The fix is in from the British rugby establishment going into the England vs Australia Test at Twickenham at the weekend.
This fierce confrontation off the field presages an even more ferocious confrontation on it.
An unholy alliance combining England’s coach, the feisty Australian Eddie Jones, and the British media, have come together to smash the Wallabies psychologically and in the eyes of the referee in the expectation that a resurgent England team will continue it’s winning ways in 2016.
Make no mistake about the purpose of this alliance. It is intended to damage the Wallabies and encourage their coach Michael Cheika into making mistakes about who to attack in his attempts to fight back against pre-meditated verbal thuggery from Jones and his accomplices, the Fleet Street hacks.
Take your mind back to early June when England landed in Australia to begin their three-Test series against the Wallabies.
Eddie Jones told the world that Australia was a fearsome place to tour because the Wallabies and the Australian rugby media were hand-in-hand conspirators against any opposition.
This was nonsense. Anyone reading The Roar, for instance, knows that the national rugby team and its coach get praise when they deserve it and brick-bats (all too often this season, unfortunately) when they deserve it too.
Jones knew he was talking nonsense because when he was the coach of the Wallabies this is what happened to him. He was applauded when the Wallabies won, as he should have been, and given the stick when they lost. Again, as he should have been.
But this notion that the Wallabies and the media somehow work together to defeat the opposition is nonsense.
On the other hand, it is clear that the British rugby journalists often work with England to put pressure on referees before Tests on their opponents.
An example of this is the united voice of the British rugby establishment against Richie McCaw and his alleged “cheating.”
Another example was a similar cry of cheating against Rod Macqueen’s Wallabies for running two lines of attack. Clive Woodward, for instance, who seems to have coached Eddie Jones in how this system works, was forever crying out “cheating” for this system which he readily adopted when he finally understood how it worked.
The point about these “cheating” cries is that they were immediately picked up by the British rugby media. It was almost as if they had been coached into supporting these allegations by the England management.
And now we jump forward to the Twickenham Test this weekend.
Surprise, surprise we had Eddie Jones making the allegation on Monday that he would be talking to the South African referee Jaco Peyper about the Wallabies illegal scrumming tactics. And surprise, surprise The Daily Telegraph UK ran a long story titled: ‘Why England Have Nothing To Fear When They Face Australia’.
And further surprise, surprise the article discussed in detail all the alleged weaknesses there were in the Wallabies scrumming.
What a coincidence! Pardon my sarcasm but this collaboration between the England coach and the Fleet Street gang is so blatant and so poisonous at times (and this time particularly) that it deserves to be called out for what it is, a fix.
I have been critical of a lot of Michael Cheika’s behaviour and coaching this season. But, in my opinion, he has been maligned by Jones and the Fleet Street hacks. Moreover, he has behaved in a way that respects the rugby game and his exalted position in it as the coach of a national team.
Eddie Jones has taken the low road and Michael Cheika has taken the high road.
Cheika made the point in his response to the Jones allegations that it is England and their prop Dan Cole who needs to answer questions about illegal scrumming. Cole, Cheika noted, was given a yellow card against Argentina and “that same prop’s been infringing the law since his career started probably, if not all of this year.”
For me, this was a direct hit. Cole is a noted and inveterate borer who has got away with his illegal boring tactics too often during his career due to indulgent referees and protection offered to his play by the Fleet Street hacks.
There is the point, too, that Cole has been allowed to bind illegally on the arm and shoulder rather legally on the body. This illegal binding makes it almost impossible for his opposing prop to stay up rather than falling flat on the ground.
Cheika made a second valid point that the Wallabies always try to scrum straight, a technique they have been drilled in by Mario Ledesma, in the Argentinian manner.
This claim puts intense pressure on referee Peyper to be fair in his rulings and above all rule on the letter of the law, binding on the body, rather than by the yelling of the crowd or the verbals launched against the Wallabies by Jones and his Fleet Street mates.
I liked the way, too, that Cheika revealed how thin-skinned Jones becomes when he is confronted with people prepared to stand up to him: “It’s funny how your tune changes because in the summer when he asked for those meetings (with the referee and opposition officials) he was blowing up, he stormed out of one (with Wallabies assistants Stephen Larkham and Nathan Gray).”
As a player for the Randwick club, Eddie Jones, a pint-sized, industrious, skillful hooker, was an incessant sledger. But when the Wallabies coach of the day Bob Dwyer (a former Randwick player and coach) needed a new hooker for the national side, he promoted Phil Kearns from the Randwick seconds team.
Sledging can get you only so far. I am hoping that something similar, in a sense, happens at Twickenham and that Peyper dismiss the Jones sledging and assess what happens in the scrums in a discerning way, with particular attention paid to England’s dodgy scrumming.
If this happens, I don’t doubt that the Wallabies scrum will hold up well. And if this happens, then the Wallabies could end their season on a relative high with a win against England, a small compensation for the three-nil thrashing they endured in Australia in the June series.
This was been a poor year for the Wallabies. They have won only six of their 14 Tests, a record that is not acceptable. Beating England at Twickenham will offer some redemption but most importantly some hope for a much better outcome in 2017.
It would be nice, too, to see Jones having to explain away an unexpected loss to his Fleet Street admirers …
Bushranger
Guest
The game is over now and the Wallabies lost but the scrum was pretty good and actually shoved the Poms a few of times. I also note that when Cole was penalised in one of the early scrums, the Sky Sports commentators mentioned that other coaches of English premiership sides had also complained about his illegal tactics.
Craig
Guest
Pig's @rse mate. Baxter monstered Sheridan that game for the duration.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
People take my tongue in cheek comments too seriously. As I wrote some time ago, I am not a citizen of one place but a citizen of many places. More jus sanguinis than jus solis, but, to be honest, an interaction of both latin concepts. In Argentina they don't consider me a local. In the USA, this hispanics look at me strangely. The US people see me as a "bad hombre". I have an accent in every language. And an attitude in all of them too.
Buk
Guest
Thanks for the background Carlos, found it quite interesting.
Buk
Guest
Spot on Carlos. These are opinion pieces. Debate on things rugby (and beyond) where people express their opinions.
Buk
Guest
Exactly.
Buk
Guest
Thanks, Tsuru - great laugh
Buk
Guest
Yes my thoughts too. There are elements of Fleet St (not necessarily every journalist) I have no doubt are already primed with two stories - one if England are successful, lauding Eddie as Superman, and the other tearing strips out of him if he loses.
Buk
Guest
Frank you come up with some good points, and I enjoy reading some of your comments. And I don't mean just the ones I agree with - in fact the ones I disagree with are even better, as some of my ideas need challenging. But re Spiro Zavos and David Lord - the Roar would lose a massive amount if either of these two called it a day. I can certainly understand people disagreeing with them - but I certainly can't understand people not enjoying their columns. To me they are compelling reading. Plus, while they are as different as chalk and cheese, one thing they share - guts - they carry on through thick and thin, taking all sorts of stick.
Buk
Guest
Right Yeah Right - one of the biggest problems is big screen replays slanted in favour of the home side, which then puts pressure on the referee to do something about infringements. But I can't see how that can be fixed - neutral replay technicians? That idea would, I am sure, be strongly resisted, as its obviously in the interests of the home side to slant the replays to increase the chances of home team wins - home fans are more likely to turn up to watch the game, and sponsors are more interested in sponsoring winning teams. When it comes to dollars and commercial reality, you can hardly blame any club or union wanting to control replays so as to favour their team.
Buk
Guest
Correctimundo.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
But you are right in one thing, Cheika is an embarrassment. His behavior is ion my mind, wrong. And this is why Aussie posters dislike me too. I can separate the Aussie team from Cheika. Though some of his players are as bad as Cheika (Skelton).
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
You posted this before. Are you having some issues that you need to repost this? Over and over? As I mentioned in a previous answer to you. I am half English (or Welsh in some cases). My mom's family came from England. They first lived in a ranch in this islands. They then lived in Patagonia in a farm. My mom still carries a British passport. There is a town in England, close to the Welsh border, that carries my mom's family name. There are still people there with the same surname. I have been traveling to England very frequently. Indeed, this is the first year in almost 25 years that I have not been o the UK. But I already have plans to go next year. The Track and Field World's are in London. I love going to London, and having dinner at the RAC club with a dear friend of over 30 years. His wife was knighted by QE-II. Coincidentally, one of my professional mentors was knighted the same year as my friend's wife, though the ceremony occurred in different dates, I was against the South Atlantic war. Passionately. If anything, Argentina owes the return to democracy to Maggie (and Ronnie). I am a fervent admirer of Maggie.... My dad fought in WW-II for the Allied forces, he received British medals for bravery. He lived in England for a while after the war before he moved to Argentina (hated the weather in England). I just love to dislike english rugby (even though I played 2 games for a club called New Milton and District in 1978), but this is coming from English football. Those hooligans are the ones that started this for me. It is more an entertainment issue than anything. It is like disliking Brazilian soccer to a usual Argie. Clear? If not, I don't care. I move on.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
People should be careful in what they define as journalism. I see Spiro's posts in general as opinion pieces or punditry. There is nothing wrong with punditry, but I don't think it is down to the ground level journalism. I found this definition: "Journalism is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information. It is also the product of these activities." Spiro doesn't do much of the actual "gathering" (which is what I mean by being down at the ground level).
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
:-)
Davo
Guest
Arghh! All this wingeing about Eddie Jones. I thought that was what the poms were known for not us...no such wingeing in their media. C'mon guys. Let's focus on the rugby and let the guys do the talking on the field. England's game very reliant on go forward provided by Billy V. Wallabies have a great chance to beat the poms this weekend. If we don't then fair play to the English - and it will be bad news for us as they are missing many more key players than us. If we lose now then god help us when they are at full strength. Am confident we'll do it though. Don't get wound up by Eddie. He's just playing us at our own game and like a bunch of dumb ass jocks we're all falling for it. Besides, his key point is that our media was disrespectful to the poms before the June tour...and that is true. He's a great coach - look at the evidence. He's also one of ours and so we should be proud of him. Obviously I do t want England to win but I'm proud that it is an Aussie that has transformed that team
Upfromdown
Guest
When he feels like he needs to offer unasked advice, with a smirk on his face, on how Australia should deal with referees, opposition coaches etc it shows a bit of smugness and conceited behaviour. It doesn't happen all the time but he certainly has it.
Timbo
Guest
I was going to say there's an added childishness and insecurity about Aussie rugby reporting, Chris, but thankfully I can keep it short by just pointing to Oz's leading national newspaper who've just mocked up a photo of Jones depicted as a...............................clown. For any Aussie rugby fan over the age of 12 that must be a 'face-palm' moment, surely?
Boomeranga
Guest
It might pay for us to be paranoid given the way he predicted the changes to the Wallabies in Auckland.
ebop
Guest
Because it seems to me you don't know the meaning of the words smug or conceited