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England team manager Martin Johnson believes cheating in rugby union is inevitable because it is human nature to do whatever it takes to win.
The sport was rocked by the recent ‘Bloodgate’ scandal in which Harlequins director of rugby Dean Richards told one of his stars to fake a blood injury during a European Cup match to allow another player to come back on as a substitute.
Johnson told the Global Sport Summit in London: “How did we get there with the faking of the blood injury and Harlequins and Dean Richards?
“You get to a situation where the law gets abused slightly and people get away with it and they do it a little bit more and a little bit more.
“The pressure is always there and that’s self-induced and people want to be competitive – ‘are my competitors doing it and getting away with it? Maybe we’ll push the boundaries that little bit more’.
“You have referees on the field for a reason, because people will try and push things further – that’s human nature.”
Johnson does not believe that the financial rewards of success in the relatively new era of professional rugby are a greater incentive to cheat.
“We all live in a competitive world and whether money is involved or not, it’s the will to win,” he said.
“Did things happen like that when rugby was amateur? Of course it did.”
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kingplaymaker said | October 24th 2009 @ 4:36am | Report comment
A comment of sublime perception as usual from the brightest manager/coach in world rugby.
That’s what comes when you put a clot-headed forward in a position requiring some brains.
Watching his press conferences is like seeing the weakest pupil in the class trying to regurgitate some half-remembered information while trying to make it seem like his own ideas.
Sadly for English rugby, it spells doom until he finally fails so much that he is replaced.
Knives Out said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:33am | Report comment
Obviously you missed the most recent 6N. Any English rugby fan would know that it was England’s best tournament since 2003. A true English rugby fan would also know that Johnson is actually a very intelligent man and a known rugby intellect. Also, you fail to actually specify what it is that Johnson has said that is so dull witted. Gordon Brown is a poor public speaker but is probably one of the most intelligent men in Europe.
Viscount Crouchback said | October 24th 2009 @ 6:28pm | Report comment
Gordon Brown is one of the most intelligent men in Europe? Are you quite sure, old bean?
Knives Out said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:26pm | Report comment
Very droll. Apparently his dissertation was one of the all-time greats.
therealalekid said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:54am | Report comment
I agree it was a daft comment, and more weirdly the English coaches made a similar statement before the last 6 Nations with ‘we need to cheat better’. What happened England were continually pinged nad we lost matches giving away daft penalties.
Knives Out said | October 24th 2009 @ 5:55am | Report comment
What exactly is daft about the comment?
therealalekid said | October 24th 2009 @ 6:02am | Report comment
This is what John Wells said last year, taken from the Times.
“Warming to his theme, Wells accused the modern generation of England players of being too law-abiding – “I had one skill as a player: I knew how to cheat and cheat well” ”
What happened England was pinged consistently in the following test matches, this sounds sadly familiar. Sadly, a lot of refs will be swayed by the perception of a team if the managers and coaches say ‘we need to cheat better’ or ‘it is human nature to cheat’. Then many 50/50s could go against us. It was a needless comment IMO.
Knives Out said | October 24th 2009 @ 6:07am | Report comment
What exactly is a needless comment? Johnson hasn’t said that England need to cheat.
” ‘are my competitors doing it and getting away with it? Maybe we’ll push the boundaries that little bit more’. ”
Look at the quote marks. Johnson is expressing his perception of the response of current test players, NOT advocating cheating or the need to cheat.
Pippinu said | October 24th 2009 @ 3:04pm | Report comment
If the current rules mean coaches will push the envelop because they can’t manage their team on match day in the manner they would prefer – it’s time to look at the rules again.
Viscount Crouchback said | October 24th 2009 @ 6:30pm | Report comment
Jonno is merely stating the obvious. Only in England could these comments be remotely controversial.
Parisien said | October 24th 2009 @ 7:46pm | Report comment
The comments themselves are not daft at all, but turning them into an article is questionable! Journalists are desperate for a story where often there is none. MJ’s comments were probably extracted from a longer interview, but isolated like this, you wonder why he would be commenting about something that is so obvious, and as for “bloodgate”, it was dealt with and those guilty of cheating were punished.
For me, the hidden interest or irony if any in the article is in the context of Johnson’s own career as player. There were some allegations about him during his playing career as being at times someone who over-stepped the limits of the laws. The journalist in his hunt for copy should have asked him if he Martin Johnson had pushed the boundaries, or abused the law slightly and got away with it. Then maybe we would have a story…
westy said | October 24th 2009 @ 8:13pm | Report comment
I think the problem for professional club rugby is that RFU did for along time push a hard line that rugby union was above this sort of thing. Let us be blunt. Bleeding artificially from the mouth like a WWE wrestler was not a good look.
That club doctors and physio were encouraged to participate and lied or felt pressured to lie was even more disappointing. This iwas not a good club culture to develop
It is not endemic but it was more than bloodgate . Lipman and his co ” captain ” at Bath Crockett did not do a great service in refusing drug tests. The RFU did the right thing and punished them.
The poiint is we would like to think we are better when at the professional club level we get down and dirty like everyone else at times and we need to be aware of this and not think we are better than everyone else.
We always need to monitor and if necessary update our replacement rules to prevent those who take the laws into their own hands.