World Cup Fever Strikes

The football world cup is sixth months away yet the hype has began. The most interesting aspect has been the the hypnotic delusion that has thudded into to the English psyche. England are now third  favourites for the world cup after Spain and Brazil. Added to this the English football manager has been made coach of the year. The sense of optimism is astounding.

What is the English optimism founded on. A faultless qualifying campaign. In perspective that is good. However England have the richest league in the world with highest profile players. The problem is England have one set of good players that is it. Strength in depth wins world cups in any sport, unfortunately England do not have it. 

Lets ban the Rugby Academy

That is it the Autumn internationals have made me accept that the academy aspect of professional rugby is an unmitigated disaster. The rugby, particularly played by England has been tired, slow and lacking inspiration. The rules are blamed, rightly slow. The real problem is the players have lost the ability to think and more importantly react to the game in front of them. 

The reason for this is I am convinced is the club based academy. Previously young players made their way through the various representative levels. The representative levels were coached by willing and enthusiastic amateurs who although competitive were not trying to climb the coaching ladder. The young players were also playing senior club rugby learning off older players.

The current crop of players coming through the coaching of academies are missing an important part of the their rugby education. Ask any academy player how much they can bench or the nutritional value of a piece of cabbage they can tell you. Where they miss out is the variety of rugby experience that previously happened. This means that come to the tough part of a rugby match and lack of knowledge means they revert to the coaching manual. The instinct is dulled by lack of game time and a fear instilled by professional coaches to deviate from the safe option. So get rid of the rugby academy and let creativity flow.

The Ruck and Roll controversy

The competition around the ruck area in rugby is vexing the mind of the great and the good of the game. The major problem is generally that the ruck is so competitive now that the ball is coming out so slowly the game s becoming staid and slow. The slower the ruck the more likely the kick.

I think the solution is down to the referee. The referee has to allow the ball carrier to lay the ball back and allow his support to get there. This will allow the back line to get in place and get to work scoring.

The French a cheat and the craziness of video replays

Football has reached a new nadir. The bottom of a pretty deep barrel Thierry Henry is being vilified for cheating rightly so. Yet the people that run football persist in the idea the football should be the same on the park as it is in the stadium. The problem with that theory is that a piece of cheating by a bloke on a Sunday morning does not effect the nation. The numbers being bandied round for loss of GDP for the Irish economy are as big as one billion euro. 

Football should use video replays because the technology is good it provides fairness and equality. On a personal note it would stop the interminable talk radio conversations regarding dodgy refereeing decisions. Football can not rely on its players for honesty so using video replays is a natural progression. 

The roundabout of Rugby Rules

What is wrong with the rules of rugby union at the moment? That is a genuine question. The experimental law variations went, the game was meant to improve. This has not been the case. In the Autumn internationals, there has been some excitement however the feeling to us people who watch the game is the same feeling people get with a slightly disappointing meal in a brilliant restaurant. All the bits are in place for a great meal but something is not right. The same is true of rugby football.

The major problems are the around the ruck area. The inconsistency is astounding, some referees call a penalty for handling in the ruck when the tackler jumps to his feet and stands over the ball, some referees don't. The other area that is causing problems is the interminable kicking game. The passages of play in the game where the ball is in the air are ridiculous and boring which is worrying when rugby is in a competitive environment trying to  entertain the masses. 

The kick in rugby is an incredibly important part of the game. If the kicking game is lost in rugby union the game becomes like rugby league or American football. In those two games the kick is purely defensive or last option in attack. In rugby union the kick has had great attacking potential. The grubber is a way of keeping the defence on the back foot. The "garryowen" is a test of bravery for the fullback. This means the kick has to be kept and used properly, at the moment it is causing the game to  be sterile and some what boring. What we need is a change in trend. The first nation that takes the ball and runs the kicks back and scores will send the kicking game back into the stands.

The English Problem

We are a good way through the traditional Autumn international series. What have we learnt? Firstly the game is in a strange transitional situation. Their is no side that looks like world beaters, South Africa are undoubtedly the best of the Southern Hemisphere. New Zealand are a side that seeming to have lost the All Black aura and Australia, after a tough tri-nations are showing promise under the inspiring leadership of Rocky Elsom.

The northern hemisphere are the usual ups and downs of celtic and Latin nations. Fortunately for the Northern hemisphere France in Toulouse were truly brilliant a mixture of dynamic back play and aggressive forward play. Wales and Ireland look a bit rusty, they have direction but are just lacking some of the fluidity that playing together brings. The real issue is England, the highest number of players the most money what is the problem.

Against Argentina the English forwards were pleased with being able to hold the Argentina front five. The thrust from the forwards was not their, for some reason the English coaching staff can not seem to get the best out of players such as Tom Croft. Monye looks ineffectual and the midfield looks woeful. The general excuse chucked out is the injury crisis and hardness of the English game. Yet France seems to produce great players in an equally tough league. Johnson needs a mentor, someone to give his coaching staff direction otherwise England have wasted a year before the world cup without direction. 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The European international rugby season kicked off this weekend. The result was that we have learnt nothing about the state of world rugby. The good is the emergence of Italian rugby with 80 000 people attending a rugby match at the San Siro Stadium, Milan. Why is this good? Milan is th heart of Italian football, with two great teams Inter and AC based there. Eighty thousand Milanistas are now attending a rugby match this is exciting for the game.

The bad is the game of kick tennis taking place in highest level of rugby at the moment. Why? Games mean so much that people are scared to run the ball as it is risky. My personal hope is that the French can save us from this banal aspect of a great game. The French do not have the Anglo Saxon caution and hopefully the cultural stereotype will prevail and the French cut loose.

The ugly is the state of the England rugby team. The problem is that they look rudder less. Injuries can be blamed and their is no doubt that that the front row crisis is causing England problems. The most worrying problem is that England have not got an established pattern of play. 

The England team under Will Carling played hard forward based rugby. The team under Martin Johnson the same but with backs intelligent enough to know how to straighten the line and use the kick as an offensive weapon. This current England team is neither hard enough in the forwards or intelligent enough in the backs to know how to play. Can blame be placed? Yes, Martin Johnson and his staff have to take responsibility. The players have to be given a pattern of play dictated to by the coaching staff. This is probably alien to Johnson because his teams were full of leaders that, when the game was drifting could take the game and make things happen. At the moment England do not have that and nobody is quite sure whether the current crop- of England players have it in them.

The Rugby Size Conundrum

Martin Johnson named his England squad today and the main story rather than rugby is the injury crisis throughout English rugby. Specifically this time round it is the prop forwards that have suffered. The speculation surrounding this injury crisis has centered on the size of players. 

There is no doubt that rugby players are bigger than they have ever been. Allied to this they are stronger fitter and faster. The meaning of this is that the impacts are bigger than ever before. However bigger impacts mean more   injuries and  more severe injuries with longer recovery times.

The catch 22 rugby faces is that the excitement is that a big hit generates excitement and excitement generates crowds and with that revenues. The problem is that the players will not last. 

The rugby season really starts

The start of the heinekein cup is the real start of the northern hemisphere rugby season. It used to be that the start if the rugby season was a gentle introduction after a long summer. The season would not raise in intensity until the autumn internationals rolled around.

The European cup changes the old status quo dramatically. The first weekend of competition has been dramatic and maybe has taken away some of the doubters of the game. The early season has been strange with blood gate overshadowing everything. Also correspondents in news papers have been having the usual moan about the state of the game especially kicking. 

The game of rugby is stronger than that and the almost tribal nature of the encounters of this weekend have shown the strength of the game. Particular attention should be paid to the game between Northampton and Munster. The other great story is the entry of a Spanish rugby team into the European challenge cup. Olympus Madrid may have lost their first game but the spread of the game is a fantastic new story. This combined with the acceptance of rugby union sevens into the Olympics. Show rugby union is game on the march.

Shock! FA pockets governement subsidy

The end of the gravy train for the FA. It may come as surprise to some but apparently the FA gets a 25m subsidy from the government. That is correct the FA the richest football association gets money from one of the most broke governments on the planet. The money is received so that the FA will develop the game. Does this happen, no it does not. The FA takes its money promotes itself, funds junkets around the world then disappears.

The UK has the highest childhood obesity rates in the world after the USA and Australia. The national FA is more concerned with selling its brand to the world so more people will sit on the couch, watch football and not play.

Finally the sports minister has said that the FA has been wasting money. It is not developing the game. It is looking after the professional brand and that is it. Take the subsidy away and give it to school playing fields.

Shock! FA pockets governement subsidy

The end of the gravy train for the FA. It may come as surprise to some but apparently the FA gets a 25m subsidy from the government. That is correct the FA the richest football association gets money from one of the most broke governments on the planet. The money is received so that the FA will develop the game. Does this happen, no it does not. The FA takes its money promotes itself, funds junkets around the world then disappears.

The UK has the highest childhood obesity rates in the world after the USA and Australia. The national FA is more concerned with selling its brand to the world so more people will sit on the couch, watch football and not play.

Finally the sports minister has said that the FA has been wasting money. It is not developing the game. It is looking after the professional brand and that is it. Take the subsidy away and give it to school playing fields.

Does the premiership have problems?

Does the premiership have problems. It seems odd to say that as on the face of it English rugby does not have any problems, attendances are up. More players coming through than ever before, all is healthy in the rugby garden of England.

A look over the boarders is certainly interesting. The Celtic league is making great strides and turning out great games. The addition of the Italian clubs makes it even more interesting. At the time of writing Scottish clubs top the league. Anything that makes Scotland a more competitive side is good. The question is does relegation make for a more competitive league or does it breed a no risk brand of rugby. The successful Irish provinces make a strong argument for the Celtic league system.

Welcome Argentina

Sense has broken out in rugby, Argentina has been allowed into the tri-nations. This is an unusual situation normally rugby union avoids making sensible decisions. A tri-nations with Argentina will be fantastic for rugby as it spreads the game secondly it will mean a different type of game will make its way to the tri-nations.

 

If the game in the northern hemisphere is looked. The contrast between the countries playing the game could not be more stark. The grim effective maul of England to the stylish French back play. In the Southern Hemisphere Australia, New Zealand and South Africa play in a very similar way. Argentina will add a different dimension to the tri-nations.

Welcome back old friend

Thank goodness the games have begun bloodgate behind us game of rugby can continue. Most exciting for the game is the return of the maul. Last season the maul was taken out of rugby union. This is the equivalent of taking the corner kick out of football or the volley out of tennis.

 

Why was the maul taken out of rugby union. It was simply the political situation in world rugby. Australia is a sports mad nation and very competitive for viewing figures. The Australian Rugby Union then complains to the international rugby Union that the maul is too slow, viewers stop watching. The Australian position is understandable within Australia many sports compete for viewers and advertising revenue. Apart from rugby union, rugby league is popular especially on the East coast. The native sport of Aussie rules dominates the south and west coast and the young upstart of soccer is extremely popular amongst the various immigrant communities.

 

Despite the Australian position it was a case of the tail wagging the dog. The maul is fundamental to the game of rugby as rugby is a game for all. The maul allows the short barrel chested strong man to survive and thrive.  Without the maul rugby union was in danger of becoming a game of clones.  Even more dangerously the idea  of getting rid of the scrum was being discussed. Again the speeding up of the game was being cited as the reason.

 

Luckily rugby has found common sense and has accepted the maul as being part of the game. Some people would say that will slow the spread of the game. This could not be more wrong. Rugby 7's has made the Olympics this will do more for the spread of the game then any rule changes. So welcoming back the maul we have missed you.

ESPN classic

ESPN classic has just arrived on my multi channel platform and it has made me go back and watch some stuff long forgotten. Most recently I watched the 1991 rugby world cup in England. It has got me thinking about the game of rugby and how it has changed.

Obviously the players have got bigger and stronger. The England back line of 1991 looked like the seven dwarf's compared to the current set of backs. The forwards looked kind of lumpy and mis-shapen. Their was no extra thin shirts or grip gloves. What did this mean to the game? It was slower for sure. Did this make the game worse? No! The game was as exciting as the game we see today. If anything the skill levels were slightly higher. Case in point was the way French back line played. They lined up deep and ran at space none of the flat line play we see today. Backs were given time to work. Also national styles were more apparent. New Zealand and Scotland were aggressive rucking sides and England were superb maulers. This made for some fascinating games.

Why blog about this? Sometimes we look at rugby and think about the now and forget where the game has come from and maybe what we have lost in the great rush to globalise the game.

Destroying a boyhood hero

A new blog after the summer break shold be full of the hopes the new season. However, Blood-gate has damaged rugby to an immeasurable degree. The fact that Dean Richards an England legend took advantage of law designed to protect the health of players to gain an advantage over opposition in a European cup 1/4 final puts into question the ethos of rugby union.

Rugby union has always been a game of contrasts on the playing field it is the prerogative of the players to push the limits of offside and technical laws. Downright cheating has always been frowned upon and what Dean Richards did was cheating. To buy blood capsules and then force a doctor to make real cut on a player therefore violating the Hippocratic oath is the sign of a bully.

The question is why? Dean Richards the player was a ferocious beast of a man with a sixth sense on where to  be on the playing field. He hated training but never seemed to lack for fitness. He was part of the old school of amateur players, a traffic policeman whose legendary post grand slam kcelebration of kicking the Calcutta cup down Princess street after drinking perfume was legendary.

Dean Richards the coach, was incredibly successful, with league titles and European cup titles. However he was fired from that Leicester Tigers role. The equivalent of this would be Alex Ferguson being fired from the Manchester United job after winning the Champions league. Their was no uproar from the players. Does this indicate that the coach although a legend was not well liked. The rumours from Grenoble and Harlequins echo this. So it seems although the man brings success he brings it by terrifying everyone around him

The question for rugby now is what next, undoubtedly opposing doctors must be allowed to assess players for validity of injuries especially in the front row. Professional ethics rules have to be pushed back into the game breaking ethics codes whether coach, captain, chairman or CEO should result in severe sanctions. Rugby has real credibility issues the problems at Bath, the ridiculous South African protest about a citing on the lions tour and a general forgetting of the principles of the game.

A new blofg

The tour de France,

The tour de France started last weekend. It is a sporting event which divides and polarises opinion. There are two reasons for this. The first minor reason is that some people can not understand the excitement of an event that lasts for three weeks versus the opinion that it is a gruelling physical test over three weeks, the ultimate test in sport. The major reason for the division and polarisation over the tour de France is that some people see it as a pharmaceutical game of cat and mouse between testers and athletes. The other side of the equation is that the sport has cleaned itself up and is back to the great test that it was in the days of Eddy Mercyx.

The truth is that professional cycling is in a real mess it. It is a sport that has possibly pushed its athletes too far 3400 km in a in three weeks. A public that demands faster speeds and higher climbs. Cycling has always pushed the boundaries of what is physically possibly. In the early age of cycling it was common to have races lasting twenty four hours, some of the biggest crowds that were drawn to Madison Square Garden when it was built were for a cycling race that was named the Madison. The idea of the Grand Tour such as the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia were publicity stunts for newspapers. The idea of a Corinthian sporting ideal was along way from the early days of cycling. Drugs especially stimulants were necessary. Unfortunately those days of drug abuse have continued and permeated the sport.

Unfortunately the tour has not had a champion without scandal whether proven or not and the scale of doping is astounding. Some of the stories include the doping of blood with horse medication, the transport of fresh blood too tired riders and the deaths of riders such as Marco Pantani with blood so thick that treatment by cardiologists was impossible. Even Britain's most successful tour rider of all time Tom Simpson who died on the summit of Mount Ventoux was full of amphetamines and brandy.

So the tour has been fighting a losing battle to keep drugs out of cycling. Yet cycling was built on drugs otherwise the riders would not have been able to complete the mammoth taks that were expected of them by their professional paymasters. Now it is fighting to retain its credibility by blood profile testing, and trying to maintain the idea that it is a creditable sport and that the tour de France is the toughest sporting event in the world.

Personally I think the tour de France is a great sporting event that is not just as simple as a race round France it is like a soap opera in terms of the team politics. It is like a chess match, when to go or when not to go. Hopefully it will continue and the drugs will be become part of its past.

Can't wait for for Australia, since t...

Can't wait for for Australia, the lions tour is over and we lost. The lions brand has won, the last two lions tours had forgotten the brand ethos of the lions. This tour has restored the importance of the lions and gone back to the brand that is the lions. Where did the lions lose its way as a brand? It started in 2001 when they selected a Kiwi, Graham Henry as head coach. The theory behind this obviously was that he had done so well as Wales coach that this brilliant organiser would be able to do the same with the lions. Henry could not, he was blessed with a side that had the nucleus of a world cup winning side. Despite this he managed to lose the series. In 2005 Clive Woodward took the lions challenge, it was a disaster. The lions brand has suffered.

Ian McGeechan was appointed head coach, this was a simplification of the role he been given. McGeechan had been given the role of custodian of the values of the lions. The values he learnt on the 1974 lions tour to South Africa under the greatest lion of them all Willie John McBride. It was his job to make the lions special again, not only that it was his job to invigorate a younger generation of lions to appreciate what it means to be a lion. The historical parallels can not be ignored. Willie John McBride went on a losing lions tour in the 60's and was bullied ,in his words . This formulated his philosophy that led to the victories in 1971 and 1974 he refused to take a backwards step and if the opposition went after his forwards he would make sure his forwards should not step backwards. This lions team has learnt similar lessons, they came together well. In the first test they were blown off the park by aggressive South African scrummaging in other words they took a step back.


The second test came and the lions showed up with strength and aggression and barring injury would have won the test match. The lions won the third test, the players looked like they were genuinely happy. More importantly they played with such a sense of joy  that it has added to what has already been a fantastic test series That is the important concept about the lions. In most sports it is about the trophy, next paycheck etc. The lions is about four nations who spend four years battering hell out of each other then coming together to try and beat the southern hemisphere nations. They did not win but they came together and held up the traditions of the lions.

So what next for the lions? A tour Australia in four years time, but this tour will not be about lions survival. This tour will be about beating Australia. The great thing will be the amount of young players who were on this lions tour They were also on tour with Ian MCGeechan this means when the lions go to Australia they will full of traditional lions spirit. The key will be the hosts. If Australia treat the lions like a cash cow. They make them criss-cross a continent to milk them them and remarkable fans the tour will fail. If the Aussies keep the lions in a smaller geographical area such as Canberra and Sydney the lions may have a chance. They will also have a chance if the warm up games are competitive. Part of the problem with this lions tour is the warm up games were so poor, the lions were undercooked going into the first test. The consequence of that was the lions got destroyed in the first half by South Africa. These remedies put in place and the lions could be competitive.

British Tennis

The problem with British tennis, as it is Wimbledon time of the year it feels appropriate to talk about the lack of British tennis players. Andy Murray has a fine chance of winning Wimbledon but this can not hide the problems of the game in Britain. Eight players went out in the first round with Murray left this is not really good enough for a country that is a home of the ground slam. Is funding a problem? British tennis has had more money than most other sports it of a similar size so funding is not a problem.

The problems with British tennis can not be characterised by one specific issue but can only compared with other countries. Australia is the first country to look at, Australia is a small country population wise but has produced some of the greatest tennis players ever to play the game, Laver, Newcombe, Goolagong, Cash and Hewitt. In the same period Britain has produced none. The reason for Australian dominance has been speculated on but the main reason seems to be the outdoor lifestyle and the amount of space. It was easy for Australians to go outside and have a hit. Allied to the Aussie need for competition this created a winning combination for Australian tennis players. The other interesting comparison between Britain and Australia on the tennis court is that British tennis is game played usually in tennis clubs. In Australia cheap land meant that most houses could have a tennis court, making the game more egalitarian.

The other country to look at is Russia, the women's game especially has been nearly overwhelmed by the preponderance of Russian players. The reason for this is simple, Boris Yeltsin. In the early 90's Yeltsin, a tennis obessive decided that Russia would become good at that most western of games. State funding followed and the game flourished and grand slam champions arrived. In the same period Britain has produced no champions.

So what too do, cutting state funding for mediocrity is essential, find the players with talent and give them the best coaches if this means trips to Spain or America fine. Cut the cost of tennis at clubs and get the general population playing tennis. Make the game of tennis less about the game two weeks a year and more about the joy of participation in sport.

the scrum

After the first Lions test in Durban there is lots of disappointment and negativity regarding the result. The upside maybe hidden but it there is an upside. The scrum is back and important in the game of rugby union. As Phil Vickery was twisted and turned into the shape of a twiglet by the Beast. The game of rugby was rejoicing because despite the best efforts of Australia to get rid of the scrum on Saturday it roared back it too prominence.

 

The scum is a great way to restart the game of rugby union but to non-rugby people it is a mystery and a dangerous mystery. Firstly the scrum is a dangerous place. If the scrum goes wrong the consequences can be and have been fatal. The scrum has also disappeared in rugby league or is now a sham version on the scrum just used to get the players running into each other. In rugby union the scrum is a mythical thing. The scrum is an intensely unpleasant place especially in the front five. it is a place of complete discomfort and effort. It is the place on the rugby field that it is most primordial it is who pushes who forward. It is also a place that embodies the best of rugby union. What I mean by this is that the scrum is the creation of the sum of its parts, the hit by the front row has to be violent and controlled the effort by the locks is consistent and unrelenting and the back row has to retain effort while keeping their heads up always aware of the breaking ball,

The scrum is also the dictator of the spirits of the men in the game. The scrum goes badly and the teams head drops the scrum goes well the team are happy. So despite the best efforts of the Australians long live the horrible sweaty mess that is the scrum.

The weekend football ate itself!

Football has eighty million reasons to have lost touch with its roots and reality this weekend. The game of the people. The game that has prided itself as being the same on the park pitch on a Saturday to the floodlights of Old Trafford has gone crazy. Cristiano Ronaldo was purchased for eighty million pounds by Real Madrid. To put this in context Newcastle United football club who until the end of May in same league as Manchester United was recently put up for sale for one hundred million pounds with the common consensus being that it could be purchased for less. That is right one of the twenty richest clubs in the world could be purchased for the same cost as a player.

Why have Real Madrid done this? Jealousy. Barcelona won the champions league and Real Madrid can not stand it. The hatred goes back to the Spanish civil war and has driven the avarice in football to new levels. As I write this Madrid have spent 139 million pounds on new players. This has huge repercussions on the rest of the game has it has already inflated the prices of players all over the world. The gap between rich and poor is now greater than ever. Madrid has made this move during a worldwide recession.

Football has gone success mad to such a degree that it is hard to imagine where it will stop the pursuit of success has made it so that clubs would rather be in so much debt than think about failing. Their are exceptions to this rule. Arsenal football club have built a new stadium and rather than buying great new players are paying off the stadium. Every club in the premiership is leveraged to the hilt. The problem with all this money sloshing around out at the top is the fact that the bottom of the game is forgotten. Not just non league football but the level where kids play football in the small junior clubs.

Maybe the ridiculous spending is the turning point for lots of fans, not the fans do not want success but the thought is that when a player earns more than a fan could earn in a hundred lifetimes. Sky sports a company built on the subscriptions of football fans is already feeling the pain, despite paying a record amount of money for the rights to broadcast football in the UK the number of subscriptions have dropped. The clubs of the premiership have struggled to sell season tickets. Football is eating itself, there can be no doubt of that. Will their be an economic realignment? Probably not but the connection with the local community is now hanging by a thread.

Is their something rotten in the state of Rugby Union?

Is something rotten in the state of the rugby union. Why the gloom, why the doom? The world of rugby union has surely never been healthier? A lions tour is currently under way under the greatest lions guardian of tradition in Ian McGeechan. The end of the northern hemisphere season was concluded in the most exciting of circumstances with a fine victory by Leinster. There are still things that nag away at me. The first thing that worries me is the danger of the professional game. Recently Matt Stevens received a two year ban for recreational drug abuse. The post ban conversation has talked about the professional rugby game and the physical and emotional pressures that led to cocaine abuse. This is a convenient story and taken at face value makes sense. The back story to the whole cocaine story may run deeper and is being born out by the current resignation by three Bath professionals for allegedly refusing to take compulsory drug tests.

The question is not weather these players are guilty or not it is the fact that rugby playing and training as a professional is allowing them the opportunity to even think about taking drugs. The example can be seen in Australian Rugby League. The NRL has terrible press for many reason's the first is the sex scandals that have blighted the game. Accusations of gang rape and dodgy tackling practices. The worry is that rugby union is heading the same way as Australian rugby league.

The professional governing bodies of the game of rugby union have to act now. The game of rugby union is now losing its last generation of amateurs. What I mean by that is that they are the last generation of players who played rugby before the incentive of payment came in and before rugby was a viable career. Their has to an infrastructure put in for players young and experienced to learn to cope with their spare time. If the infrastructure of the game can be put in place not just to make money but to help players cope with the demands the professional game can put on young players.

World cup America

Rugby union is a great game, a game I love it is the ultimate team game that brings out all sorts of exceptional qualities in the people of all shapes and sizes that play it. It is a game in a healthy state in the six nations countries witness the European cup semi-finals and the emergence of Italy as a six nations side. There are challenges for the game worldwide and the administrators are not always correct in their decisions.

The reason for this blog is that England today announced that they would be bidding for the 2015 rugby world cup. I personally hope they don't get it. An emerging nation or group of nations should get it. As much as I want to see the best rugby players in the world the growth of the game is more important.

Football is leading the way in this respect with tournaments in the USA and Japan this has led over time to the establishing of successful leagues with the j league and  major league soccer. Rugby union could go for the safe option as it has by staging the next world cup in New Zealand or it could expand the game further afield. Why should it do this? Because rugby union has taken root itself all over the world but the administrators have forgotten this. Contrast this with the experience of rugby league. It is a game that has its heartland in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and Cumbria in England. In Australia it is mainly played in New South Wales and Queensland. A little bit is played in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. It has been desperately trying to spread its boarders but really failed.The reaso is that they are trying to spread to epople who have never played it. Rugby Union does not have this problem it has taken root all over the world. The evidence for this is the IRB world seven championship which sells out all over the world including San Diego on the West Coast of America.

Rugby Union has done the opposite to rugby league and neglected parts of the world. There are three outstanding cases where the administrators of the game have got it wrong. The first are the pacific island states of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. There can be no doubt that the two big players in that region are Australia and New Zealand. These countries farm the talent from the pacific island countries and the IRB does nothing. There was the opportunity to fix this by allowing these countries individually or combined into the tri-nations but did not. The tri-nations then did not help by expanding their super fourteen competition with an Australian and South African teams when they could have got a Pacific Island team or team the expansion teams in super 14 have added nothing other than being cannon fodder for the more established sides. 

European administrators are not blameless because they have made their mistakes the most obvious one is Romania. In the eighties Romanian rugby was better than Italian rugby. After the fall of communism Romanian rugby died. The powers of Europe neglected Romania to the detriment of the game in central Europe. An active financing package for rugby in Romania would have saved the game. Instead the European administrators kept the money themselves.

The final example is Canada where the game is played by enthusiasts and the best players go to Europe if possible to earn a living. Canada have got worse since professionalism and often struggles for funding. Yet along with America has tremendous potential as it has a huge population used to physical sports. The IRB does not seem to realise the enthusiasm for the game and the excitement a world cup could generate if it was in North America. It has been up to England with its Saxons tours to keep international rugby going.

 

So world cup America is where the game should be, I want to see England versus New Zealand at the Toronto skydome. Or France versus Ireland in Giants stadium.

Hatton a tragedy in the making

The tragedy of the boxing game. This weekend Ricky Hatton was thrashed by Manny Pacquiao . Nothing particularly unusual about that. What is happening now is not unusual either, Hatton is considering his future. The tragedy of this will be if Hatton decides to come back.

Hatton has been to the top of the fight profession. He has sold out arenas throughout the world and is a hero to the people of Manchester. Here in lies the problem. Is Hatton on the verge of making a comeback to flatter his ego? Does he need to compete in front of thousands to feel normal?

Hatton has fought against the best in Mayweather and Pacquiao. He has been found wanting on both occasions. Boxing has a history of fighters going on that one fight to far and this leading to tragic consequences. Hatton is heading this way. Boxing is not like other sports veterans in boxing end up in hospital with parkinson's. There is no dignified way for a boxer to retire after a loss in most other sports a sportsman can wean them self off by playing a lower level in boxing it is not possible as the nature of the sport is hurting your opponent.

It is also a time for British professional boxing to take a long hard look at itself. Currently there is a crop of British boxers going through the transition from successful Olympic amateur to professional. The people that handle them need to consider that the only British boxer to make it to the very top has been Joe Calzaghe. He was an exceptional fighter who chose to retire at the right time(for the moment). Nobody else has made it to the top. The reason is parochialism. Boxing does not help at the this time with so many world titles around many British boxers can be world champions and sell out home town arenas. Fighters are looked after by the promoters and this means that they become hyped into thinking they are the the greatest boxer in their division. In the case of Hatton he fought the best and was found badly wanting. The question has to be asked if Frank Warren had not protected him would he have been a better fighter?

British boxers have traditionally stayed close to their roots and have trained in the towns where they are from. The British boxer remains a big fish in a small pond. The boxers need to go to the States and fight in the toughest gyms in the world. Although the US is having a tough time world champ wise it still trains the best fighters. To make it in a US gym and through the ranks of boxers a boxer really has to be good. If a boxer makes it here maybe he deserves to sell out the big arena and become a household name.

English man in France

Professional rugby has only been around for fifteen years. It is still feeling its way. The current crisis is in the conflict between club and country. The situation at the moment is that English rugby has a number of internationals both past, present and fringe on their way to France to play rugby. The England management team has issued a strong statement of the order that any player going to France to play will be seriously compromising their international future. Really saying that you go to France to play and you will not play for England.

I think the England management team have got this wrong. The consequences of this are that the England management may be losing some of there best players or even players that could be vital as squad members. England management are also being unfair.

The life of a professional rugby player is short and not profitable. Compared to a professional football player in the English premier league a rugby player is remunerated poorly. They are subject to a salary cap, which I agree with as the game would go bust without it. A rugby player should have the right to earn and earn well they are a long time retired. France will always have the earning power ten times that of England because clubs do not pay for the grounds they play in they in. Many are Stade Municipal and free for rugby clubs. Money only goes on wages. In England the game does not work that way and thank god for the salary cap otherwise the game would be dominated by the richest clubs.

England rugby management will pick the French based players it is a matter of need. If Jonny Wilkinson goes to Toulon and has a great season he will be selected as any country not even England with the biggest player base in the game have enough quality to play international rugby or more importantly win the would cup. French rugby maybe beneficial for some players it is tough and uncompromising based in the regionalism of France. The club is the king of the town and that means any player playing for the club must be totally committed to the club over and above country.

There is a tremendous furore that players are playing too much. A strike was narrowly avoided between the England management and the clubs over allowing players to play what they forgot was that players have the right to earn and if a player want to earn and earn well why not? Players know if they are playing too much and know if a move is wrong the French experience maybe exactly what the England teams need a different style of play and coaching maybe the stimulus that drives the England team to success. Why? French rugby is known for the excitement for its back play English rugby is not in fact it is mainly known for solid play and no flair. If English players are exposed to the French style of play surely it will benefit the game, There will be no mass exodus of players from England as in the history professional sport this has never happened.

Life on Mars

Welcome back to the seventies, the economy is tanking, unemployment is rising. The football is hooligan is back where did they go and why are they back?

The football hooligan was a uniquely British invention and an export to the world. The history of the hooligan in the UK is attributable to the decline of the working class. Great football clubs were founded on the industrial might of an empire. Every industrial area had a club, this was encouraged by the factory and mill owners of places such as Manchester, Birmingham and London. The mill owners although pioneers in industrial relations realised that sports encouraged the mental well being, of the workers and greater productivity on a Monday morning. The thought of sports on a Saturday seemed to distract from the misery of the situation.

Saturday afternoon was treated as a special as Matt Busby alluded to people work hard enough during the week they should be entertained on the weekend. People had loyalty to there individual teams but the feeling of support was not as tribal as it is now. It was not unusual for football fans to watch both Liverpool and Everton or Manchester United and Manchester City. This seemed to continue all the way through the fifties and sixties.

When the great industrial cities started to collapse in the seventies and eighties work began to become scarce. Where a person worked mattered less than where they what football team they followed. Football no longer became a tool to entertain it became an outlet for frustration. Young men without work and no wars to fight was a mixture for disaster. Football became a symbol for the fight with a decaying industrial system.

The violence on the terraces became a regular part of the seventies to the eighties. It was exported in bastardised forms across to the continent. Germany, Russia and Italy felt the blight of hooliganism. Then in the late eighties it stopped, why? Simply drugs and dance. The rave culture came out of the gay clubs and hit the mainstream. People who used football and violence as escapism for their mundane lives suddenly threw themselves into this culture and used ecstasy. The top boys of the hooligan culture moved to become the top drug dealers and rave organisers.

Now we are back in the mire, joblessness has risen and the rave culture has become a corporate issue. Like all stories from the past everybody forgets the bad old days and football hooligans have become anti-hero's with their own autobiographies and fan clubs. Worse the rest of Europe love the hooligan culture. What is even worse their was stories in the Nytimes of the Columbus crew in Mls trying to replicate the hooligan firms of England.

Where to go now ? The hooligan firms of the twentieth century grew out of the industrial cites, these new firms have grown out of the underclass that pervades the British culture. A sub-culture disenfranchised by the brave new world of the twenty 21st century. The only place they can show this frustration is in the back streets surrounding the modern corporate entities that surround the citadels of football. Stopping the fighting will be impossible the bleak view is that it must be contained.

Lions 2009

The Lions 2009.

Full-back
Lee Byrne (28) Ospreys and Wales
Rob Kearney (23) Leinster and Ireland

Wing
Shane Williams (32) Ospreys and Wales
Leigh Halfpenny (20) Cardiff Blues and Wales
Ugo Monye (26) Harlequins and England
Luke Fitzgerald (21) Leinster and Ireland
Tommy Bowe (25) Ospreys and Ireland
Centres
Tom Shanklin (29) Cardiff Blues and Wales
Jamie Roberts (22) Cardiff Blues and Wales
Brian O'Driscoll (30) Leinster and Ireland
Keith Earls (21) Munster and Ireland
Riki Flutey (29) Wasps and England
Fly-half
Ronan O'Gara (32) Munster and Ireland
Stephen Jones (31) Llanelli Scarlets and Wales
Scrum-half
Mike Phillips (26) Ospreys and Wales
Harry Ellis (26) Leicester and England
Tomas O'Leary (25) Munster and Ireland
Prop
Gethin Jenkins (28) Cardiff Blues and Wales
Adam Jones (28) Ospreys and Wales
Andrew Sheridan (29) Sale and England
Phil Vickery (33) Wasps and England
Euan Murray (28) Northampton and Scotland
Hooker
Jerry Flannery (30) Munster and Ireland
Lee Mears (30) Bath and England
Matthew Rees (28) Llanelli Scarlets and Wales
Lock
Paul O'Connell, capt (29) Munster and Ireland
Alun Wyn Jones (23) Ospreys and Wales
Donncha O'Callaghan (30) Munster and Ireland
Nathan Hines (32) Perpignan and Scotland
Simon Shaw (35) Wasps and England
Back-row
David Wallace (32) Munster and Ireland
Stephen Ferris (23) Ulster and Ireland
Alan Quinlan (34) Munster and Ireland
Joe Worsley (31) Wasps and England
Martyn Williams (33) Cardiff Blues and Wales
Jamie Heaslip (25) Leinster and Ireland
Andy Powell (27) Cardiff Blues and Wales


The day of reckoning came and went for the players of the home nations and the lions of 2009 were selected. The theme that runs throughout the side is toughness. Starting with the skipper Paul O Connell has always been the favourite for the skipper of the lions. The last lions tour to New Zealand got off to a bad start when Brian O Driscoll was taken out of the tour. The Boks can try that with POC. The response will not be pretty, be assured as Munster captain the phrase “Stand up and fight” means something.

The selection of Andy Powell and Simon Shaw really emphasises the Lions hardness and to try an intimidate the Boks. The coaches have looked at the opposition and realised that twelve years of hurt and damaged South African pride are about to come their way. Intimidatory tactics will be prevalent in both the tests and midweek games. Standing up to the intimidation will be key to success.

The real story about this lions selection has been the non-selection of certain players. The result of which I believe that England will now win the next world cup. That's right England will win the next world cup. The reason is that Martin Johnson is losing no key players. England will tour Argentina with a full squad of players. Valuable time on a tough tour will be the making of this England side with combinations formed that should help the England team.

The omission of Ryan Jones was a big shock. As Welsh captain he has been fantastic but has paid the price for an average six nations. The back row was tightly contested with the athletic an impressive Tom Croft losing out.

In the backs Delon Armatige was the big omission being the England player of the Autumn series and having an impressive six nations. The fly half position is possibly the Achilles heel for the whole tour is two fly halves enough?

Sport and the increasing waistline.

“I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfilment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”
Vince Lombardi

I thought I would start this blog with a quote. This a cliché and any book on writing will tell you so. The reason for starting with this quote is not only because I love the quote but it can define life in general. Most people would accept that nothing is free in life and everything requires a modicum of work. Also most people would agree that there is great satisfaction in achieving goals through hard work.

The point of this blog is not too talk about hard work, it is too talk about a topic loosely related to this. In the past 20 or so years sport has become big business. The reason why this has become big business is that people love to watch sport. Not only do people love to watch sport but they pay substantial subscriptions to watch sports. I know this because I am a subscriber. Nearly every pub or bar you pass has some kind of live sporting event on. Television because it gets punters through the doors. So sport is watched more than ever, so why, with all this supreme athletic achievement in front of us all the time are we fatter than ever? We watch more sport than ever but we participate less than ever.

This is a serious there is a ticking time bomb of obesity in developed nations. Health care systems could crumble under the weight literally of obesity related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and depression.

Most people participate in sports through school but very few continue past the age of sixteen. Why is that the people who watch sports are not inspired to participate?. Has the sports man become so distant from the average man in the street that people do not want to be like them?

I think that there is a confluence of factors that have led to this problem. People hated playing sports at school as was not cool. Secondly the local clubs closed as people got distracted by other things on the weekend. Mainly shopping. Thirdly the arrival of the computer generation led to the idea that playing sports for leisure was dull when you have a play station. Finally the gym industry if ever there was a way of making sport appear dull and not fun turn it into a business.

All these issues have to be fixed to some degree or other but something has to be done to otherwise we literally collapse under the weight of our own greed.

To change or not to change?

The changing nature of sport, or the evolution of the rules of sport. Yesterday I attended the Anglo-Welsh semi-finals of the EDF cup. It is a tournament which is a cup competition between the top tier of English and Welsh clubs. The competition is innovative, exciting and fosters excellent cross boarder rivalry. Whether the tournament will continue is another issue as the premiership rugby clubs do not like it. But it is well received by the fans and game administrators alike. The subject of this blog is not the tournament. It is the laws of the game and the laws of any games and how often to change the game?

The reason I started thinking about this blog, is during the games I watched yesterday and during the six nations championship the kick became king. There was lots of games when minutes went by went the ball was in the air being kicked from wing to wing. The reason for this was the experimental law variations. Rather than going into the specifics of the law that causes this it is enough to know that the idea of the experimental law variations was to keep the ball in play more often. There is no doubt this happens, but rugby union is a game of many facets not just running with the ball in fact the ability to drive the ball up the field in the forwards is a technically difficult skill. In my opinion the ELV laws have fundamentally changed the nature of a great game. They were brought about by pressure from Australia really because they wanted to de power the technical aspects of the game, the scrum and the rolling maul. Essentially to make the game more like rugby league which coincidentally the Australians excel at. Hopefully sense will prevail and the ELVs will go the way of the dinosaurs.

Some sports like Rugby union have a habit of changing the laws of the game on a yearly basis. Football has not changed the laws of the game in years. The argument in football is that the game has to be the same from the park too the stadium. This is fine in principal, in practice it is a joke. Football has to change its rules. Firstly the discipline aspect of football is poor ant referees can not enforce it and the players are not interested in it. If the discipline was tightened up by the introduction of the sin bin at the highest level it would filter down to the lowest level. Maybe just maybe the kids who follow the game might not want to imitate the temper tantrums of Rooney and Ronaldo just the skills they show.

So we the key to changing the laws of the game. Don't change the laws so they fundamentally change the game. Listen to the people in the game from the grass roots upwards not just the broadcasters and the any game will be in safe hands.

Lions team post six nations

This is my lions team post six nations

15. Byrne - Wales
14. Carney - Ireland
13- O'Driscoll- Ireland
12- Flutey - England
11. Monye - England
10- Jones - Wales
9- Philips - Wales
8. Leamy - Ireland
7. Wallace -Ireland
6. Croft - England
5. Wyn Jones - Wales
4. O Connell -Ireland (Captain)
3. Murray- Scotland
2. Rhys -Wales
1. Sheridan - England

What will be the team for the first test?

Coaching

What makes a great coach? The six nations has ended and Ireland have been gloriously crowned as grand slam champions after sixty one long years. What made Declan Kidney take a group of players that have been around for ten years and so often disappointed, champions. The players are the same the support staff are the same, only the head coach is different. Has the coach made this much of a difference?


It seems appropriate to be talking about coaching as a film about Brian Clough has just been released. Brian Clough as a manager did the unthinkable by taking two small provincial town sides in Derby County and Nottingham Forest to the absolute pinnacle of the game of football. In the age of the premiership and the dominance of Manchester United et al, this seems almost fantastical. Nobody could quite understand Clough's genius as a manager. He rarely saw his players on a weekly basis but performed miracles.


The concept of the personality of the coach came from America. In the rest of the world the coach was the guy who picked up the kit at the end of the game. In fact in Britain it was considered unsporting to have a coach in case you gave yourself an advantage. Vince Lombardi was the first great coach. Originally a highly successful college basketball coach in a men's catholic college he became the great head coach of the Green Bay Packers. In English football the first great managers were all from the industrial heart of Scotland. Busby, Stein and Shankly all these men created a legacy and great clubs in Manchester United, Celtic and Liverpool. All these clubs were built on the force of these mens coaching personalties. What made all these people great coaches


There is no common thread between all these men, all these managers or coaches. The best place to look really is the players who play under them and that is where the link is formed. Every player who has played under what they consider to be a great coach or manager has respect for these coaches. Also if any of thee coaches loses the respect of these players they are cut off quickly and without sympathy. Witness David Beckham and Alex Ferguson at Manchester United as soon as he became bigger than the club he was out.


The point of this blog is too say no coach has any kind of monopoly on the skills of coach. Different coaches work well with different people. The true test of a great coach is building a legacy and long periods of success as well as passing that legacy on to the next generation of coaches.

Sport and Money

Sport and money go together hand in hand. This has never been more obvious than in the week just gone. The Cheltenham festival has just been and gone. It is a magnificent sporting occasion. It is also a huge gambling occasion with millions being spent on the track and on-line. However Cheltenham benefits from these bets it gives people a stake, it creates legends, stories and hero's not only of the horses but also the owners and gamblers. One of the great stories is of JP McManus the legendary Irish gambler walking into the betting ring with 50000 pounds and taking on the bookies in as though he was a cowboy walking into a gunfight at the OK Corral.

Cheltenham is an example where sport and money go hand in hand in a way that is beneficial for both. The problem is when sport sells itself its very soul for the elusive dollar. The most obvious example of this is the controversy surrounding cricket. Where the traditions of the game are being compromised by the headlong charge towards 20/20 cricket. However, many sports are even further down the road. There is talk of the English premiership having an extra game played abroad to capitalise on the future investment abroad, this is a mirror of the NFL agreeing to play a game at Wembley stadium. This is fine for generating profits but negates the history of the game. For example Manchester United is the biggest football club in the world but without the people who built the club from the city it would be nothing. The same with American football, why should a fan from London get to see a game which a season ticket holder from Tampa or Chicago will not.

The point of this blog is that all sports can take money and it often benefits the sport in numerous ways but so often sporting administrators forget the 'little people.' This is fine in times of economic plenty. We are now in a lean time where sporting sponsorship is getting harder to obtain corporate boxes are more difficult to sell. These clubs and sporting organisations are now trying to tempt the fans they lost back and to take their money again. Ironically the Cheltenham festival horse racing has made more money than ever. This is because it listened to its fans by extending the festival. Now other sports have to do the same.

Living with the Lions

When people talk about seminal sports documentary films, When we were Kings comes up all the time. My favourite sports documentary is the 1997 film, Living with the Lions. For the un-initiated it is the story of the 1997 British and Irish lions tour to South Africa. It really is a warts and all journey with that rugby team across the continent. No real game footage but a fascinating look at what it takes to build a successful team out of disparate nations who normally spend their time knocking lumps out of each other.


This year the Lions return to South Africa again, same head coach but the world of rugby has moved on apace. There have been two lions tours since the South African adventure. The tour to Australia was memorable for “Waltzing O’Driscoll,” as well as Jason Robinson stepping round Chris Latham. Ultimately it was unsuccessful. The 2005 tour to New Zealand was completely forgettable whether it be for the ugly tackle on Brian O’Driscoll or the horrific organisation by Woodward. This included Alistair Campbell as spin doctor!


What can we expect from 2009 in South Africa? Hopefully it will be a reinvigoration of the Lions brand. McGeechan as head coach is the right step. With respect to Henry and Woodward it was like they never got what it meant to tour as a Lion and the traditions that go with that. After all the Lions and lions tour are built on legends. The famous “99” call of the 74 lions is one example. The brilliance of O’Reilly, Jackson and Kyle in the 50’s in South Africa and the peak of brilliance that was the 71 lions to New Zealand. Barry John was at his best and he was surrounded by JPR, Gareth and the David Duckham the man the Welsh called Dai.


The Lions is unique in professional sport no trophy, no tournament just touring for the sake of it. This year it will be fascinating to see whether the Lions will live up to their brilliant traditions of old or attempt to become that uber-professional team that Woodward tried to build. I would like them to play hard but ultimately live up to the traditions of old. I would love McGeechan and Edwards to talk about what it means to be a lion and the importance of red shirt.




After three rounds of the six nations my Lions side would be:


15. Byrne (Wales)

14. Scotland (Wales)

13. O’Driscoll (Ireland)

12. Shanklin (Wales)

11. Williams (Wales)

10. Jones (Wales)

9. O’Leary (Ireland)

8. Hyslip (Ireland)

7. Willams (Wales)

6. Worsley (England)

5. O Connell (Ireland)

4. Wyn Jones (Wales)

3. Jones (Wales)

2. Rees (Wales)

1. Jenkins (Wales)


The beauty of the Lions is that it could all change as team combinations are worked out and the inevitable dark horse comes through. Think of Young 1989, Gibbs 1993 and Bentley 1997.

Franchise Football Now!

A revelation has struck me, a moment of Paulian clarity regarding English football. English football needs to be franchised. Often when we look across the pond at our North American cousins we mock the idea of the franchise. We can not understand a league that has no promotion or relegation. Or a city that can just buy a sporting heritage.

I always thought their was something strange about this concept and thought this would never translate to this side of the Atlantic, with our traditions and national game rooted in the heritage of the working class in the local area. After all it was Matt Busby that said it was the duty of Manchester United players to entertain on the weekend because the workers of the local Trafford park area deserved it to lighten their lives. This has always been my opinion football has been so deep rooted in our communities that it should be owned by the community. There is always the dream that one day your local club could win something. This dream is now dead in most clubs Football is now owned by the money men. This is where the franchise comes in.

If the English premiership was franchised the era the dominance by the club with the most money would be over. In America a franchise works because no club has more money than any other. The negotiations regarding contract are done on block and generally the team who wins the championship, whether it be the super bowl, Stanley cup or the NBA championship varies. This would be a good thing for the English premiership because unless your club is backed by a multi-billionaire your chances of winning anything are nothing. Some clubs will challenge the status quo for a season or two but the chances of actually winning are slim.

The argument against franchise is relegation keeps the league exciting. This is true, relegation battles are exciting, but to be in a relegation battle you have to lose more games than you win. If you survive relegation you are the tallest of the dwarves, but what have you really won.. Surely a competitive league is an ideal situation. At the moment the top four or five clubs have a mini-league that although can be exciting benefits nobody else. Recently Blackburn travelled to play Manchester United. Seventy fans made the thirty five mile journey as they knew they were going to lose.

Franchises are already happening every club is already up for sale by anybody as long as the purchaser has the money. If these people were buying franchises at least the process would be formalised and no matter how much money the purchaser had there would be no advantage as profits would be shared amongst the franchise teams. The lack of relegation and promotion would also would be an advantage for player development as no team is scared of being relegated there is no need to bring in seasoned old pros usually foreign to bolster the side in a relegation fight.

What about the teams in the league below. Well this is where we get back to grass-roots football local teams for local players in competitive matches. Take the big teams out of the league and you bring back competition. Becoming a league champion is now a realistic possibility.

Save West Indies Cricket

In sport trends come and go players change shape records get broken and traditions change. Certain sporting brands transcend this and become etched on the consciousness of the non-sporting public. The yellow shirt of Brazil, the black shirt and silver fern of the New Zealand rugby team and the pinstripes of the New York Yankees baseball team. The sporting brand I find most iconic is the maroon cap with palm tree and cricket stumps of the West Indies cricket team.

I started watching cricket in the eighties and one of my earliest memories of watching cricket is IVA Richards swaggering to the wicket maroon cap on head gum chewed and a look around as if to say to the fielding side “just watch this ball flash past you to the boundary.” My cricketing hero was BC Lara a flawed genius on the cricket field, who, when good was the greatest.

Now that iconic West Indies brand is struggling to survive, cricket would be far poorer without it. The problems of cricket in the Caribbean are many. The Caribbean is next to the biggest consumer of young athletes in the world. The United States college system offers education and the way out of the ghetto for many West Indian youths who previously would have been attracted to the cricket field.

Geopolitical organisation is a huge problem for the West Indies. Sixteen independent and proud countries from next to the coast of the United States to twenty five miles away from the coast of Venezuela form the West Indies cricket board. The only thing that links these Islands is unfortunately slavery, the English language and the game of the ruling colonial class, cricket. Politically the board can not organise itself. Witness the chaos regarding the abandoned second test and the financial carnage caused by Sir Allen Stanford. Despite this throughout the eighties the West Indies played cricket with a style, flair and dominance that was inspiring.

Cricket needs the West Indies to be a force because although it can not provide financial power or huge numbers of players, it provides the game of cricket with a soul. The noise and chaos of a Caribbean test are as important as the quiet reverence and tradition of the first Lords test of the English summer. The international cricket council needs to stop cow towing to some of the money men. Think of the difference the money spent in the IPL player auction would make in the West Indies or the English counties trip to Abu Dhabi for pre season training being switched to Barbados or Antigua. Lose the West Indies and lose cricket.

The greatest cricket book ever written was penned by CLR James a Trinidadian and cricket nut. This book perfectly evokes cricket in the Caribbean. It would be awful to think that this type of prose would be consigned to history as the game disappears from the West Indies.

First Blog

This is my first blog but I will try to get into the topic without appearing too amateurish. The first blog is about rugby, really about the English rugby team.

Firstly England are not a team of bad players. They are a team of good players playing badly. The side has players capable of getting in most sides in the world, so why the problems.

Firstly tempo is a problem the side is just playing too slowly the pieces are in the right place but everything seems to happen at a very slow rate. Tempo in rugby is dictated by three people on the field the No 8, scrum half and the fly half. Since 2003 England has struggled to get these three right. The retirement to the dance floor of Dawson and big Lol to the wasps boardroom has been a hard void to fill but the collapse in fitness of Jonny Wilkinson has been the real key to the lack of pace in the England game. Harry Ellis, Shaun Perry etc have tried to cover the number nine spot. Flood, Cipriani and Goode have all tried and been found wanting at the 10 position. Nick Easter has been a rock at 8 but with all that change around him he has struggled to impose himself.

This leads onto to the second problem. patterns. More than any other game rugby relies on its patterns whether it is the the rhythm of the scrum. The movement of the jumpers in the lineout or the moves in the backline. Without consistency in selection none of these work.

The third problem is the openside flanker position nobody has come close to competing with the southern hemisphere openside tyros since Neil Back finished. McCaw, Smith and Burger have been simply better at being nastier, meaner and generally more hostile on the ground than anything the English have to throw at them Rees looks promising but just seems to nice to be hated by other teams in the same way that Neil Back was hated by the opposition.

So that is it for my first blog all is not lost in the England camp they do have the potential to be great and anyone who admired Martin Johnson as a player most hope that he succeeds as a manager.