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July 2, 2009

Stephen Jones, writing in The Times, commends the efforts of the Springboks in defeating the Lions

"The latest topic of conversation in and around the South African camp and in the rugby parts of the nation at large is that the South African team have not been given proper credit for their victory in the Test series and that we have all been far too busy mulling over matters such as injury, bad luck, refereeing, television replays and other allied matters.
"This morning, none other than Gary Gold, one of the assistant South African coaches, was claiming that South Africa's victory has been almost forgotten amongst a barrage of publicity surrounding other matters. In passing, and whatever the merits of South Africa, it must be said that Gold and Dick Muir must deserve credit. From what we have heard from Peter de Villiers of late, it must be a nightmare to deal with him every day and, while I may be wrong, I strongly suspect that Mr Gold and Mr Muir will be treated by the medical staff at the end of every day for severely bitten lips.

"But are we wrong to have discussed the Lions' ill-luck rather than the South African potential brilliance? The concept of ill-fortune on a rugby field is extremely complicated. For example, a touch judge could fail to spot in the first minute that a player has placed his foot three millimetres into touch, and the whole match then suffers a kind of chain reaction so that nothing subsequently is what it would have been without those three millimetres. You can soon disappear up blind alleys if you take into consideration every single bad thing which befell you."

July 1, 2009

The Corinthian ethos

Posted 1 day, 14 hours ago

Keith Wood looks past his love of the Lions concept to criticise the current format of their tour in The Daily Telegraph.

"Last Saturday was as good a game as I have seen in a long time. It had courage, passion and some unbelievable skill. It also had violence, unacceptable and stupid, and had pressure, tension and the symptoms thereof.
"Mind you, irrespective of what transpired, I am left with a certain unease in relation to the Lions tour. And not just this tour, although it is most relevant here, but the tours in general.

"Prior to 1997 there had been talk of how anachronistic a Lions tour was in the new, bold commercial and professional age.

"The Corinthian ethos was out of step with the new reality. Anybody who had worn the shirt, or indeed who had supported it, dismissed such scaremongering as pure piffle. Even now I find it difficult to put into words the pride, the honour I felt at representing this team. It was my dream and my pinnacle. It is unique."

June 30, 2009

Lawrence has cost the Lions dear

Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago

Brian Moore believes New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence is not fit to officiate due to his influence on the destiny of the current British & Irish Lions tour. Read his thoughts in the Daily Telegraph.

"The man that has cost the Lions dear, in not one, but both Test games, is Bryce Lawrence, of New Zealand. We are not here talking about whether a pass was forward. His serious errors are incapable of rationalisation, save by the misapplication of the tenet that a referee is the sole arbiter of fact and law. That stipulation is intended to allow referees to be wrong, not stupid. If Lawrence, as touch judge, is incapable of linking the vileness of an act occurring two feet away and the proper sanction of a red card, he is not fit to officiate.
"No argument; no “it happened in the first minute”; it is wrong. To add to this failure has to be his other-worldly view of Phil Vickery, rammed five feet off his feet, then penalised for an illegal act in the previous Test. Does Lawrence, the referee then, know why lifting is illegal; is he familiar with hyperextension of the spine? How did 'the Beast’ curiously dominate, then capitulate? The previous week he was allowed to cheat with impunity; two days ago he was not; simple really."

This era of eye-gouging must come to an end

Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago

For the sake of the game, officials need to clamp down on eye-gouging - the most heinous of rugby sins, according to Chris Hewett in The Independent.

"As in life, there are seven deadly sins in rugby: gouging, biting, head-kicking, bag-snatching (an Australian euphemism for an assault on a player's unmentionables), spear-tackling, shaving on match day and running off with the beer kitty. Of these, the last two are marginally the least heinous, while the first is very definitely furthest beyond the pale. Unfortunately for the image of the union game, this is fast becoming the age of the gouger."

Authorities must blow away stench of Burger

Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago

Writing in The Independent, James Lawton urges the authorities to act in the wake of the latest eye-gouging incident to blight the game.

"There were reasons to believe the Lions tour would end in tears, but it was hard to imagine that they would be quite so filled by such a toxic combination of rage and disgust. This is only an overwrought sentiment if you believe that it is acceptable anywhere in international sport, even among its very dregs, its sleaziest corners, to allow a player to remain on the field after a psychopathic act that caused him to defile everything and everyone he subsequently touched.
"Schalk Burger happens to be an outstanding flanker, the winner of 50 caps and, no, perhaps he isn't Hannibal Lecter, but if seeking out and gouging the eye of an opponent not much more than half your size who is lying on his back at the time is not evidence of psychopathic behaviour, not stripped of all conscience or awareness of consequences, it is hard to know what is."

Piecemeal tourists are no match in the professional era

Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago

It is clear from Lions tours that the difference between a well-drilled international XV and a squad thrown together with little preparation is too great to bridge according to Richard Williams in the Guardian.

"If you lose seven matches in a row in three different countries over a span of eight years, someone is going to start suggesting that there is something inherently unbalanced about the make-up of the contest in which you are engaged. Pretty soon, perhaps, the question will be asked of the British and Irish Lions' tours to the southern hemisphere that was posed in similar circumstances of the Ryder Cup and the Wightman Cup when it became obvious that the odds were hugely and – in the absence of corrective action – probably permanently weighted in favour of one side.
"Thirty years ago this summer, after the male golfers of the United States had taken the cup 10 times in a row against their British and Irish counterparts, once admittedly after a tie, the terms of Samuel Ryder's biennial competition were modified to allow players from continental Europe to join the forces arrayed in opposition to the Americans."

June 29, 2009

Not fit to officiate

Posted 3 days, 14 hours ago

Brian Moore has a serious bone to pick with New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence following the Lions' second Test defeat to South Africa in The Daily Telegraph.

"Sometimes this approach is laudable, but on this occasion it was not and rugby is done no favours by cowing any criticism of matters that are of the gravest concern. “It’s a man’s game”; “If you can’t stand the heat”; blah, blah, blah; bring down as many of these pathetic validations as you like, but sensible people need not resort to cliché when faced with irrefutable evidence of nefariousness. To the victor go the spoils, but not the right to rewrite matters as wanted. In Test rugby, the least wanted aspects of professionalism are appearing – spin, refusal to answer or pose direct questions and sophistry. Rugby needs none of these but is slowly being enveloped.
"Refereeing is difficult. Referees deserve our support. In return, they and their governors have to front up when things go badly wrong and not seek the shelter of another cliché – that without them, we would have no game; as if their contribution is some form of community service, out of which they get nothing.

"Well, without us, they would have no game either. It is correct that decisions open to interpretation under rugby’s complex laws are only the subject of discussion as opposed to vilification and censure, but sometimes it is not right to turn away for risk of causing offence."

What if...?

Posted 3 days, 18 hours ago

David Hands engages that frustrating sporting cliche by asking, "what if?" following the Lions' second Test loss in The Times.

"Rob Kearney slumped against a goalpost. Luke Fitzgerald lay prone on his back, looking up at the blue, highveld sky. The thoughts of Ronan O’Gara, never mind the lacerated left eye that left him unable to see from it later, do not bear imagination.
"The Lions were strewn across the Loftus Versfeld pitch on Saturday while all around them, South Africa celebrated the winning of the series.

"Later came the bitterness and the attempts to understand how two internationals that were winnable had been lost. The most useless expression in sport emerged: “What if . . . ”

"What if Schalk Burger had been given a red card rather than a yellow for gouging Fitzgerald’s eye in the first minute? Or the game had not gone to uncontested scrums for nearly all of the second half, or the Lions midfield had remained intact?"

June 28, 2009

Wobbly as a blancmange

Posted 4 days, 18 hours ago

Peter Bills vents his frustration at the Lions' defeat in Pretoria in The Independent.

"For most of the game, the Springboks were second best. One of the shoddiest first-half performances by any world champion side handed the Lions a life raft. For almost an hour, they seemed good enough to use it. From the first minute, when the South Africa flanker Schalk Burger attacked the eyes of the Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald, the skids were under the Springboks. Their rugby during the first 40 minutes was a joke.
"They were all over the place, as wobbly as a blancmange. "A tough call on Schalk but you are not allowed to do that," was how the former Springbok No 10 Naas Botha called the incident on television. How one-eyed was that? Burger has now been cited and if he is found guilty he will surely be banned from at least the first half of the Tri-Nations. He deserves it.

"Burger's offence has no place in the game. For a player at this level to stoop so low was unforgivable. What a way to celebrate your 50th cap. What was more, while Burger was in the sin-bin the Springboks were all over the place. They conceded 10 points but the psychological damage was the real cost of Burger's folly.

"Even when he returned, booed and jeered by the Lions fans, the Boks could not get hold of the game. Their confidence was shot, that 50 minutes of complete ascendancy in Durban last week a distant memory."

Moments of madness

Posted 4 days, 18 hours ago

Eddie Butler laments the two moments of madness that decided the second Test between the Lions and South Africa in his blog forThe Guardian.

"It could hardly have been a better game of rugby. It could scarcely have been worse. A match of the highest intensity and tightest drama was turned by injury and decided by a split-second of recklessness by Ronan O'Gara.
"Contact is not his thing. Why wait until the final second of the final play to put himself about, taking out Fourie du Preez in the air, as the scrum-half leapt for the ball? Just as Phil Vickery must have cut a sad figure in the changing room of Durban, so O'Gara should have been beyond consolation in Pretoria.

"Before the moment of folly – a long, long way before it, right back at the start of the game – there had been an equally horrible moment of madness. The game began as it ended, with an act of craziness. This time it was produced by Schalk Burger, who made contact with the eyes of Luke Fitzgerald. At any time, in any place, under any conditions, that is a straight red card offence.

"His removal for 10 minutes was costly enough, for the Lions scored 10 points, one for each minute, one for each guilty digit on Burger's hands. Even if they had not been fired up for this encounter before Burger's indiscretion at the outset, the Lions were fuelled now."