The Lance Armstrong story

Lance Armstrong has risen to the top of his sport. In the process destroying lives, but most importantly shattering illusions. His first book is called 'its not about the bike' and was a tremendously inspirational read. In fact it was the one book that I know many non readers got into too.

The interview he did this week was at best a token apology at worst it was a cynical attempt to do what he has always done. Manipulate the media. Granted Oprah Winfrey did jot press him on any of the key issues but never the less the only time he appeared sorry was when he was talking about his son. The impression that was left I believe was a man who was more sorry that the evidence was so over whelming that he had to confess. Not that he was sorry for doing it.

Lance had one aspect to his defence that everyone else was doing it. The problem with this defence is that it is an attempt  at blaming someone else. Contrast with Tyler Hamilton who eventually did a mea culpae and you have a true picture of the situation.

So what next for Lance, personally I hope prison for perjury and racketeering. Whether this will happen is another matter.

England's long road to redemption

The autumn internationals are nearly over for another year and again the topic of English rugby rears its head. After an initial promising first season as England coach Stuart Lancaster is having that difficult second album. In music terms the band knows what it is all about in the first album. Come the second album the band has started to feel full of its self importance and forgotten the reason they are there.

For English rugby last season was all about establishing English principles of rugby. Tough forward play and confidence in set piece play. Don't worry about what the rest of the world is doing England plays the English way and it works. This season things seem to be going slightly wrong. The set piece looks shaky to say the least, both the scrum and lineout are unreliable but without a consistent reason for the unreliability, different things go wrong every week. Forward play is unsure and weak with an urgency to play the ball out wide without doing the grunt work up front. These issues are compounded by a captain who is making the wrong calls for penalties and lineouts. Next week England face a great All Black side a good performance will give England some redemption, another stuttering performance and England will be under pressure for the six nations.

Why do people stop playing Sport?

I love watching sport. I find it inspiring and exciting most of all unpredictable. Watching sport is great but playing is better and far more fun. The great irony of our society is that sporting stars are adored but nobody plays sport everybody has an opinion on the England football team but how many people lace the boots up on a Saturday afternoon.

The developed world over people are getting fatter and media companies have paid more and more for access to sports rights. It's like an inverse ratio the more people play for sports the more people watch the more unhealthy people have got.

Just an observation.

Lance Armstrong and the bad old days

Blogging has been a sporadic past time. However if you have any interest in sport and life it would be wrong not to comment on potentially the story of the year. Lance Armstrong was the only cyclist that moved out of the consciousness of the cycling public and into the public consciousness. His story was not only compelling but exciting. He gave America a knowledge about the Tour due France and a hero to follow against the nasty Europeans. Unfortunately he was a liar a cheat and worse a bully.

Is cycling damaged for good for the tour followers yes. However the signs of a revival are good. The revival is coming from two unlikely places. The first place is the uk a non-traditional  place for the two wheeled past time. The other place is women, GB cycling has made super stars out of these untainted girls and that it is where all the positives for cycling lie.

The Dark Side of Football

Football in England has long been held up as an example to the world. Maybe not for its quality but its sheer money  making potential. It has been shown to be a modern game shaking of the old style management of the 70's and 80's to become a modern sport which corresponds with the stadiums that it is generally played in.

Football is actually not the different animal that it was in the 70's and 80's. This has been shown by the conviction by the FA of Liverpool player Suarez and the impending  trial of the England Captain John Terry. The major concern for me has been the attitude to some within football usually ex pro's. They have been apologising dramatically for the behaviour of these  players.

The apologists are in denial about the state of their game a quarter of players are black yet there are only two black coaches. Only one Asian  footballer in all 92 professional clubs and not one gay footballer. These are not statistics any modern organisation would like never mind the national game.

2003-RIP

From world champions to champions of farce via a final appearance.What has gone wrong with English rugby? Is English rugby all bad. Like any difficult situation English rugby cannot see the wood for the trees. The world cup was that bad that there has been no talk of redeeming features for England, no shoots of recovery, just a mess. However anyone who has studied science will tell you that a negative result is still a result. So what have we learnt from the mess.

1. Martin Johnson was the greatest captain England has known but the transition to manager was a mistake. Was it too soon, was he too close to his players? All this is speculation the black and white stats of it say simply he failed.

2. The coaching staff was useless. In 2003 when England were a side packed full of experience and leaders the coaching staff was everywhere extolling the various virtues of what they did. This time round they were nowhere to be seen. This is far worse as this side were far younger and far less mature.

3. Be nice to everybody particularly your hosts. Part of the disastrous campaign can be without doubt attributed to its poor perception in the public eye. Whether it be drunken nights out or dodgy dealing with hotel staff.

4. Establish patterns of play. England went to the world cup with no idea of their best side. They did not know which style of rugby they wanted to play they were defensively child like. Offensively they were devoid of any plans.

 Four years between world cups, should give you some ideas of these things. There appeared to be lots of false dawns during Johnson reign but none of it led to anything conclusive. Where now for England, it is hard to say four years is a long time but is it long enough to sort England out. Strong leadership is vital and at the moment that is sadly lacking from the RFU.

In Praise of Seven

The rugby world cup has come and gone again and the trends of world rugby have spun again. In the mid 90's when I had my rugby awakening the trend in the back row was for large back rows. It was not unusual for England to take the field with three number 8's. The reason was bulk was king the bigger the bosh the more games you would win. This continued until the start of the new millennium and was exaggerated by the advent of the professional player and the love of the weights section of the gym. The classic scavenging 7 fell out of flavour for the ball carrying bruiser.

This changed at the end of the 90's when Neil Back finally got the run in the England side he deserved. Not only did he bring tremendous ball scavenging techniques but also great  general ball skills, acting as much as a second scrum half as a back row. He also dominated the ground game. Ever since then the world has been looking for a similar player. The greatest 7 of the modern era is Richie McCaw as mentioned previously without him New Zealand would not be the same side and would not have won the world cup. Australia lost to Ireland partly because they were without David Pocock and partly because Sean O Brian was brilliant. Wales beat Ireland because Sam Warburton was outstanding, tackling anything that moves and winning everything on the floor.

England were awful because they played with three blindside/number 8 type players. They looked ponderous because without a link player they could not get their game going the backs were getting slow recycled ball. That led to ponderous and slow movements in the back line.

The moral of this blog is that any side that finds a great open-side has wrap them in cotton wool and only bring them out on the big occasions. Play without one because you think bigger is better and prepare for trouble.