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 2/9/07
In no particular order but with heartfelt
conviction, a list of wishes for France
2007:
That Wales and Scotland rediscover
credibility on the world stage. Joint bottom
in the Six Nations, hammered by England,
France and South Africa in the run-in to the
World Cup, matters are fast approaching
crisis point. Australia make do with limited
resources. Why can't they?
That coaches and players lose with dignity.
Sir Clive Woodward's petulant reaction to
the Lions defeat in New Zealand in 2005
still rankles. "I don't think there is a
gulf between the two sides," he said at the
time. "I'd ask all New Zealand to be
reflective. The only tournament you can
judge New Zealand at is a World Cup where
everyone arrives with the same degree of
preparation." Since that tour New Zealand
have won 34 of their 39 matches. Still, you
never know. Clive might yet be right. New
Zealand might still bottle it.
That referees stop issuing a constant stream
of instructions to the players. Game
management is one thing, a series of
coaching tips quite another. Officials
shouldn't tell players to get onside, they
should penalise them for being offside.
They'll soon learn.
That the tournament has a French feel. With
matches in Cardiff and Murrayfield diluting
the Gallic flavour, we need more enigmatic
observations along the lines of Eric
Cantona's: "When the sea gulls follow the
trawler it's because they think that
sardines will be thrown into the sea." The
nearest to that so far is French forward
Sebastien Chabal's comment that France are
"armed with 30 Zinedine Zidanes".
That today's global superstars are more
media friendly. I once spent 20 long,
uncomfortable minutes trying to coax more
than a series of monosyllabic responses out
of All Black prop Carl Hayman. Throughout
the entire "interview" his gaze never
wavered from my face. Very odd.
That something is done to stop the
disgraceful time-wasting antics all teams
adopt going into the last quarter of tight
games. The laws are in place for referees to
keep medical assistance to a minimum and for
the match to continue. Also, any chance of
water bottles not being brought on to the
pitch in the opening minutes of games when
players have barely started to sweat?
That France 2007 avoids a repetition of the
incident which left Ivory Coast winger Max
Brito a tetraplegic after breaking his neck
in a ruck in a pool match against Tonga at
the 1995 World Cup. "I will never forget the
crack that I heard," Tongan forward Willie
Lose recalled. "It was like the crack of a
truck going over a glass bottle. It was just
like that."
That Namibia, USA, Portugal and Japan, the
weakest teams in each of the four pools,
benefit from the experience. There are signs
that the second-tier nations like Argentina
and Italy are capable of challenging the
better funded, more established countries,
but those at the bottom of the pile are
still miles behind despite efforts by the
International Rugby Board to raise
standards.
That England supporters don't take it out on
their team. The truth is that World
Cup-winning sides come along very rarely and
the present bunch are simply a collection of
fairly ordinary athletes leavened with some
useful experience.
PAUL ACKFORD -
Sunday Telegraph | Sunday, 2 September 2007
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