A few minutes into the Scotland-Wales Six Nations match, the Scots halfback threw a shocker of a pass to his five-eights: “He’s thrown a ‘Bergamasco,’” the TV commentator yelled out. And so Marco Bergamasco, one of rugby’s great loose forwards, has now been immortalised for all the wrong reasons.
He was forced to play at halfback against England by an overly ambitious and enteprising Nick Mallett, despite the fact that he’d never played the position before.
His laboured passes, delivered after several paces sideways with the ball (in the George Gregan manner) and which went either behind his five-eighths or over his head or along the ground, lead to England’s first three tries.
By the time Bergamasco was replaced at half-time, the game was lost by Italy. Mallett should really have made the change after ten minutes when even that early in the match the experiment was blowing up in Italy’s face.
The 36 – 11 scoreline to England flattered the home side.
The crowd at Twickenham, usually so John Bullish in their support for the home side, were doing Mexican waves and drifting out of the stadium well before the end of the match.
If England play as poorly as they did against Italy next weekend against Wales at the Millennium Stadium they will be, and should be, annihilated.
And the annihilation, if it comes to pass, will be a deserved punishment for the English rugby establishment, the RFU particularly, and some of the senior rugby journalists (especially the Usual Suspect at the Sunday Times) for their brain-dead crusade for over 100 years to take the rugby out of the Rugby Football game.
Now people like the Usual Suspect are complaining about England’s inability to play attractive, winning rugby.
What you sow, as the Bible says, so also do you reap.
The RFU (the England rugby union) has opposed every attempt to make rugby an expansive, attractive and skillful game since the 1890s. The RFU’s latest crusade to kill off the rugby in Rugby Football has been its ideologically-driven determination to stop the ELVs train dead in its tracks.
Is it any wonder, given this mentality, that despite England having more than three times the number of players than any of the major rugby nations, its national side is noted for its plodding, negative and generally unsuccessful rugby.
If 2009 is another shameful chapter in the book of England’s failures, then one can only rejoice in the misery that the RFU and the Usual Suspect suffer from the woeful play of their team.
The Welsh Rugby Union has officially opposed the ELVs and the coach of the Dragons, the New Zealander Warren Gatland, has expressed some misgivings about the reforms. But Wales destroyed Scotland by playing brilliant ELVs rugby.
This brilliant approach was most noticeable in the running play of the outstanding fullback in world rugby, Lee Byrnes, in the play of Shane Williams, coming into the backline from all sort of positions, and the shoulder-charging power of Andy Powell, whose hit-ups from phase play and bringing the ball back from kicks had all the directness and effectiveness of a tank rolling over a trench and barbed-wire defensive line.
Just as brilliant in its play was Ireland at Coker Park in its 30 – 21 defeat of France.
Both sides played expansive rugby. The ball was moved from one side of the field constantly. Breaks were made with clever ensemble play, and occasionally by individual breaks; the best being a dazzling piece of running from Brian O’Driscoll, who showed for a few sensational moments why he was regarded a few years ago as one of rugby’s greatest centres.
When the ELVs were introduced into the Northern Hemisphere without, unfortunately, the tap penalty sanction for most infringements at the ruck and maul (a pyrrhic victory for the RFU) there was a constant chatter about how ‘unstructured’ the game had been allowed to become.
I could never work out what ‘unstructured’ really meant, for under the full ELVs, there was scope for more scrums, rather than few scrums.
It seems that, for the critics of the ELVs, ‘unstructured’ was a euphuism of ball-in-hand running rugby.
It was noticeable watching the opening matches of the 2009 Six Nations tournament that the two outstanding sides, Wales and Ireland, did not kick very much at all once they started running with the ball and getting their phases going.
Moreover, the Ireland-France and Wales-Scotland matches were extremely vibrant, well-played, exciting and intense rugby matches. The England-Italy match, which was played by England as if the ELVs were not in play, was dull and insipid fare.
Next weekend in the Six Nations tournament we have France-Wales, Scotland-Italy (with the Azzurri playing a specialist halfback) and Ireland-England.
If every thing works out the way it looks like it will after the first round, the Six Nations will be decided on its last weekend on March 21 when Wales and Ireland play the final game of the tournament at the Millennium Stadium.
Knives Out
Roar Guru
Let me finish that. Obviously not, but given the lack of possession kicked by Ireland, and the fewer offloads it is quite evident that Italy are a nuisance at the breakdown. The only teams I have seen really dispatch Italy with ease are NZ and on occassions, France and Ireland.
Knives Out
Roar Guru
Only just seen this article. Here are some intersting statistics that I suspect Spiro hasn't analysed. Wales v England Try: Wales 1.. England 2 Line breaks: Wales 2.. England 2 Possession kicked: Wales 41.. England 33 Offloads in Tackle: Wales 5.. England 13 In contrast: Italy v Ireland Try: Italy 0.. Ireland 5 Line breaks: Italy 0.. Ireland 8 Possession kicked: Italy 18.. Ireland 15 Offloads in Tackle: Italy 1.. Ireland 7 Is off-loading negative?
Derm
Roar Guru
eh right. Will you send them all home immediately so, please?
Westy The Real Rugby Fan
Guest
There's just to many rugby foreiner players in the Guiness Premiership .
Who Needs Melon
Roar Guru
pothale, I agree. I think it will be difficult for the IRB to make a decision on which ELVs to keep and which to discard seeing as how they will receive mixed reviews from different unions who have tried different combinations of ELVs. I don't know how that all panned out but in the end I think the IRB had to cave a little and let unions try the combinations of laws they wanted because it was proving impossible to convince them to try them. I don't think it will be impossible though. As Fragglerocker and others have done, you can form a view of the ones you've seen. I think there is general consensus that allowing hands in the ruck and collapsing mauls laws is not a good thing whereas the pass back into the 22 rule has been a good one. As Fragglerocker says, that's what this debate should be about. I'm sick of being pidgeon-holed into pro-ELV vs. anti-ELV and NH vs. SH.
Fragglerocker
Roar Rookie
I think the debate about the ELV's is focusing on the wrong question - ELV's v No ELV's? This has turned the debate into a north v south issue. What the debate should focus on is - Which ELV's? Some of the ELV's are a good idea but bad in practice - hands in the ruck, collapsing mauls, etc. Others are a good idea in practice - no pass back into the 22, lineout changes. But if the idea of the short arm is simply to reduce the game's reliance on penalty goals, why not simply bring in this rule: Penalties are awarded as they are now (pre ELV) but the option of a kick at goal shall only be available if the penalty also resulted in a red or yellow card.
Derm
Roar Guru
Melon Thanks for the pick-up. You've highlighted something that I didn't intend to communicate. I meant to say that Some believe that the trials have worked i.e. that the laws work and therefore, should be adopted. However, the meaning you have interpreted is also valid and one which I would believe. In other words, some people believe that the trial system has worked, therefore should be adopted. I would query whether the trial system has worked, since the IRB, in its infinite wisdom, decided to trial only 13 of the 30 odd ELVs available on a global basis. So when they come to consider everything in April, they'll have had some of the ELVs trialled by everyone, and all of them by some of them. Logical no? I thought not.
stillmissit
Guest
I think you could argue that no sport blossoms without a dedicated and professional administration behind it that ensures that the sponsors are lined up and chequed, good coaches are in place and that the players the coach wants are bought (within budget of course). I think you could argue that there are at least 2 organisations that are killing themselves with poor administration at the moment and that is England rugby and Aussie cricket. SA rugby has tried to kill itself with poor admin but because of the player/coach quality they remained strong enough. I consider this more of the exception that proves the rule. If you dont get all the cylinders working professional sport just won't go.
Who Needs Melon
Roar Guru
pothale, You showed us a beautiful gem of truth above. Namely re the ELVS that "they still are Experimental Laws because they’re still being trialled globally. The IRB meets in April to decide which laws should be adopted." I like it because you have used the word "which". Most of the posts above describe the ELVs like they are an inextricable package. As you've indicated they're not and they were never intended to be - the IRB will decide which to adopt based on review of the trials. But you then followed up with "You may believe that the trials have worked. Others do not share that view". I think you are hinting that you don't believe the trials worked. Can you explain this? Surely a trial "works" when it reveals whether something is good or not. That means that if the trial reveals that some or even all of the ELVs are crap then the trial worked, no?
Ben C
Guest
Heh. New ELV to be brought in: if any player does two aimless kicks in a row or two kicks straight to the opposition back three rthen the game paused for two minutes while the player disrobes and does a nudie run around the entire field. I can see this being a particularly effective deterrent in slightly cooler venues like Dunedin or Murrayfield.
Derm
Roar Guru
Keith Don't know about whether Italy will ever make it into top tier. Not until they have a sea change at club level. There's a proposal for them to join the Magners League - this would be a good start and ensure that Calvisano, etc have a fighting chance in the Heineken Cup each year, rather than serve as cannon fodder and guaranteed 10 points for whatever teams get them in their pool. Cardiff Blues benefited from that enormously this year and will find the quarter-finals a lot tougher. If Italy can't get that, then you have to start questioning their presence at all. Georgia may well be knocking on the door within the next 3-5 years, and may present a tougher opposition if they can get decent backlines running. I agree about the ELVs. Bring back the rolling maul by changing the rule around truck and trailer or 5 players serving as a block to the guy with the ball. Can we have a rule that says you can't kick the ball more than twice in succession as well please? :)
Niall
Guest
Sorry Spiro, but Wales host England, Italy V Ireland, and Scotland go to France this weekend.
hayden
Guest
Ben C - hear hear re the ruck.
Ben C
Guest
Pothale Interesting about the NH unions potentially getting ready to roll over on the ELV's. I hope that they don't give way on all the ELV's because some are rubbish. Hopefully they concede the ones pretty much everyone agrees on and maintain the pressure on some of the weaker ELV's like the maul law. I would happily trade all the ELV's if we could bring back rucking as this would simplify the rucks enormously rather than the current unstructured mess.
Keith
Guest
Pothale, agree about the two tiers in the 6Nations and the fact that those tiers have been pretty mobile in recent years. How long do you reckon before we see the first Italian side graduate?
Derm
Roar Guru
Hmmm - Peter Bills another cheerleader for the ELVs publishes his thoughts in the Irish and UK Independent - http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/news-comment/peter-bills-adventure-and-attack-under-elvs-proved-possible-1605201.html Have a read. His argument about aerial ping-pong not being necessary is interesting. If this keeps up, I can see that by the end of the 6 Nations, there'll be a sudden shoulder charge in support of the ELVs by certain NH countries.
Derm
Roar Guru
["The 6N is the best rugby tournament on the planet with the different styles of the English, welsh, Scottish, French, Irish and Italians all contrasting beautifully. It’s just so funny to hear bitter Aussies on here bleating on about England being boring when the 6N fans just enjoy their own comps without giving a toss about the dross served up in the SH."- Dave] Dave - I love the phrase 'different styles...contrasting beautifully". Do you work in PR, by any chance? 'Cos anyone who watches the 6 Nations this season would more honestly describe that as the different levels of quality of the English, Italian and Scottish contrasting sharply with the levels of Irish, French and Welsh. There has always been two notional tiers within the 6 Nations. For many years it was England and France versus the rest. (Remember the proposal that England and France might break away from 6N and join up with the SANZAR nations in some form of competition? Remember when the BBC said that that the fixture list for the 6N should be fixed so that the last game of the championship should always be England vs France cos those were the only teams that would be always fighting it out to win it?) Things have changed substantially in the last five to ten years. Since the 6 Nations started, the two top teams in terms of games won and points accrued are France and Ireland with 47 games each. (I'm leaving out titles, Triple Crowns, GS) England are third, followed by Wales. In terms of recent performances, the top tier in 6 Nations is France, Ireland and Wales. England now sit in the second tier with Scotland and Italy. And that's likely to remain that way for this Championship and this year. It may change next year, more likely not. I don't view the SH comps as dross at all. I enjoy both comps types of comps which do have contrasting styles - and long may it stay that way. ELVs are a distraction.
Colin N
Guest
I agree mate, but regarding the selection policy, all the coaches have their imput, but Johnson has the final say. Perhaps, he has been influenced by the innept Ford and Wells. I agree about Tindall, Goode and Worsley and I have already explained my displeasure over the selections of Worsley and Tindall. But Tindall didn't play on Saturday, it was Noon. I haven't yet voiced my displeasure over the selection of Andy Goode, so I will do that now. He should be replaced by Geraghty. His primary job against Italy was to play a tactically sound game and kick England into the corners. He didn't even do that, he kept mis-timing the ball, which for a supposed fly-half isn't very good. Regarding Cueto, that's one where I disagree with you, he's been on superb form for Sale and has been the best winger in the GP recently. Sackey's the one who should be dropped, he's been awful for both club and country and should be dropped for someone like Monye or Ojo (I may have said this already, but oh well).
Thurston
Guest
COLIN N - We're all still trying to figure out if Jonno is a puppet or making lousy decisions off his own bat. Could it be that a once-great second rower is a lousy selector? Mick Cleary says Jonno's going for hard-nosed, strong running, yet at age 30 Tindall is yesterday's man, and he wasn't all that good yesterday, not against strong international opposition. Worsley hasn't played a test in 18 months, and is 31. And Monye is still being kept out by Cueto, somebody else from yesterday, who is 30. Plus, in the age department, Andy Goode is 29. Jonno could be betting his new career on a decent result in Cardiff, because this sure as hell does not look like the basis of a team that's aiming to take the RWC in 2011. Jonno was unhappy last Saturday, he's more so today after Dallaglio's scathing remarks, and he'll probably be totally miserable after the Welsh game. He's got the best job in England, only these days it's also the worst job.
Brendan
Guest
Dave What planet are you from pal?? If SH rugby is so crap howcome NH club sides are falling over themselves to sign up SH players? Why are so many SH coaches coaching in the NH and why don't you see any in the SH?? Spiro has correctly explained why England are usually so useless however there is another good reason that he didn't mention, a lack of ticker in England players. Mostly they are over-rated, over-hyphed, overpaid losers who wouldn't get a look in were they to have grown up in one of the three SH nations (SA,AUS,NZ). At last count we had, Catt, Flutey, the drug taking Bath prop and Easter all hailing from SA or NZ. Watch out for Brad Barritt (ex-sharks) - new Saries inside centre. When he qualifies for Eng in a few years time he'll walk into the Eng team. True England have had a powerful scrum at times but when that's all you've got you will always be found out. True Aus have tradtionally struggled at scrum time but look what they did to England at Twickers in November???? As for ELV's being rubbish look at the Aus NZ match in last years Tri-nations (2nd test I think). The AB's served up a traditional old style forwards based bash over game (that was still interesting to watch) so really people like you need to try educate yourself by watching a few more SH games before comming onto sites like this and talking out of your hat. Cheers Brendan