2009 – What a year!

By Stephen Thomas, Rugby World reader

So 2009; what a year! There have been many ups and downs; many tales to tell. I’m going to be here every month reviewing everything which happens and giving out my unofficial awards. Now I’m going to look at 2009.
First of all is the Player of the Year. The IRB Player of the Year went to Richie McCaw and though that is a great choice, I personally believe it should have been Brian O Driscoll. He was superb both for club, country and for Lions. He still has the touch of class about him and when he touches the ball you just expect something to happen.
Team of the year is next. My winner is Sale Sharks! Only joking; they are a work in progress so perhaps next year! I’m going to give it to the British and Irish Lions. For a team who only got together for a short amount of time beforehand; to have the camaraderie they did and to come within a whisker of the winning the series is a credit to all of them especially the coaching staff which leads me to Coach of the Year.
There is only one choice for me. Sir Ian McGeechan. I never really realised how much the Lions meant to him until I saw the DVD of the tour and after a team talk before a game, there he was crying. Hands up this made me emotional and made me realise that it means that much to him.
Special recognition due to Declan Kidney who took his Munster form to Ireland and getting a Grand Slam for the first time in 66 years so well done to him. Also to Richard Cockerill for Leicester who deserves credit as he took over mid season and winning the Premiership and getting in the final of the Heineken Cup deserves huge credit.
My final award is the Moment of the Year and there are joint winners for that. Ireland and winning the Grand Slam for the first time in 66 years; what a great moment to watch and they fully deserved it with the talent of players they have in their squad.
My other recipient is Tom Williams in Bloodgate. Now I thought the events of this summer were awful and Dean Richards got what he deserved really but the thing that made me laugh the moment was the footage of how he got the capsule to open! Surely he could have made it less obvious!
Until next month…

What’s Hot and What’s Not

From Rugby World reader, Larissa Falls

Got any to add?

Hot:

Women’s Rugby… Matches at Twickenham and Stade de France following the men’s were great advertisements and should become regular occurrences not one-off opportunities. As for England beating New Zealand to show it isn’t a one horse race…bring on the World Cup!

Autumn Internationals… Genia, Guildford, J. Davies emergence with Moody’s comeback. The Samoan and Fijian fighting spirit and San Siro’s atmosphere. Lobbe’s work rate and Sexton’s boot. The France v South Africa and Ireland v South Africa clashes, plus the France v NZ and Wales v Australia matches.

Melbourne…The year’s 2011, the colours are navy and white, the name is the Rebels and the place is Melbourne. Meet the latest addition to the soon-to-be expanded Super 15!

Scheduling… Fantastic to see-for the first time- all top 20 nations participating in top level International matches within the same month. Congratulations to the IRB and Unions for allowing this to take place. May it continue!

Ireland…Undefeated all year, 6 Nations Champions, Triple Crown and Grand Slam holders. Overcame the Tri Nations winners (South Africa), held its greatest world ranking of fourth, and was surprisingly unlucky not to have added the ‘IRB Player of the Year’ to its ranks in Brian O’Driscoll.

Not:

Disrespect… Booing the kicker is not acceptable and tarnishes the game that prides itself on sportsmanship. As for the minute silence fiasco; the apology was too late as the damage had already been done.

‘Aerial Ping-Pong’… Something has to be done to eradicate this uninspiring and unattractive part of the current game. The 22 kicking law was established to create attacking running rugby, but has produced a polar effect.

Unequal Preparation Time… What a wrecking force Argentina, Fiji and Samoa could be given the same luxurious preparation time and player release as the other nations!

Eye Gouging Claims… Makes you ponder whether such acts would still be committed had Schalk Burger’s punishment been more severe. If found guilty; the IRB now has another chance to rid rugby of this callous behaviour.

The Celtic Perspective – Part 3

The Ice Man Cometh….

If Ronan O‘Gara was having sleepless nights after his lions tour this summer then Jonathan Sextons outstanding international debut will have done nothing to cure the Cork mans insomnia. The Dubliner kicked seven from seven and ran his back line with the confidence of a seasoned out half. This was admittedly a lack luster performance from a desperately under strength Fijian side but the budding Ireland five-eighth can only be judged on the opposition put in front of him. The RDS was the perfect place for the St Mary’s man to make his international debut. But the rain and swirling wind meant kicking conditions were appalling, which made his performance even more impressive.   Ironically Sexton himself suffers from insomnia; he claims to have not slept well for several nights before the Heineken Cup Final in May and apparently required a sleeping pill to get some shut eye before his Ireland debut last week. It didn’t show. His man of the match performance was enough to oust O’Gara in a shock selection decision from Kidney for this Saturday’s game against the world champions South Africa. A match the older man would have surely wanted to play in badly to help him exercise his demons from the second lions test. This selection will have sent shock waves through the Ireland camp. The O’Sullivan era in terms of selection will not be replicated. The fifteen untouchables are no more. Selection should not be about players settling scores. Finally places are up for grabs.

If Sexton can reproduce form anything close to his recent outings he will certainly give Declan Kidney a few headaches in terms of selection for the six nations.  In American parlance this was like watching a young Joe Montana on his debut for the San Francisco 49ers. You just get the feeling Leinster’s most valuable player in the European Cup Final will go on to do special things for his country. I read in the Sunday Times this week that ‘O’Gara has more to offer’. I have no doubt he does but for my learned friends in Limerick and Cork who think we should be pinning our hopes to an ageing out half (He’ll be 34 at the next world cup) I think it’s time for a reality check. O’Gara has been a marvelous servant of Irish rugby but he will have to move over eventually just as Ollie Campbell and Eric Elwood did. I think out halves are a bit like heavy weight boxers in that they tend to stay on too long past there best. Just think if Ian Humphries could get his tackling sorted. The Ulsterman too is one to watch and will no doubt make the step up to test match level in the not too distant future. 

At half time at the match on Saturday I was asked by a friend “what’s going wrong? Why aren’t we putting them away”? “There’s too much kicking said another” I heard several cries of yeah aerial pin pong boll*x”! The IRB will have to look at the new laws at the breakdown that they ushered in. They are penalising teams going forward with the ball when the ball carrier gets isolated and prevented from releasing the ball usually by the defending open side flanker. In the past when a ruck had formed the referee would cry “hands out it’s a ruck”. Not so anymore. The new laws allow for defending players to tackle the ball carrier to the ground and compete for the ball as soon as he gets back to his feet to steal it legally. A second player from the defending team is also allowed to enter the ruck to try to compete for the ball once he is also on his feet and not coming in from the side. If the ball is not pilfered by the tackler(s) the ball carrier is often penalised for holding on or one of his team mates is pinged for entering the ruck from the side or going of his (or their) feet. A penalty is awarded to the defending team which more then not results in three points. The new laws reward defending teams and have bread a culture of fear into coaches which has lead to teams now being coached to kick the ball back as soon as they get it to avoid being isolated and giving away a penalty resulting in interminable aerial ping pong or a game of kick chase crash. It also means teams are not getting hot ruck ball anymore and are almost never scoring from phase play as defending teams won’t commit large numbers to the ruck as they will have a jackal in the breakdown either pilfering the ball or slowing it up so much that his team has plenty of time to fan out across the park and organise their rugby league like defensive line. It means guys like Heinrich Brussuw, Richie McCaw and David Pocock are the future MVP’s of the game. The ideal open side now has low centre of gravity is physically imposing, quick in the loose and can pilfer or slow up opposition ball at the breakdown. Sound like anyone on the Ireland team? Unfortunately for Ireland they don’t have an open side that can match Brussuw this Saturday and I suspect he will do serious damage. The new law at the breakdown and referee interpretations of it is destroying the aesthetic of this wonderful sport.  I wonder what Mr Webb Ellis would make of it all?    

 PS I was delighted to see Scotland beat the Wallabies at the weekend. Fantastic result. It was also great to see Martin Johnson force a smile with Graham Simmons in the pre match interview.

 PPS Happy Thanks Giving (tomorrow) to all my friends in the States and all Rugby World;s American readers.

The Celtic Perspective – Part 2

By Rugby World reader Ken FitzGerald

Once more unto the breach dear friends….

This famous quote is from Shakespeare’s play Henry the V. The breach in the quote refers to a whole in the wall surrounding the town of Harfleur in Northern France. Henry and is army had besieged the town in 1415. During a lull in the fighting Henry addressed his exhausted troops to ignite their passions and motivate them to attack the whole in the wall again and to basically keep going in the face of adversity. Most of us have probably seen clips of this blood rousing speech over the years performed on film by Laurence Olivier or Kenneth Brannagh. The reason I mention this is for two reasons. The first being I was struck by the thought of what words of inspiration Martin Johnson uses on his players before a game; and the second being will Graham (gis’a hug Shawsy) Simmons’s producer at BSkyB have to use a similar speech to get him to interview the goliath that is the England manager again?  If you haven’t seen the post match interview from last Saturdays England Argentina game u-tube it. The ending is hilarious. To say the Martin Johnson looked like a man under siege is an understatement.    

No matter how poor a spectacle the game was England got a win and they will take positives from that. Argentina is a difficult side to play against and a win is a win. But is this England side paralysed by a fear of failure?  Has Martin Johnson become for England in just over a year what Roy Keane did for Sunderland? Isn’t man management and motivation about empowering decision making on the field not stifling it?  With the exception of more decoy runners being used I saw no improvement in England’s attacking play and both Geraghty and Wilkinson didn’t have good days at the office.   Regardless I think England will be bolstered this week by the inclusion of the excellent Simon Shaw and will go into the game believing they can at least compete with the All Blacks this weekend. I fear it will be all one way traffic in Twickenham though. 

I must admit I didn’t see the Scotland Fiji game but am always pleased for a Celtic win; and the All Blacks proved that their brand is a big draw just about everywhere. Great to see a rugby match going ahead in the San Siro, a source in the ERC tells me it may be one of several Italian venues being considered for the Heineken Cup final in 2013.   

And so that brings me onto Ireland. I was right about the cataclysmic tussle prediction last week but not about the result. Was this the third and fourth best teams in the world playing each other? If you believe in the rankings is was. While not a great spectacle and the atmosphere in Croke park was nothing like the Heineken Cup semi final last May. It was still by and large a fascinating encounter. It was Brian O Driscolls 100^th cap, it was  Rockys return to his adopted home city and it was Cian Healy’s test debut. The selection of Paddy Wallace at inside centre absolutely baffled me. The Wallabies couldn’t believe their luck and the excellent Pocock and Elsom ran down the ten twelve channel all day. O’Gara had a shaky start giving O’Driscoll a hospital pass leading to the softest try the Wallabies will see all tour, and the rest of his game wasn’t much better. Which brings me to the question of Declan Kidneys selection policy. If he dropped Gordon D’Arcy because he believed he wasn’t playing well for Leinster and he picked Paddy Wallace because he believed he was playing well for Ulster then why was Ronan O’Gara selected at out half when Leinsters Jonathan Sexton is clearly the inform out half in the country at the moment ?  Why did the wily Kidney not play Tommy Bowe at inside center and the in from Shane Horgan on the wing with Keith Earls on the bench? This team was not picked on form and was looking dead in the water until Cian Healy grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and charged twenty meters over the gain line and deep into the wallaby twenty two late in second half  igniting the passions of the seventy odd thousand in the stadium. They showed a lot of belief to stay in the game and fought hard for the draw. But Ultimately Ireland got out of jail with a last gasp try from their mercurial talismanic captain. But let’s hope the fifteen to face South Africa in two weeks are all their on merit and not for services rendered. This of course won’t happen, which makes me think of what words of inspiration the crafty Cork man uses to motivate his troops.

 Once more unto the breech dear friends….

 p.s can any of Rugby World’s English readers please explain Steve Borthwicks selection for the England team never mind as captain?