Warming Up For The World Cup

The buzz of the World Cup is upon us. The population of a nation crazy about the sport are set to flood the turnstiles in their tens of thousands to grab a slice of the action. Adrenaline-fuelled players are already preparing themselves for what is set to be a gruelling few weeks in the southern hemisphere. The goldfish bowl environment will take its toll on the management and the unforgiving nature of the media means the players must call upon all of their professionalism in order to conduct themselves in a manner that isn’t detrimental to the game. Last, but certainly not least is the 48 action packed games where players will crash their bodies through their physical boundaries and beyond in a sport where commitment is absolute. I am of course talking about the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand 2011.

With the northern hemisphere teams currently touring the merciless backyards of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, there is a devastating reality that has hit the European rugby world. The three games today have unfortunately shown once again that the southern hemisphere nations are on a pedestal and seemingly out of the reach of the six nations. The signs aren’t great with this being the last opportunity the teams will have to experience rugby in this part of the world before the seventh tournament to decide the Webb Ellis Cup.

The first match saw Ireland take on the All Blacks at New Plymouth, home of Taranaki. The visitors were well in the game until Jamie Heaslip’s rush of blood to the head. The Leinsterman was contesting a ruck on New Zealand’s 5-metre line following a flurry of attacks by Declan Kidney’s men. With Richie McCaw over killing the ball (shock!), Heaslip in the words of official Wayne Barnes made 2 “deliberate knees to the head”. Although anyone who plays rugby outside of New Zealand would probably greet Heaslip with a firm handshake, a wink and a “thanks mate”, the same can’t be said of his Irish team-mates or management. With the game just 15 minutes old, it was the beginning of the end for the land of the shamrock. The All Blacks ran in 6 tries in the first period which ended 38-7. Tries from Dan Tuohy (Ireland) Kieran Read, Ben Franks, and Jimmy Cowan grabbing a brace was the end result of an impressive showing from Graham Henry’s outfit. Kieran Read’s 21^st minute touchdown was arguably the most significant of the evening because the subsequent conversion from Daniel Carter saw the fly-half surpass the 1000 point mark in international rugby. In doing so he became only the 4^th man to do so following in the footsteps of Neil Jenkins, Jonny Wilkinson and Diego Dominguez. The playmaker was instrumental in the success of the All Blacks as they romped to a nine-try victory. Graham Henry had experimented with his side looking to expose his younger players to the atmosphere and intensity of the test match environment with half an eye on next year’s world cup. Ireland won the second half 28-21 with further tries for the home side by Conrad Smith (2), George Whitelock and giant prop Neemia Tialata and Brian O’Driscoll, Tommy Bowe and Gordon D’Arcy hitting back for the Irish, but the game was effectively over as a contest when Heaslip saw red and when Ronan O’Gara was sent to the sin-bin after holding back Kiwi flyer Cory Jane.

New Zealand’s eerie dominance sent shockwaves to the rest of the world of rugby, but will it carry to the world cup? The land of the silver fern has an infamous knack of peaking too early with regards world cup years. One thing it did do, however, was assure the demanding New Zealand public that their squad are heading in the right direction.

The rugby universe then switched its attention to Perth, where Martin Johnson’s England took on the Australians. Much of the talk before the game was of the scrum and England’s expected supremacy, which is a talking point in itself with the English pack featuring the utterly dreadful Tim Payne at loosehead. The Wallabies lead 14-0 at half time with tries from the sublime Quade Cooper and Rocky Elsom. The half was all Australia’s, with a blend of power, panache and unforgiving accuracy. Many pundits have already tipped Robbie Dean’s men as favourites to lift the World Cup in 2011 and this performance did nothing to prove them wrong. The second period saw England begin to press home their advantage in the scrum. The Australian front rowers were under constant pressure in the tight and referee Nigel Owens ended up with his arm raised under the Wallabies posts twice having lectured the men in gold for their “unwillingness to scrummage”. Eventually, tighthead Salesi Ma’afu was sent to the sidelines with the Welshman sending him on his way saying that “he had probably been too lenient” on the Brumbies Product.

It was an exciting enough game (when the Australians had the ball), but it was always going to be two sides of complete contrast. England looked to take the ball up the guts of the Wallabies, while the home side looked to counter-attack and run the ball from any position they found themselves in. England were, in short, abysmal. They looked laboured, they kicked poorly and they lacked physicality. Even Wasps strongman Simon Shaw struggled in a Ryan Jones-esque manner to cross the gainline, only managing 11 metres in his 8 carries before leaving the arena on 59 minutes. Quade Cooper finished off a move he started having released the immense Digby Ioane, following his pinpoint pass and receiving the offload from his winger to touchdown in the corner. The Queenslander then slotted a 78^th minute penalty goal in a manner that reflects his unique way of playing to extinguish any faint flame of an English comeback in a perfectly rounded game. Question marks were asked of Cooper following the late withdrawal of the Australian midfield genius Matt Giteau whether he would have the same effect without his partner in crime. He answered these questions with aplomb and blasted his name up in lights on rugby’s Broadway as he stole the show.

Martin Johnson’s men came up short with a very limited game plan. Johnson himself told journalists prior to kick off that a scrum won’t win you a test match, yet this was the only tactic that seemed to have been employed by the world cup winning captain. He also relied heavily on his kicking strategy, which makes the omission of Jonny Wilkinson all the more astonishing. Toby Flood had an average afternoon, while Shontayne Hape had a debut to forget. The midfield Martin Johnson had selected suggested the ball would be in the hands of the centres running hard and straight, but these scenarios were far and between. The English were not in the same league as their illustrious opponents who were missing some key players in important positions. Despite their endeavours, England were never really in the game and certainly never looked dangerous even with the likes of Chris Ashton and Ben Foden who seemed to have had their rugby flair sucked out of them by the sour-faced Johnson. England are undoubtedly a worldwide rugby force when they are at full strength. The problem seems to lie with the director of rugby (whatever that means). He has built his side on the same principles Sir Clive Woodward swore by with the class of 2003. The difference is England and indeed the game of rugby union is not that type of game in 2010. England don’t have Dallaglio, Johnson, Vickery (pre-“beasting”) or the under-rated Hill. They have Cole, Croft, Haskell, Lawes, Moody and the like who are all very mobile runners. Johnson however is persisting with the same gameplan of keeping the ball tight and going through endless, droning, insomnia-curing phases of play with the desired result of a scrum or penalty. If England are going to want to be considered genuine title challengers come New Zealand 2011, they must change their ways, or change their personnel.

Europe’s hopes lay in the hands of the grand slam champions France as they took on World and Tri Nations champions The Springboks in Cape Town. With another competition in town (the football world cup for those of you who have been on the moon for the last month), could South Africa focus in the hype surrounding their country at present. The answer to that is yes they could, and very convincingly. The lineout maestro Victor Matfield was in full force again for the Boks as they pick-pocketed 5 of France’s 11 lineouts. Giant back-rower Pierre Spies crashed over for a hattrick and loosehead prop Guthro Steenkamp capped an impressive showing with two tries. Rougerie and Andreu claimed the tries for the French but they were completely outplayed and outclassed by Peter De Villiers’ team who were ruthlessly clinical in a razorsharp showing at Newlands.

Statistically, there’s not much to pick from the contests apart from the English game. England kicked the ball 33 times in contrast to Australia’s 24 and made only 86 passes to their victorious opponents’ 126. England only made one less carry with the ball than the Wallabies (86-85) but the difference in metres gained is quite staggering. England struggled their way to 216 metres while Australia used their 86 carries to glide over 461 metres of the Subiaco Oval’s turf. On reflection the southern hemisphere teams just look better on the ball than their opponents from the other side of the world. There is always the talk of the draining seasons and a prolonged Lions tour hangover, but is this really justified? The tri-nations look sharp and penetrating while the Europeans look lacklustre and seriously out-of-sorts. If the world cup were to start tomorrow, the odds of a six nations team winning or even coming close would be slim.

There is still plenty of time to turn this grim situation around with Wales’ two-match tour to New Zealand starting Saturday, England have another shot at the Wallabies in Sydney, Italy have the impossible task of facing South Africa on a two-match tour and Ireland have a week to recover from the humiliation to face Australia in Brisbane. You’d be a brave gambler to bet on an away win in any of these games, but they absolutely must find a way to do so, otherwise the Northern Hemisphere teams will be faced with a monumental psychological struggle when they come to playing their southern hemisphere counterparts next, which will be in the ruthless surroundings of a World Cup Competition.

Still, it’s not all bad. Dan Parks registered all 24 points for Scotland against Argentina in their 16-24 triumph over the pumas. So there will be at least one European side with their heads held high. Perhaps when the football world cup is over, the European rugby world could benefit from Robert Green as a skills coach in preparation for 2011, no?

Too Little, Too Late. Again

Welsh rugby fans were once again taken through the same routine on Saturday afternoon. The game looked to be in favour of the home side after 25 minutes, leading 16-3 and depicting the flow of play. Predictably, awful spells immediately before and after half time saw the South Africans score 28 points in the game’s 2^nd and 3^rd quarter to move the score-line to a more familiar 19-31. As we’ve come to expect from Wales, a late flourish threatened a late comeback ala Scotland in the Six Nations, but it was not to be, with Peter De Villiers’ team running out 31-34 winners claiming their 22^nd win in 24 meetings against Wales.

The first 25 minutes was a step in the right direction, the lineout was functioning, the scrum was solid, defence was impenetrable and the forwards were making hard yards (even Ryan Jones!). The highlight of the period was when James Hook was the grateful recipient of an interception pass via the hesitant John Smit. Hook beamed post-match that it was usually him giving those passes, but the Springbok hooker had a moment of madness where he shaped to kick, then sidestepped before throwing a looping pass to the left which the Ospreys man plucked and raced triumphantly under the posts to the glee of the Millennium Stadium faithful. Stephen Jones added the extras as well as a couple of earlier penalty goals, and James Hook was again on target with a drop goal on 11 minutes.

The restart following James Hook’s try was the beginning of the end for the boys in red. Immediately from the kick, Jonathan Thomas was penalised for a foolish challenge that maybe should have resulted in a yellow card, but Irishman Alan Lewis deemed a penalty alone was sufficient punishment, and indeed he would be proved right. Ruan Pienaar added the 3 points to go with his 16^th minute effort and the deficit was reduced to 10. From that moment through till halftime, the Springboks mounted siege after siege of attacks on the heavily defended Welsh try-line, all to no avail until the half-hour mark. The ball was turned over on the Wales’ 22m line and a golden opportunity presented itself to Stephen Jones to clear his lines who by his own standards had a torrid afternoon. He scuffed his kick to debutant Gio Aplon who danced his way in behind the red defence. Quick possession at the ruck gave the Boks ample time to ship the ball to the left flank where Odwa Ndungane touched down and the try was given via supervision of the TMO. A further soft penalty saw Ruan Pienaar finish the half with the score at 16-14 and it seemed half-time had come at a perfect time for Wales as the Southern Hemisphere unit gathered momentum on their revival.

Whatever Warren Gatland said at half-time hadn’t worked because in the 42^nd minute they were once again behind their own posts having conceded a try. Danie Roussouw had broken the line in the same manner that Bradley Davies had done time and again in the first half, however a neat offload to the charging Dewald Potgieter had been missing in the Wales ranks, not so from a South African perspective and the hosts trailed for the 1^st time in the contest as the blonde Blue Bull dived over for his first international try.

Stephen Jones and Francois Steyn exchanged penalties in the 45^th and 55^th minutes respectively taking the score to 19-24. A period of kicking followed with an air of nervousness falling over the players in Cardiff. Wales were the first to buckle under the pressure and as James Hook tried to run the ball from inside his own half, support was inadequate and possession was turned over. The ball presented itself to rookie test centre Juan de Jongh which saw him ignore his overlap and step inside a drifting Stephen Jones and showed his Scarlet counterpart Matthew Rees a clean set of wheels as he motored over the line untouched. Pienaar added the conversion and the margin was 19-31 with 21 minutes to play. As expected, Wales mounted a final burst in the final 20 minutes that would save their blushes. First a record-breaking try for Tom Prydie that sees him become Wales’ youngest ever try-scorer over his namesake Tom Pearson, a record that had stood for over a century when the Newport and Cardiff winger scored against England in 1891. The 18 year old was the recipient of a deft pop pass under pressure from his Ospreys team-mate James Hook in the left hand corner on 72 minutes.

The mood was tense in the capitol as memories of Scotland and France echoed around the ground, which was it to be? It took one moment of familiar mediocrity from Ryan Jones to answer the question. Having taken the restart cleanly (somewhat surprisingly given his earlier blunders) he trundled into contact without making any yardage, he then fell to ground in a typically bad position and presented the South Africans with the turnover on a plate with bread and butter on the side. If that wasn’t bad enough he then got to his feet (slowly) and wandered offside at the ruck in a feeble attempt to halt Ricky Januarie. These 30 seconds summed up the skippers afternoon, once again uninspired.

As Ruan Pienaar prepared to take his match tally to 16 points, Peter De Villiers rang the changes making full use of his resources. One of which was Zane Kirchner who flapped at a high ball just moments after entering the arena allowing Leigh Halfpenny to pounce. He offloaded to Sam Warburton who took the ball up to the 5-metre line and unselfishly popped the ball to replacement Alun Wyn-Jones who scored close to the posts to cause alarm in the South African camp with just 3 minutes remaining. They needn’t have bothered, because soon after Stephen Jones’ conversion the ever-present leader of the red army Ryan Jones was once again on hand to present possession back to the Boks who humped the ball into the middle tier to the sound of Alan Lewis’ whistle and Wales were left to rue another missed opportunity.

With Warren Gatland this week labelling the game as the beginning of a “Golden Era” of Welsh rugby that could see the same successful side be together until the 2015 World Cup (apart from 3 older squad members), what does it prove? It proves a lot of things, but not many are positive.

The place of Robin McBryde must come under scrutiny. The forward’s coach works alongside Warren Gatland in analysisng and perfecting the lineout. Seeing as this is a full-time role of employment, would someone care to shed light on the fact that the Wales could only manage a success rate of 73.7% (14 from 19) on Saturday compared with South Africa 100% (3 from 3)? Understandably, the Welsh pack had a hell of a lot more lineouts than the Boks, but is that really an excuse for over-throwing or not timing the lift? It’s easy for the coach to say that they won 14 lineouts against arguably the world’s best lineout code-breaker in Victor Matfield, but the coaches should have identified that the Welsh lineout is targeted in every game, regardless of opposition. Take the six nations for example, throughout the tournament the Welsh lineout was tested a total of 71 times. Wales tested their opposition’s lineout 48 times in their 5 matches. This gives a clear indication that opposing coaches see the lineout as a weakness, and rightly so. Against Scotland, Ireland and England; the success rate of the lineout was 75%, 66.7% and 58.3% respectively. With this amount of possession squandered, is it really any surprise that the boys in red are struggling for results. Even more importantly, with the troubled area so seemingly clear to everyone in world rugby that even saw the Italians target the set-piece, why isn’t it clear to the men who matter?

Wales once again lacked the nous and fierce clinical edge that the Southern Hemisphere giants seem to possess. Given a 16-3 lead at home, do you see New Zealand letting Wales back into the game in the following weeks? I think we all know the answer to that.

It’s not all doom and gloom as we head down to the land of the Silver Fern. In the initial 25 minutes leading up to James Hook’s try, it was difficult to find a fault. The forwards carried well and Wales looked like a team capable of beating the world champions (minus their world champion players). Bradley Davies was immense throughout, but lacked the support when he crashed and barged his way over the gainline. Sam Warburton was a revelation turning over ball, tackling well and carrying like a Trojan horse and all this with a broken jaw sustained in the first half that will unfortunately see him miss the trip to New Zealand. The centre pairing of James Hook and Jamie Roberts is flourishing with the combination of brute, brawn and bone-crunching hits at 12 with the deft, delicate and deception at 13. Tom Prydie looked every part an international player and Mike Phillips was looking back to his physical best despite a few wayward passes letting him down.

The win would have sent us to New Zealand full of optimism to take on Dan Carter and the rest of the star-studded All Blacks. A repeat performance will see the Kiwi’s record a whitewash series win, of that there is no doubt. It is with caution we tread, but never underestimate the wounded dragon.