Hello Rugby fans....well what a fantastic weekend of 6 Nations action!
It began with a great performance from Scotland against Italy with the Scots scoring four tries against a poor Italian side who found it hard to get their performance levels up again so soon after last Saturday's magnificent victory over a poor France whose travails continued this weekend with a deeply wounding home defeat to resurgent Wales.
Fair play to the Scots....they played a brand of rugby not seen from them for many years, indeed has Scotland ever played with such freedom?
When I was growing up in the 1970's the Scots were always a spoiling, niggly side who liked nothing better than to get in amongst the English and ruffle a few feathers with some tactics a little 'near the knuckle' shall we say....... quite literally!
Players like British Lions John Jeffery and Finlay Calder used to rough up England teams and try to intimidate them into mistakes......tactics which never worked better than when my old mate Brian 'Pitbull Moore lost his cool and ran a kickable penalty when a shot at goal would have been the sensible option in the 1990 Grand Slam decider at Murrayfield.......!
I have an old anecdote about Brian Moore who shares the same 'Alma Mater', Nottingham University with me.
Now Brian is a very charming and intelligent man, belying his belicose reputation, but he IS somewhat prone to violence.....
As a Freshman at Nottingham University in November 1984 I was asked to become Hall Security Representative at my first year Hall of Residence, Ancaster Hall as I was a 'big bloke, who played rugby and who looked as though he could look after himself'.......!
Well......appearances can be deceptive........
This elevated position as Security Rep on the Ancaster Hall Committee had its benefits.....I ran the security operation for Ancaster Hall events and got paid for so doing, usually 20 quid out of Ancaster Hall committee's coffers......Boy did I earn that money one cold November night.......
The first Ancaster Hall event was a 'Bonfire Disco' at the beginning of November.....Now this was going to be a steep learning curve for me as I had never worked as a Doorman (for that was what I was being asked to do!) before.
The Chairman of the Ancaster Hall Committee a guy called Steve Miller said my inexperience didn't matter as one of his mates, a guy called Brian Moore, who had graduated from Nottingham University in Law the previous July, was a rugby player who could look after himself, and was an experienced Doorman and would work that first disco with me and show me the ropes.
Little did I know what I was letting myself in for.....?
That fateful Bonfire Night arrived and the disco for Nottingham University students ONLY had passed off without incident. So far so good!
Brian and I got on famously as fellow rugby nuts.....sharing anecdotes and jolly rugby banter......
Then it happened.....as usual with Ancaster Hall events we had a late bar extension until midnight. In those days in the mid-eighties on Saturday nights pubs stopped serving drinks at 10.30pm
Some 'Likely Lads' from the nearby Nottingham suburb of Beeston turned up at around 11pm after a surfeit of ale and tried to gain entrance to the Ancaster Hall disco.........bad move!
Now I was a little wary of how things were going to go as Brian and I refused the group of 3 'Townies' from Beeston entrance to the student disco.....
Now one of the group was a little worse for wear and upon being refused entry proceeded to launch into a tirade of invective sprinkled with swear words mostly directed at Brian as the smallest of the two of us who barred this inebriated gentleman's way from more beer and the baiting of some poor students......
His friendly banter went something like this.....'Gerrouta my way you f*ckin little Chink!' at which all hell broke loose with a whirlwind of action with Brian moving like lightning as befits a future England rugby international and grabbing said miscreant and marching him with his arm shoved up behind his back to the side entrance of Ancaster Hall.......
Brain proceeded to administer his own personal brand of justice......the three 'local Lotharios' sloped away with their tails between their legs with the two who had not questioned Brian's oriental heritage helping their poor pal whose pride had been severely dented by Brian's summary retribution for the the slur on his character.
Needless to say I never asked Brian to 'work the door' with me again!
Three years later Brian made his England hooking debut in the then 5 Nations and went onto to become a rugby legend, known the world over as 'Pitbull' ( I knew why after my interesting evening spent in Brian's company!)
Brian won over 60 England caps and became a British Lion twice
The 'Red Mist' which I had witnessed descending over Brian that fateful Ancaster night would always manifest itself whenever Brian found himself facing the French on the rugby field.....a little local disagreement at an Ancaster Hall Disco palls into insignificance when 'Les Rosbifs' reacted to French intransigence on the rugby field......Waterloo and Agincourt revisited!
I digress!.....While on the subject of 'Mooro' who went on to coach the Nottingham University 1st XV in March 1986 in the Universities Athletic Union (UAU) Cup Final at Twickenham when my old 'mucker and mate' Lyndon Eales (former Camp Hill OE RFC skipper) captained Nottingham University against an Andy Robinson-led Loughborough Students XV who beat us 14 nil that day.
Andy Robinson went on to become a Bath Rugby legend as one of the most abrasive opensides playing at that time and he joined Brian Moore as a British Lion on their tour to Australia in 1989, when David Campese gifted the series to the Lions with an outrageous gaffe in the last minute of the final test which the British Lions won to clinch the evenly-contested series 2-1....the 'biter bit'.....!!!!!
To return to my point about rugby legends Brian Moore and Andy Robinson.......it is their size.
No-one would describe Brian and Andy as being particularly 'big' men....certainly in terms of their stature if not their musculature.
Other rugby legends also come to mind.....Barry John, Gerald Davis, JJ Williams, Neil Back, even the 'best rugby player ever' in my opinion Gareth Edwards......none of whom you would describe as being 'big' men....
Nowadays those slight men with wiry, thin physiques would not make the initial 'cut' as rugby players and would probably not make it into the professional rugby playing ranks
'Size matters' in rugby union in this day and age and all of today's players spend as much, if not more, time in the gym, pumping iron as they do out on the field.....with the consequent building up of their physiques.
What are we losing with all of this 'bulking up....?' How much quicker would today's players be if they were NOT gym monkeys?
There is no denying that today's players are fitter and stronger than they used to be, but at what cost to their speed?
Mind you my first rugby coach, Moseley and Wales B centre Malcolm Swain used to say that 'the first ten yards are in your head', intimating that speed of thought is just as crucial as speed over the ground
The game of rugby would be all the poorer if those players mentioned above had not graced our game.....the strength of 'Gareth' with that 'barrel chest' bursting a tackle (Edwards had been an athlete and an international class hurdler at Millfield School)
Barry John was....well just Barry John, who bemused the All Blacks with his dancing feet and 'ghostly' sidesteps in the 1971 British Lion's first winning series in New Zealand, the insouciant side-steps of 'Gerald'.....the strength and bravery of 'JPR'.......the sublime speed of JJ...... whose son Geraint Williams kept up the family tradition and ran in the 400m hurdles for Team GB at last summer's Olympics......it's in the genes obviously!
My point is that 'size isn't everything'.....and the mantra that a 'good big 'un will always beat a good little 'un' does not always ring true on the rugby field.....Our game would be all the poorer if it did in my opinion
We don't want our game to be the sole preserve of 'big' men.....surely the thing about rugby is that it appeals and can be played by all shapes and sizes....the little 'flinty', feisty scrum-half, the tall and gangly second-row forward, the short, squat, rotund prop all can play our game.
Rugby would be the poorer if it were just for giants........!
As a postscript, last week I made a plea on behalf of England's Women's Rugby team who have won EIGHT, yes EIGHT successive Six Nations Championships with their local connections with coaches Gary Street and Graham Smith being from the Birmingham area having learned their rugby at Aston OE and Moseley respectively.
I asked that the England women receive more respect from male rugby followers and in sport generally for their achievements and also more coverage from the BBC after carrying all before them recently, including World Champions New Zealand who they recently defeated in a series 3 nil.
Well, I must have 'jinxed' them because at the weekend, for the first time in four years in the Six Nations they lost.....25 - nil to Ireland in Ashbourne in The Republic!
On closer inspection, however, it turns out that England's coaching team Street and Smith (sounds like a firm of Bailiffs!) have made a conscious decision to field England's 2nd XV in the Six Nations this season.......
Now call me 'old-fashioned' but, to me, that shows a huge lack of respect from the England coaching team for their opponents.......
It smacks of the usual stick that England's rugby teams are beaten with....their perceived arrogance, in thinking that they are so good that they can beat the opposition with their second string.......
Street and Smith may say that they have done this for purely rugby reasons...to blood some youngsters and give some experience to their tyro team of second-stringers....to me it does smack of arrogance, in thinking that they could win the Six Nations without fielding their best players......
What do other readers think......?
Yours in rugby
Keith Bracey, presenter of 'In the Clubhouse' the new Rugby Union Show on Birmingham's own internet Sports Radio station www.sports-radio.co.uk
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