Ditch Jonny, Save Yourselves
Jonny Wilkinson Has Not Helped England's Awful Ways
If you’re England, it’s probably beginning to feel like you’ve just rolled over and continued a bad rugby nightmare. A narrow win over Italy has done little to quell fears of complete collapse – as this insightful piece from the UK Guardian shows:
Everything is relative. Thank goodness we can all sit around debating how awful England were, rather than await a chilling medical bulletin from a Cardiff hospital. Let us be eternally grateful that the Scotland wing Thom Evans did not, after all, suffer a more serious injury at the Millennium Stadium. Were he still lying motionless in bed with no feeling in his arms and legs, England’s shortcomings in Rome would be less than irrelevant.
Happily the medics say Evans should make a full recovery. Unhappily for Martin Johnson, the Six Nations Championship table may imply a blooming red rose but anyone who watched the 80-minute bore-athon in the Stadio Flaminio knows better.
Subtract Welsh generosity and Italian mediocrity from the equation and England could easily still be searching for their first win.
Maybe it would have done them good to lose to the Azzurri on Sunday, if only to inject more realism into the post-match platitudes. Maybe, behind closed doors this week, tough words will be spoken and even tougher decisions taken.
As things stand, though, England risk the steepest of descents. Even if they do emerge from their weekend torpor to see off Ireland and Scotland, they face a total wipeout at the hands of a resurgent France in Paris unless there is a radical change of tactics.
Should England finish second in the championship playing like zombies, it will confirm every southern hemisphere doubt about the tournament’s overall quality.
Sure, it did Johnson no favours that the Wales-Scotland game was such a humdinger or that France made such mincemeat of the grand slam champions. The snapshot of the Six Nations so far was Mathieu Bastareaud’s offload out of Brian O’Driscoll’s tackle for Clément Poitrenaud’s try. Talk about the changing of the guard.
Yet anyone who witnessed the Scots playing with massive precision, pride and passion, albeit without ultimate reward, could not fail to wonder why England seem incapable of doing likewise on a consistent basis. Dan Parks, the much-maligned Glasgow fly-half, had the game of his life while the so-called Killer Bs – Brown, Beattie and Barclay – were similarly outstanding.
The difference was that Scotland were brimful of intent and purpose while England again spent a large chunk of their 80 minutes painting by numbers.
To blame it all on Jonny Wilkinson would be harsh. He has bailed out his country around the world and his late drop goal on Sunday did so again. Slow ball can also make mortals of the greatest playmakers. Sometimes, though, you just wish the coaches would temporarily hand the goalkicking duties to someone else and tell Wilkinson enough is enough.
Either play flat on the gainline and take responsibility for putting your midfield into space, or accept the consequences at the next selection meeting. If the great man is merely playing to orders, rip them up and start again. If he cannot – or will not – take that giant leap of the imagination, it is time for someone else – Toby Flood? Shane Geraghty? Charlie Hodgson? Danny Cipriani? – to start at No10.
It is no good, either, wibbling on about lingering stomach bugs. If people were not fully fit, they should not have been starting. England’s issue is not physical but psychological. They talk a lot about freedom but play with the zest of men serving a life sentence.
A lot of visiting teams struggle to break down Italy but at least they set off with clear conviction. When opponents do not gift them points, England look painfully short of ideas and, as a direct result, invite trouble upon themselves.
Where are the forwards queuing up, like Beattie and Brown, to storm the gainline? Apart from Nick Easter and Simon Shaw, neither of whom is a spring chicken, there remains scant ball-carrying oomph beyond the set pieces.
Dan Cole is still settling into Test rugby but Lewis Moody, for all his selfless commitment and restart gymnastics, is not a creative openside in the mould of Martyn Williams. Without any momentum, Danny Care is effectively neutered and Wilkinson is even more inclined to retreat back into the pocket.
This, in turn, renders England predictable in attack and overreliant on the boot. It might win them the odd Six Nations dogfight but not a World Cup next year.
The missing ingredient, in short, is dynamism. It comes in many forms, not least leadership. If England really meant all that stuff about allowing players freedom of expression they have to replace words with action. If they risk defeat in pursuit of greater self-knowledge, so be it.
When Nick Mallett spoke of disappointment in Italy’s dressing room at not having beaten England, he was simply stating the obvious.
There will be further trouble ahead unless Johnson’s men heed such warnings. Perhaps England should reflect on the misfortune of Evans, a good friend of James Haskell’s, and remind themselves that life is not a rehearsal. Armed with a fresh perspective, they might just feel empowered to ditch their negative ways and spectacularly sidestep their critics.
With thanks to The Guardian
Welsh Flanker Arrested After Scottish Win
Wales flanker Andy Powell faces an uncertain future in the international game after being arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning for allegedly taking and driving away a golf buggy.
Just hours after his team’s dramatic victory over Scotland, the 28-year-old Cardiff Blues forward was arrested with another man at services off junction 33 of the M4 in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Investigations are ongoing, but with Wales coach Warren Gatland a stickler for discipline, the player’s inclusion in the squad for the game against France a week on Friday, must surely be in doubt.
The pair’s alleged high jinks put a further dampener on a match already overshadowed by serious injuries to Scotland’s Thom Evans and Chris Paterson. Evans, the 24-year-old Glasgow Warriors‘ wing underwent surgery on his neck at the University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff, on Saturday night after a sickening collision with the Wales full-back Lee Byrne. Paterson, the 31-year-old Edinburgh full-back, suffered a damaged kidney and like Evans, will remain in hospital until deemed well enough to travel.
Gatland and team manager Alan Phillips chose not to comment on the matter last night, but a statement from the Welsh Rugby Union read: “The WRU is aware of a police investigation into an incident involving the player Andy Powell and is monitoring its progress.
“The national squad views matters of player conduct extremely seriously. Members of the national squad management will formally speak to the player before any futher statement is issued.
“The WRU has advised the player on the opportunities he can consider for legal representation at this stage.”
South Wales Police confirmed that one of the two arrested men failed a breath test, but it is not known which one of the men this was. No charges have yet been brought.
It is understood the golf buggy was taken from the Vale Hotel, Golf and Spa Resort in the Vale of Glamorgan where the Wales team stayed before and after the match on Saturday. A spokesman for the hotel said they could not comment as a police investigation was ongoing.
Thanks to the telegraph.co.uk
Animal Magic of Richie McCaw Offers Lesson To Six Nations
Richie McCaw remains the world's best
Ian McGeechan calls them “Test match animals”. According to Sir Ian, and he’s identified a few in his time, they are a special breed of rugby player. As the demands get greater they get better. From club rugby, to the leagues, on to European competition and then to internationals … with every step up they go up a notch.
It’s not just a talent thing. There are plenty of guys who have bags of talent but fall short. The ones that matter have the full package. Talent, skill, fitness, and athleticism almost go unsaid. It’s the brain that adds the extra. The mind to fit the occasion.
Look at Richie McCaw, the All Blacks captain, twice world player of the year and a near-perfect example of Sir Ian’s Test match animal. Even the casual spectator has to be impressed by his all-action style of play – the number of tackles he makes, how often he’s involved in attacks and the number of times he gets his hands on the ball. However, it’s when you look a little deeper that you begin to understand the real value of the man to his team.
Even in those mad moments at the breakdown, he has a cold eye. To see him tackle, get back to his feet and then either strip the ball from an opponent or, in all probability, win a penalty for holding on is one of those magic moments in the game. But even that is not the end of it.
McCaw, more than anyone I can think of, lives as close to the line of legality as possible. Some referees think he steps over it and there are times when the amount of ball he wins has to be weighed against the penalties he concedes. I said penalties not points, because McCaw has that happy knack, an extra sense if you like, only to transgress (or almost only) when the penalty is safely out of range of the opposition’s goal-kicker.
However, most of the time McCaw seems to have an in-built ability to know just how far he can go. When he’s penalised you can almost see him rethink his approach. It’s a bit like recalibrating an instrument or an engineering tool. Add a millimetre here, take away a fraction of an inch there. When he’s satisfied that the referee is satisfied, then it’s back into those parts of the game that often go unseen by the fan on the terrace or in the stand.
So we have the near-perfect example of a Test match animal and I hope there will be plenty around this weekend at Murrayfield, Croke Park and especially Twickenham, where England take on Wales in the best possible match-up at the start of a Six Nations. As an Englishman I obviously have a foot in both camps, but even before I started coaching with Wales, even before I switched codes and began working in rugby union, I always understood that England versus Wales – it didn’t matter whether it was in Cardiff or London – was a bit special. After two years coaching in the Six Nations I now know how special.
Merely thinking about it brings me out in a sweat and this is where Sir Ian’s man comes in. Looking at Martin Johnson’s side, with the speedy Mathew Tait chosen ahead of Dan Hipkiss or Shontayne Hape at outside-centre, and such men as Ugo Monye and Delon Armitage in the back three, it’s obvious that England have changed tack a little and are going for pace whereas Wales are, perhaps, more settled.
However, looking at the teams in isolation, examining two bits of paper doesn’t tell half the story. International rugby is not called a Test for nothing. At the most obvious level it’s a test of skills – passing, running, kicking, scrummaging, leaping in the lineout, catching the high ball – and fitness – doing it all for 80 minutes, the last 20 probably on wobbly legs if you have been scrummaging, rucking and mauling all afternoon.
But on another, less understood and less fashionable level, it’s also a test of manhood, being prepared to put yourself where “normal” people wouldn’t go. And doing it with a clear head.
Aggression is fine, but if that alone was enough, then we might as well pick a bunch of bouncers or dancehall doormen, guys who like a rumble. Winning Test rugby demands more – guys who can stay cool during the mayhem, players who keep their wits about them when all around seems madness.
With thanks to The Guardian
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