Oh and another thing (3)
Thanks to our oriental friends.
For the vast majority of us, the most joyous experience so far of the RWC has been the gallant Japanese victory over South Africa. It was not only the win itself, totally unexpected as it was, but the manner in which it was achieved.
For your writer, the golden moment was the first Japanese scrum. The ball was put in quickly (and straight), the hooker struck and fired the ball down channel one whereby the 8 picked up and was gone. Poor old Schalk and his mates still had their heads down gathering themselves for the inevitable drive over the hapless Japanese. Not only was the co-ordination of put in, strike and channel executed to perfection, but the Japanese scrum held its ground. Their props are not the biggest but their technique was excellent and the ball was gone so quickly that the weight and strength of the South Africans was negated and one of their assumed areas of dominance disappeared in an instant.
The second golden moment was the attack that saw the Japanese left wing come of his wing enter the line and with some slick inter passing carve the South African defence apart for a score. It was a planned move and had clearly been practised over and over again.
This World Cup has seen some great moments but in reality it has been somewhat light on one thing….innovation. Eddie Jones and his team gave us a glimpse of a coach actually daring to challenge accepted thinking. For some time we have been patronisingly told by Premiership coaches that the act of hooking will de-stabilise the scrum and actually be dangerous. The disgrace is that this has only taken place with the collusion of the refereeing fraternity who have blatantly ignored the straight put in directive and continue to do so. This has led to the farcical situation of the ball being put in and stopping in the middle with both sides huffing and puffing to get over it. In one moment Eddie and his boys have shown this to be utter nonsense. Let’s not forget that the Japanese forwards coach is English….one Steve Borthwick.
Which brings us to the exit of the home team. With all the time, investment and facilities available to Stuart and the boys to prepare for the tournament, have we seen one piece of innovative play from this highly paid crew? This more than anything must condemn Lancaster and his coaching team. Disregarding the bewildering selection decisions, we have not witnessing one piece of creative thinking from England. It was as if victories were expected to magically happen.
The truth is that they had clearly got to a point where they were utterly convinced that their approach and philosophy was absolutely right. Self-belief is fine but when it reaches the level where you refuse to question yourselves or even challenge your own thinking, then you have ceased to move forward. It happened to Tesco and it has certainly happened to England rugby.
Love him or hate him, our Eddie has mischievously dared to shake the things up. Who would have thought that dull, boring Borthwick would also be an architect of new thinking? So let’s get a new coaching regime in, one with a bit of devil that sees Christian Wade as the natural successor to Jason Robinson rather than that little lad who will (clearly) be unable to tackle. I’m also longing to see the first tap penalty move.