Super 14 – super stuff

By Rugby World reader, Steve Heath

You join me this week in a very sad mood as one of my best friends is in a coma. I did warn him that a full 80 minutes of watching England “play” international rugby would most likely lead to this outcome. “Take frequent breaks” I told him, I admit that I was only joking when I said the length of these breaks should be for 40 minutes just after kick off in each half, but who’s sorry now?

This week I decided to take a break from the tedium of under strength northern hemisphere club rugby and gave Super 14 a go. I appreciate that it gets criticised as being powder puff and not what us chaps like in our rugby but I have always enjoyed it. The Super 14 is based in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand – who are better than us, played in better conditions usually, and from what I have seen matches seem to be played with a far more attacking intent. What’s not to like?

LIONS 65 CHIEFS 72.

Admittedly I dropped lucky with the match I watched. The attacking intent was refreshing to see – players were actually trying to go past each other. Why do the England team insist on running into players? Seriously, Carwyn James once said the spirit of rugby was 14 players busting a gut to give the 15th half a yard on his opposite number, take your man on!!!!! This was a feast of attacking rugby and it was a shame when the half time whistle went as you knew this would be the longest period without a try.

Other news this week – Danny Cipriani is off to Australia, another indication that England would rather persist with bashers than let flair players have a go. Good luck Mr Cipriani, I genuinely hope you are one of the players of Super 15 next year while the England management team scratch their heads and mutter “oops”.

The Six Nations resumes next week. Your favourite blogist is off to the Millenium Stadium for Wales v France.

Predictions: The Welsh weekend to be over before it starts – France by 17. Ireland will be smarting from defeat against France and unless they fall asleep watching England “attack” I can see Ireland winning by 12 points. Italy will take heart from their performance against England and will beat a depleted Scotland by four points.

There you go, I suggest you go to the bookies and place your hard earned cash on Wales, England and Scotland.

Rugby World Player and Team of the Decade

By Paul Morgan, editor of Rugby World Magazine

The new edition of Rugby World goes on sale today with our Player and Team of the Decade announced.
But what do you think? Would you have selected a different player or different members of the team.
Does a side with 4 Kiwis, 3 Englishmen, 2 Welshmen and 2 South Africans reflect the Noughties?

HE STARTED the decade with a hat-trick in his first Six Nations Championship and finished it as one of the key reasons why Ireland went the whole of 2009 without suffering a defeat. So in the eyes of Rugby World there’s only one man who should be named Player of the Decade: Brian O’Driscoll.
The man from Blackrock College will earn his 100th Ireland cap in the coming Six Nations and more than any other has written his name large and bold across the decade that will be known as the Noughties.
Whether as captain of Ireland, Leinster or the Lions, O’Driscoll has shown exemplary form over a sustained period – form that wins him our accolade above and beyond a host of players who have left an indelible mark on our great game.
O’Driscoll may be our Player of the Decade, but he doesn’t captain our Team of the Decade. That honour falls to the captain without peer, England’s Martin Johnson.
The decade produced two World Cup winners, in England and South Africa, so naturally those teams had a number of players on our shortlist. But it isn’t all about World Cups as New Zealand managed to earn four representatives in our starting XV without even making a final.
Similarly, the rise of Argentina in this decade and Wales’ two Grand Slams had the judges scratching their heads
and working out how we could keep our team down to 15 players. A number of big names missed out, such as Lawrence Dallaglio and Neil Back, as we looked for balance in our side and the recognition of players like Sergio Parisse, who may never win a Six Nations or World Cup but should nevertheless always figure when we’re looking for legends of our game.
Full team

Mils Muliaina – New Zealand
Jason Robinson – England
Brian O’Driscoll – Ireland
Matt Giteau – Australia
Shane Williams – Wales
Dan Carter – New Zealand
Agustin Pichot – Argentina
Gethin Jenkins – Wales
John Smit – South Africa
Carl Hayman – New Zealand
Martin Johnson (c) – England
Victor Matfield – South Africa
Richard Hill – England
Richie McCaw – New Zealand
Sergio Parisse – Italy

Subs: Rodrigo Roncero, Mario Ledesma, Sylvian Marconnet, Juan-Martín Fernández Lobbe, Fourie Du Preez, Jonny Wilkinson, Yannick Jauzion, Juan Martín Hernández.

By what do you think? Name your Team and Player of the Decade and tell us why you have made your choices.

Also if you’d like to get 32% off a subscription to Rugby World Magazine go to our websites at http://www.rugbyworld.com, where we have a new offer available!

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.

Rugby World: The Celtic Perspective

 By Rugby World reader, Ken FitzGerald

 As I sit here on this tenth night of Movember stroking the handles on my glorious retro ‘tash (hey it’s all for a good cause!) I can’t help but wonder what might have been for Wales and England on the opening weekend of the by now familiar November test series. Predictably both Wales and England came close to their respective Southern Hemisphere opponents. Depressingly from a northern hemisphere point of view, an under strength New Zealand and a young misfiring Wallaby side both still proved too much for European opposition. Why? Is the coaching really that better in Australia and New Zealand? Are males born in the SANZAR countries genetically predisposed to make better rugby players?  In six World cups and 14 years of professionalism only once has a side from north of Cairns won the Webb Ellis Trophy.

 I watched that final in a bar in San Francisco during a twelve month self imposed exile in California. On that night in November 2003 I witnessed something I had not seen before. In a pub called the Chieftain on Taylor and 5^th in that magnificent city I looked on in awe as I watched Irish, French, Scottish and English supporters all cheer as Johnny Wilkinson dropped that goal to break Australian hearts and to claim the William Webb Ellis trophy for a truly deserving England side that had beaten everybody everywhere. In a word they were awesome.

European rugby supporters had become sick of the strangle hold on the game from the Tri nations.  That night it was broken, albeit temporarily. It was magnificent. Finally a European side had beaten southern hemisphere opposition in such dramatic fashion in the final of the world cup, and in their own back yard. It meant for the next four seasons in the six nations the other five countries got to play the World Champions. For Ireland it made victory in Twickenham even more special in February 2004 and for Wales in the Millennium stadium in 2005. England went through a rebuilding phase after RWC 2003 similar to the one they are in now and certainly Wales and Ireland both have made huge improvements in recent years, two grand slams in three seasons for Wales, three Heineken Cups a grand slam and a Churchill cup for Ireland. But that’s all at a European level.  Let’s not forget a magnificent Lions series during the summer that ended in narrow defeat for the tourists. I often feel the answer to the above why? (As in why do we keep loosing to the Tri Nations teams) lies more in the psychology of belief.  Fifteen guys in black making funny faces still instill fear in northern opposition and Australia keep arriving at Twickenham and walking away with the Cook cup. Can it be as we get better so to do they? Is there a gap in skill level we simply cannot bridge? I don’t believe this is the case.  But there certainly seems to be a gulf between the two hemispheres in terms of belief. So where does leave us for RWC 2011? At the moment too early to say, but early signs are worrying. After this first weekend of Rugby in the month of the moustache there’s certainly a lot to ponder for Messrs Johnson and Gatland. Roll on the weekend.

 Join me every Wednesday, at noon, here for the Celtic Perspective

P.s I believe Ireland will defeat The Wallabies in Croke Park on Sunday in a cataclysmic tussle. Declan Kidney appears to have an Alchemists touch at the moment.