- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Why do Englishmen play exciting rugby for their clubs and dour rugby for their country?
Bath’s 66 – 21 humiliation of Saracens last fortnight was a performance that all Southern Hemisphere commentators should watch.
Johnson names six uncapped players for NZ tour
The exciting, positive and attacking rugby the home team used to put the ‘fez heads’ to the sword belonged at once to both and to neither hemisphere. It was simply great rugby.
Ever since rugby turned professional, a growing procession of Southern Hemisphere talent has been heading north, and it has changed the way rugby is played in England. This is especially so in traditional strongholds like Bath, where the best exponents of the running game are no longer exclusively imported.
Player by player, the English are producing a generation who love the open, ball-in-hand game and are increasingly able to produce it at a very high quality.
The home team’s victory, at one of England’s best rugby grounds, was a great example of the evolution that is taking place in English rugby.
Bath’s forward pack, among whom there must be several certainties for English selection, played a style of rugby that is rarely adopted by the national team. Matt Stevens is already well known as a great scrummager. However, his emergence as a dangerous ball carrier and distributor has been remarkable.
Watching him throw around both his bulk and an array of sublime passes, I couldn’t help but wonder why he doesn’t play like this at international level.
Locks Steve Borthwick and Danny Grewcock were equally transformed in the loose, and flanker Michael Lipman showed the benefits of his time in Australia with his stylish, open play.
Bath’s backs displayed the changing shape of English rugby with even greater clarity.
Playing outside an understated South African halves pairing of Michael Classens and Butch James, the verve and enthusiasm of Olly Barkley and the giant winger, Matt Banahan, were perfectly encouraged.
Barkley’s performances at international level have, at times, been stifled by the shuffling and shovelling of Jonny Wilkinson. However, with James, he finds himself presented with far higher quality ball to work with.
Across the Guinness Premiership there are many young English rugby players of similar mindsets and abilities. Players of this new generation, like Wasps’ Danny Cipriani and London Irish’s Shane Geraghty, have grown up watching Southern Hemisphere imports bring their running-rugby ethos to their clubs.
The result is a grassroots change in English rugby that can only continue to propel England’s national team towards a more well-rounded and enterprising style of play.
Brian Ashton’s greatest mistake whilst in charge of England was to ignore what was happening in the county’s clubs.
Lazy selections like those of Andy Farrell and Lesley Vainikolo revealed a lack of belief in the true depth of talent outside the squad he inherited from Andy Robinson.
Ultimately, Ashton’s sacking was in line with the RFU’s slow embrace of England’s clubs that started with the appointment of Newcastle’s Rob Andrew as its Director of Elite Rugby.
Bath’s coach, the Australian Steve Meehan, is now being proposed in some quarters as a potential member of England’s new coaching staff. If selected, Meehan’s biggest challenge won’t be teaching the English how to play fifteen man rugby, but simply letting them know it’s okay to do so.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.