Spiro Zavos discusses the Rugby World Cup

[...] can listen to the first interview here [...]

Following on from Spiro's observation that the French will go out of their way to run a tournament to favour the home team I read Bernard Laporte's criticism and querying of England and the southern hemisphere teams drug testing policy who coincidentally are among the favoured teams to make the final. I fear that it will only get worse as the future French minister of sport uses his position to wage a media campaign to influence the public and referees despite Paddy O'Briens plea to coaches and players to refrain from doing so. C'est la vie as the French would say.

It seems the gamesmanship is well and truly underway at the RWC. Firstly, there are reports that Scotland will tank their game against the ABs so as to be better prepared to defeat Italy. If this is so, it's outrageous. 70,000 Scots at Murrayfield will be expecting their country to field their top 15 and go down in glorious and memorable flames against the ABs. If Scotland put out their weakest side, and roll over like golden labradors , they'll be rightfully booed to the rafters. Second, it seems France is considering changing to dark blue jerseys so as to take a lot of the black away from the All Blacks. If this is true, it's too chintsy for words. Time was when a host country changed their strip if there was any color clash with their visitors. Except for England, of course, who, years back at Twickers, asked Fiji would they mind not using their traditional white jerseys. The poor Fijians had to knuckle under. However, jersey changing does have its funny side - as a kid I saw the Springboks play Australia at the old Showground. A couple of diggers standing next to me, strictly league fans who knew nothing about union, assumed that the guys in green were the Aussies because, in those days, the Wallabies played in green, not yellow (they switched to white for this game). The two diggers, who each drank about 12 schooners of Reschs, went home happy in the false knowledge that Australia had well and truly whomped the Boks.

Although I haven't seen any footage of the U/19's WC the practice of facing inward at the setting of the lineout isn't a new tactic...we certainly coach our lifters and drivers to face in towards the tunnel. Having said that there are numerous schools of thought as to what works best. Lineouts are like any other phase of rugby...it's all about time and space. The team that is able to give themselves the most time and space is generally the most successful. This is why Matfield is so good and on the other side of the coin why the All Blacks have found it as something of an achilles heal. There are a number of ways to create the time and space through movement, throw, timing, variety etc...it's the team that gets the combination right eg. SA, who in Smit, Matfield and Botha have a pretty good thing going. The All Blacks may have an edge by facing in, out or whatever way they feel but they must catch it first and that is where they struggle in comparison to SA and even the Wallabies. If they do have a new secret tactic I'll be interested to A) see what it is and B) see how they use it...Bring on September.

Thanks Garth and Spiro for your time and thoughts. There wasn't anything mentioned that I hadn't previously agreed with or made the same comments about in other "Roars". Though the lineout observation from the U19 world cup was a revelation as that hadn't been mentioned in any reports of the NZ victory in the final against SA by the Kiwi press. The NZ lineout has come in for a lot of criticism over the years and has been identified as the one weakness in their game that teams can target and pressure them into errors. Keith Quinn in his column also believes that the All Blacks have developed new lineout tactics that they haven't revealed yet, so I guess we will have to wait and see. It will be good for rugby if someone thinks outside the square and devises new tactics for a setpiece or restart, and the world cup is a great stage to launch it from. Jake must have been devastated at losing Pierre Spies for the world cup. I agree that he would have been critical to the balance of their loose trio as well as their gameplan with his size, speed and athleticism. Danie Rossouw is now their first choice no.8 ahead of Bobby Skinstad and while he's a class player he doesn't offer the same offensive threat as Pierre. The upcoming game between England and France will be a pointer to the form of both teams but I agree with Matt Rowley that the return match in France will be more relevant, particularly for the French. South Africa will also be playing warmup matches in August, their last hitout being against Scotland at Murrayfield. This will be our first chance to see what influence, if any, Eddie Jones has had on their tactics and backplay. I would be surprised if they strayed very far from their traditional strengths and while their Super 14 teams played more expansively this year, it so far hasn't transferred to the Springboks.

Just confirmed Eddie Jones has been appointed as Technical Director for the Springbok's World Cup campaign after which he will take up thereigns at Sarries.