertions, Andrew is wrong. As Conrad Smith said last weekend: "The All Blacks don't do development plans" and this endless English chase for tomorrow is wearing, on the point of scandalous, self-serving and dangerous.
How many times does it have to be said? The future is here. England are playing rubbish rugby. Time is passing, matches are slipping by. When is the exact date when the team gets real and we can expect it to start winning any games that matter?
It may be a comment on media-driven conceptions and lack of endless patience, but it is life, it is real and it has to be dealt with. While England are in this ruinous cycle of not fronting up to each and every game, while they are still harping about the future, all their coaches and hierarchy are a step closer to the chop with every defeat. Sad maybe, but true. If they play as abysmally in the Six Nations as they have these past four weeks, the pressure on Andrew and the coaching group will become intolerable. Out they go, in come another lot, bleating as did the previous two regimes about what a bad hand they have been dealt and why patience would be a virtue.
If England fans have a clue what is going on, then I haven't met any. The usual bleat comes out about England being a young side with few caps. Fine, for goodness sake, pick a team with more caps and more nous then. The bleat comes out about the Guinness Premiership, and that it should be better at producing players. Andrew had the cheek to point to the RFU academy system and said that the Premiership clubs should take up the baton now that the academy has produced James Haskell and Danny Cipriani.
Rubbish. The pair have been brought through a hard school by Wasps, by Ian McGeechan and Shaun Edwards. The system run by the RFU produces gym monkeys. If only some of the academy "products" to whom I have spoken felt able to tell Andrew exactly what they thought of the English "system", he would very quickly become disabused.
The autumn was no-one's fault but England's and the England hierarchy - their selection and their coaching. With the time that the squad have spent in camp, we had a right to expect even a bunch of 21-year-olds winning their first caps to have more shape and focus than England did.
There is no future, Rob. Only the game against Italy. Why not look inwards for the problems and find a system and some players to win that game. Bigger, older, craftier, better ones. Then, England supporters might have the first clue what on earth is being done in the name of England rugby, because at present amongst all the excuses, no-one can work it out for the life of them.
Raising a glass to the Heineken Cup
On Tuesday, I went to a lunch to celebrate the 14th year of the Heineken Cup and also that Heineken are renewing their sponsorship for another four years. Various well-deserved eulogies to the competition were delivered at the lunch and one of the finest modern-day observers of the game pointed to the change in culture that the tournament has brought about.
For a start, as the sage pointed out, the tournament has given rugby a brilliant weapon in the eternal battle for media space against football. At one time not so long ago, only international rugby would nudge sports editors in the direction of the oval ball.
Now, there is another game in town, a giant pan-European benevolent monster of an activity, understood by everyone from the centre to the fringes of rugby.
But our man also made another significant point, one which lay in the magnificent cross-cultural nature of the Heineken Cup. Until it began 14 years ago, the last vestiges of the notion that rugby was still largely a middle-class activity still existed.
Now, gloriously, all such notions have been blown away. From this weekend in seven countries, it will be possible to mix with people of all social classes and callings. There will be Basques and Catalans, there will be members of those two warring tribes, East and West Wales; there will be good old middle-class Englishmen, raucous Munstermen and women, city slickers from Dublin and Venice and Paris; hard men from Perpignan - and that is only in the stands.
Indeed, it is now impossible to imagine the winter without it. The qualification rules are incredibly complex, but that is simply seen as part of the tapestry. There are always clubs conforming to certain stereotypes - the French club that is not really bothered (usually Bourgoin, but this season Castres); there is always the Welsh club that promises but never quite delivers (Cardiff, Ospreys, and now it is time to change that), there are the competition core teams, such as Toulouse, Munster and Wasps, although the latter face a ferocious fight even to qualify for the knock-out stages.
If you make just one trip this season, make it to Europe to follow your team, to follow anybody's team. You can take part in what is a mini-version of the United Nations, you can see rugby that can be inconsistent, but rugby that gives the sport a wonderful name.
Away with Test matches. It is time for something far less pompous, far more accessible and far more enjoyable.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> LIST OF THE WEEK <<<<<
The top 20 rugby books of all time not written by Stephen Jones
Books and your enjoyment thereof are strictly subjective and your opinion of them changes as time passes and others emerge, to either cement or destroy the reputation of your previous favourites. Here is my current all-time top 20 rugby books.
1. Winning!
By Sir Clive Woodward
You may laugh at the idea of Sir Clive being top of the book charts. But before you do, read this outstanding account of the way that the driven, talented, off-the-wall genius put together England's world champion team, tapping a thousand sources and experiences. Then compare it to the way other Test teams were run and are being run in other nations, and in England. And weep.
2. The art of coarse rugby
By Michael Green
These days it reads hopelessly, helplessly outdated, but when Green's brilliant, funny and devastatingly charming and perceptive memoir of plodding through muddy fields in the Extra B team came out in the early 1960s, it changed rugby for ever. People realised for the first time that they were plodding along in a giant and magnificent freemasonry. Two years ago, its sales reached 250,000.
3. Goodbye to glory
By Terry McLean
Tour books are ten a penny, and McLean, the doyen of New Zealand sports writers, tended to be happiest when his lads were winning and the ref was opting for the men in black. But this outstanding account of the 1976 All Blacks on a vivid, violent, politically incorrect and momentous tour of South Africa is the tour book supreme.
4. Total rugby
By Jim Greenwood
Powerhouse. As the manual for coaches, unsurpassed. In fact, nothing has come remotely near it. The wise old Scot's coaching manual has gone through decades of different editions but the clarity is still wondrous. No coach of merit does not know it by heart.
5. Stand up and fight
By Alan English
Only 80 minutes of a dull Munster day in 1978, when the local heroes beat New Zealand. But what a literary feast that win gave rise to. This classic re-wrote the manual for rugby books by mocking the drive towards unsatisfying surface rubbish. It is of supreme depth and colour and after reading it you will finally grasp Munster, and working-man rugby passion.
6. Rugby: body and soul
By Bill Samuel
Uneven and probably not as sustained as the picky reader would wish. But this memoir by Gareth Edwards' mentor and saviour opens with the some of the greatest chapters ever written on Welsh rugby and rugby itself, and of eras passed in sport and life.
7. Nobody hurt in small earthquake/The boy who shot down an airship
By Michael Green
Not strictly rugby books, but the first two volumes of autobiography by coarse sport author and thespian and journalist Green are full-on literary classics, on rugby, journalism, the war years, the lot. Diamonds both.
8. 100 years of Newport rugby
ByJack Davis
The greatest rugby club in the world bar none, and the most appealing history by the South Wales Argus's long-gone doyen.
9. The unbeaten Lions
By John Reason
Polemical. This is the story of the 1974 Lions in South Africa. We all thought they were the greatest Lions. We all thought that there are no easy Test series wins in South Africa let alone one by 3-0 with one drawn. The acidic Reason thought otherwise.
10. Barbed wire Boks
By Donald Cameron
The 1981 tour of New Zealand by South Africa, the last of the apartheid era, ushered dear old New Zealand into the 20th Century, with riots, civil disorder, police with tear gas and visors, families split down the middle of the argument, matches stopped by demonstrators. Cameron, a decent man and fine old-school writer, rubs his eyes in disbelief.
11. The greatest game ever played
By Phillip J Grant
The game in question was the amazing Wales-New Zealand match in 1905 at Cardiff, around which a century's worth of legends have grown. This is a fantastic, detailed and compelling life and times.
12. A rugby compendium: a guide to the literature of rugby union
Compiled by John M Jenkins, literature reviewed by Huw Richards
Remarkable. Simply, this is a book listing and reviewing everything ever written about rugby - every kind of book, pamphlet and jigsaw, from the great authors to the humblest club century brochure. It is lively, too.
13. France - All Blacks, 100 ans de rencontres
By Ian Borthwick
You have to speak French, because there is as yet no English translation. The French tend to fawn over the Kiwis like no other nation and this monumental production reports on every game between the two superpowers, with an account from every game from a key figure. Quite beautifully produced and handsome and well written by the Parisian Kiwi, Borthwick.
14. The history of the British and Irish Lions
By Clem Thomas
Charming and bubbly and scholarly. The good news is that since the sad death of the much-missed old leviathan, Clem, the book is being revamped by Greg, his son.
15. The priceless gift: the international captains of Wales
By Steve Lewis
Everyone to have lifted the chalice, sometimes poisoned, to his lips as Wales leader is profiled here. The busy author has also written One among equals, the story of all the England captains.
16. Change of Hart
By John Hart and Paul Thomas
Most Test coaches would have you believe that they are touched by genius. Hart, the Kiwi coach when they won their first series in South
Africa in 1996, genuinely was and is. This is the story of his philosophy and the nest of vipers in which he had to work.
17. Seeing Red
By Alun Carter
Brand new, odd and rather good. Carter was a long-time backroom man with the Wales team and is clearly a clever and decent man. There is good stuff here about Wales and parochialism, but also about the intrigue and tribulations and occasional nastiness of Wales under the reigns of Graham Henry, Steve Hansen, Mike Ruddock and Scott Johnson. You realise that the gagging order signed by Carter when he left the post and his natural charm have spared Hansen and Johnson a real going over.
18. Code breaker
By Jonathan Davies and Peter Corrigan
This book made two appearances under different titles and reminds you of the horrible mess in Welsh rugby which Jonathan escaped when he left, unloved, for rugby league and also that Widnes, the club he joined, tried to play way out of their league. This man was a prince of Wales and is still vastly underrated. A true great and a solid tale.
19. Centre of excellence: the Jim Renwick story
By Jim Renwick and David Barnes
Maybe it is not the greatest of all time but Renwick, the dazzling runner and a personal favourite of mine, brings back warm memories of a time of hard Border glories and a time when Scottish rugby knew what it was about. Today, post-Jimmy, it has no idea.
20. Gold, mud 'n' guts: the incredible Tom Richards
By Greg Growden
A rather cheapskate effort by the publishers, with punctuation a disaster of seismic proportions. But Growden's warm and loving tale of an Aussie war hero, Olympian and rugby great, all but forgotten, is superbly instructive about Richards and his era and his country.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>HERO OF THE WEEK<<<<<
Mils Muliaina (New Zealand)
The All Black played magnificently at Twickenham last week. He has improved his defence and his footballing skill out of sight and he demonstrated his try-scoring ability to wonderful effect. And all this against the background of the illness of his son, back at home in New Zealand. That spoke of loyalty and character, qualities to add to those he possesses as a rugby player. Good luck to the Muliaina family, and long may he reign as the prince of southern full backs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>LION WATCH<<<<<
Alun Wyn Jones (Wales)
His wonderful ability as a footballing lock has never been in doubt, and he still has possibilities in both the second row and the back row. But what was so impressive about the Ospreys giant against Australia last week was the new hardness and leadership he has gained.
He is certainly a contender to take on Victor Matfield in the middle of the line-out, because he has some of Matfield's wonderful athleticism. He has a long way to go, but he has wonderful ability, and he is on his way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Stephen Jones Debate
THE ENGLAND DEBACLE
Patience with Johnson, give him a chance. A new game plan was needed but it would be too much of a culture shock for it to work straight away. I bet that England go OK in the Six Nations. Robin Ducker, Auckland
SJ: Spoken like a true Kiwi, Robin. Your plan guarantees the All Blacks about another five years of record wins. And by the way, what new game plan? You mean England had a plan this autumn?
People forget that when England won the World Cup in 2003 they were good but not that good. They certainly deserve much credit for that but there was no reason to expect the dawn of a new era of England domination. England in 2002-03 was more the exception that proved the rule. N Fleming, Christchurch
SJ: They were good. In fact, they were outstanding. The England team that won the 2003 World Cup were 20 points better than the Springbok winning team in 2007 and about the same amount better than the 1999 Aussies.
The quality gap is concerning. England cannot play with precision and pace. The indifferent performance of the pack is psychological and not because they lack bulk - picking bigger, heavier forwards is nonsense and achieves nothing. I think Wells will be lucky to keep his position - something's up. Andy Hopper, Ilminster
SJ: Right, let's check that out one more time Andy. England have just been shunted all over Twickenham and were humiliated in the scrum and in contact in the second half against the All Blacks and you don't want any bigger and heavier forwards. Interesting theory.
Changing players won't work.
Pick young squad with high potential.
Keep them together for two years.
Intensive daily coaching by the world's best coaches.
Develop team and system.
Focus on skills and technique.
Ignore results, Premier demands and critics.
Leigh Vernier, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
SJ: Leigh, you keep a young squad together for two years and ignore results. Great idea. After the first of those two years the head coach will be sacked (quite rightly). After the second, the next coach will be sacked (quite rightly). There is mini rugby for kids. The likes of New Zealand and South Africa are playing proper rugby for adults.
Still some talent being ignored: Gloucester are top of league but poorly represented in the England squad. Just how lacking in ideas do the current backs have to be before some of the others get another shot? Not fashionable I know, but I think an in-form [David] Strettle would make a difference as will [Shane] Geraghty at 10. dd, London
SJ: Oh god. I agree with the principle but not the individuals. Johnson must go. Let's stop trying to find the Boy's Own hero and get a world-class coach. Crowther, Silsden
SJ: They certainly need a world-class coach in charge of the team. England's forwards have clearly lost their previous superiority with John Wells as a coach. He's a clever man, but, as a Welshman, I don't think having a comedian mentoring forwards is really on. I'm glad we've got Shaun Edwards. Maybe you should try Rory Bremner? Couldn't do any worse, could he? Ronnie Spraggs, Merthyr Tydfil
SJ: Shaun Edwards is Rory Bremner, Ronnie. How often have you seen them in the same room?
DANNY CIPRIANI
Cipriani is very overrated. If he is the best England can get at No 10, no wonder the team are struggling. The club owners should get the blame, not Johnson. There are too many foreign players keeping young talent out. Sort that out, and England will rise again. Andries F, Pretoria
SJ: Oh, we will campaign to stop the overseas players so that you can keep them all, Andries. Mind you, Cipriani isn't doing too badly.
I'm disappointed that Johnson didn't contrive a deeper look at options in England's troublesome areas - lock and centre - over the last four weeks. And in defence of Cipriani, he was playing with slow ball behind a thrashed front five. Anyone would struggle and he remains the brightest hope. Ben, London
SJ: The most bewildering aspect of the whole mess, Ben, was why on earth did they keep so many duds in the team for every game of the Autumn series and keep banishing better players to the bench or the back of the bus?
ELVS
Bigger is not always better with the new ELVs. Your forwards need to be big but more skillful as the new laws tend to favour offloading in the tackle. Also, the backs tend to pass into a gap. England need a kicking game. I would say get Jonny patched quickly and you may have a chance against Wales. Dave, Wellington
SJ: That is always hoping that Jonny's kicking game is what it was, Dave, but their kicking game on Saturday did not exist, it was shocking; New Zealand's was excellent
I wholeheartedly agree that Cipriani was a victim against South Africa. Yes, some of his passes were distinctly average and he didn't boss the game, but he was forced to work with the chronically slow ball that England gave him. Twice in the past five years England forwards played hard, fast and dynamic at the breakdown - against France and Australia at the World Cup - and what happened? So why hasn't Martin Johnson been drumming this into the players? Tom
SJ: Danny was completely hung out to dry by the England performance and, you are so right, the lack of ruthlessness at the breakdown was alarming.
I agree it was harsh to single out Cipriani, but how do you get all the culprits out without rewriting the fixture as either NZ v Saxons or NZ v England U-21s? As for the haka, it does add a sense of mystique to the All Blacks. I think it has a role to play, even if only for them until they start losing more often. The fact Wales felt the need to stand and stare says a lot. Ben Wire
SJ: That is true but only if you feel that the other teams are really bothered by a load of grown men mincing round, Ben.
Time to end the scapegoating. Players play poorly because either they aren't up to it or they are playing to a plan that isn't working. If it isn't the former, then responsibility has to be taken for the latter. This England coaching set-up is not good enough, especially Jon Wells. You don't want to blame Danny Care for a looping pass to Cipriani that was charged down. Where, oh where, is the art of the spin pass: fast, straight and 30m long? Never seen it done better than by Steve Smith and that's going back a day or two! Steve Findley
SJ: These days, Steve, they seem to go for the short pass because they say the long pass crowds the backs but, like you, I can remember a time when long passing from scrum half put the fly half outside the range of opposition back row.
SOUTH AFRICA
How come we got to the final of the 2007 World Cup and narrowly lost 15-6 to South Africa but last week the score was 27 more points in South Africa's favour? And how come South Africa's coach in 2007 - Jake White - was available but not taken up by the RFU when Brian Ashton got the chop? I wonder where we would be if we still had Ashton at the helm. John Caldow
SJ: John, I felt that the 2008 Boks, to be perfectly fair, were much better at Twickenham than they had been in the final of the World Cup, though nerves would have played a part then. If Ashton were still at the helm of the attack, England might be further on, but not if he was at the helm of everything.
HAKA
So poor little Ma'a Nonu was upset with the Welsh response last week. What he said was a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it. Either it's a defiant military challenge or a traditional display of Pacific national pride. Hannah Thomas, Oxford.
SJ: Exactly, however teams react is up to them, and the All Blacks can lump it. They are precious to an absolutely ludicrous degree.
The Thomond double-act was an exception to the rule, but otherwise New Zealand's pomposity about their pre-match ritual's revered status invites and deserves disdain. The throat-slitting version is especially ridiculous. I refuse to call it by its given name, referring to it as the Silly Dance. This annoys Kiwis every bit as much as the Aussies take umbrage if you accuse them of wearing yellow jerseys. Tom Innes
SJ: Pompous is the word, Tom, and it is significant that after my comments about the haka last week, the number of people agreeing with me (and you) was more than treble the numbers who like the haka.
As a Kiwi, I think NZ are far too precious about the haka. I seem to remember only 20 years ago, the haka was not performed before every game. I always thought the haka was performed only if the home nation gave permission. In the modern professional game, I don't think that the haka has any relevance on the psychological state of either the performer or the opposition, and I really question its relevance. I would suggest that the following rules should apply to performing the haka: 1) When playing at home, NZ have the right to perform at the time of their choosing. 2) When playing away, the home team have the right to ask the haka not to be performed or to choose the time it occurs. 3) My fellow Kiwis should stop being so precious in defence of the haka. Calum Ferguson
SJ: Further comment would be superfluous, Calum
The haka is one the most unique and impressive sights in world sport. To see it performed before each match is absolutely awesome and sets the tone for the game. Any team playing against the All Blacks knows that they are going to be in for a battle. Keep the haka, it is a magnificent. Christy Conroy, Leicester, UK
SJ: So you don't think it resembles that bit at the end of Morecambe & Wise when Eric and Ernie minced off the stage after singing Bring Me Sunshine? Sorry if you are too young to remember, Christy, but the resemblance is uncanny.
This area of the e-mail is reserved for your views and boos and where the former Sports Writer of the Year responds to your arguments. Email him at rollingmaul@thetimes.co.uk and he'll agree, disagree, add some insight or come back firing...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spread the word. It's like pyramid selling, but without the hassle or money. Click on the following link if you (or your friends) want to subscribe to this newsletter. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/subscriptions/e-mail_bulletins/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suggestions, fan mail and complaints: rollingmaul@thetimes.co.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you no longer wish to receive the Rolling Maul Bulletin, please click here to unsubscribe. If you wish to speak to a Customer Services Representative, please call 020 7860 1133.
You have received this e-mail from a member of the News International Group. News International Limited, 1 Virginia Street, London E98 1XY, is the holding company for the News International Group and is registered in England No 81701. VAT number GB 243 8054 69.
Times Newspapers Ltd is a member of the Direct Marketing Association and registered under the Data Protection Act 1998. To see our privacy policy, click here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment