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Nick Bishop has worked as a rugby analyst and advisor to Graham Henry (1999-2003), Mike Ruddock (2004-2005) and most recently Stuart Lancaster (2011-2015). He also worked on the 2001 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia and produced his first rugby book with Graham Henry at the end of the tour. Three more rugby books have followed, all of which of have either been nominated for or won national sports book awards. Nick’s latest is a biography of Phil Larder, the first top Rugby League coach to successfully transfer over to Union, entitled “The Iron Curtain”. He is currently writing articles for The Roar and The Rugby Site, and working as a strategy consultant to Stuart Lancaster and the Leinster coaching staff for their European and Pro 14 playoff matches. Leinster achieved the double of European Champions Cup and Pro 14 league winners in 2018.
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The best four teams in Super Rugby are all from New Zealand. By right of the best win-loss records in the competition, it should have been the Crusaders, Hurricanes, Chiefs and Highlanders who were contesting the semi-finals.
It was probably the key game of the 2005 Six Nations, and it is still one of the most vivid games of all in my memory: France versus Wales in Paris, in the vast echo chamber of the Stade de France.
It is a year of comings and goings in the Australian midfield.
The flag which flutters highest on the masthead of world rugby is still all black in colour. It does not have a skull-and-crossbones on it, but when it hoves into view everyone knows its meaning.
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time, it’s enemy action!” So says the eponymous villain in Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger, later to become one of the best James Bond movies in its 53-year lifespan.
The fate of the series was in the balance until the very last play of the game. If Bernard Foley’s pass had reached its target, the Wallabies would have scored a try to win the series; but the ball didn’t go to hand, and Ireland took the Lansdowne trophy back home instead.
Aggression, aggression – and then add a bit more aggression for good measure. It has been the Eddie Jones power-play ever since he took over the reins as England head coach after the 2015 World Cup.
It is one of the most iconic golf holes in the world – the 17th at the Sawgrass Country Club, the regular venue for the Tournament Players Championship in Ponte Vedra, Florida.
In normal circumstances, there would be no place for a quote from a Hollywood movie in a column about rugby on The Roar. But this is an exception.
Who would be a professional rugby player? The finals of the Pro 14 and the English Premiership were played out this past weekend, but no sooner has that peak come and gone than the air clears, and another international mountain-top hoves into view.
Good rugby analysts, like the proverbial elephant, need a long memory – and photographic recall for detail. That’s how they discover relationships between what they see now and what has gone before; as well as improvements from one game, and one season, to another.
Keep Out! That is the sign the UK is now posting to the rest of the world, politically and culturally. It is building fences, not taking them down.
In 1865, 150 Welsh Protestant non-Conformists bade farewell to their homeland, waved their loved ones goodbye, and left the port of Liverpool for the other side of the world.
No, it isn’t an article about Michael Cheika’s volcanic eruptions in the coaching box. The topic is the inter-state balance of Wallaby selection in 2018.
New Zealand is a protectionist rugby state. With its streamlined pyramid tapering to All Black success at its pinnacle, the wastage of both manpower and intellectual property is minimal.
In 2004, Michael Lewis wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. The book sent a huge shockwave through Major League Baseball circles by questioning received wisdom about the game (which occurred via a closed-shop scouting system) with the use of data-performance analysis.
“Better people make better All Blacks”. That was the mantra adopted by Graham Henry and his coaching group when he realized something was wrong with the All Blacks’ culture back in 2004.
Turnover ball has been the attacking lifeblood of New Zealand teams for as long as anyone can remember – no one quite does it quite like the sides from the ‘Shaky Isles’.
First, to England. Let there be no doubt about Eddie Jones’ desperation to halt Ireland’s progress towards a Grand Slam on the last weekend of the Six Nations. That desperation bled, sometimes unpleasantly, through all of the English preparation in the week building up to the game.
Do you really feel both TPN and Toomua had a decent chance to transfer their UK form Cliff – with the constant to-and-froing?? I doubt it allowed for a clear view of their worth.
In terms of other Australians in Europe, I have little doubt that guys like Joe Tomane, Luke Morahan, Nic White (just off the top of my head) would be in the top 23-man matchday squad.
I will be reporting on them soon!
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
He did Muzz, and that was remarkable in itself. I think the doctor told him it was a pinched nerve, so he even played the rest of the match in which it was broken…
I don’t know much about Keith Murdoch, but he seems to have been one of the great unfulfilled talents in NZ rugby (and there are not too many of those). Could play both sides of the scrum too.
Yes it is also remarkable to think that the Boks had a slight plus record over the All Blacks in the amateur days – except for a couple of years around 2007, that ascendancy (and on occasion even the rivalry) has not been maintained.
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
It will be interesting to see what impact Nonu has when returning to SR in 2019 CJ… At the very least the comparisons between his play and that of the other candidates at 12 will be fascinating.
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Also feel that some of the big guys back then weren’t so huge in frame – Willie-John, Meads and du Preez were all around 6’2, no more – but they all had big leadership and character. That in a way is why Martin Johnson was a throwback in 1997. He was really a very high-level ‘grunt’ lock, but people would follow him…
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Steve Finnane once broke Graham Price’s jaw after punching him from behind. Pity he didn’t play against Wales again, he would have got a warm welcome 🙂
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Thanks Chook – you and yours have a great one too!
Prob at home this year, early hols next year to offset the winter bite.
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Looking forward to seeing RG and the Tank develop further Hazzaaa. Which side of the scrum do you think TdT will end up on?
Kolbe has all the makings of a star since bulking up in Toulouse – quickest feet since Shane!
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Exactly right Neil – and one of the main reasons JS came back to Ireland from Paris, where he was being worn out by the demands.
All comes back to an acceptance of the precedence of international rugby and players being managed towards that end – which means central or dual contracts. The clubs in England are being set up by their owners to be the pinnacle of the game, and that means there will always be a contradiction of aims.
As soon as WR builds in a window for rest, EPR fills it with games/activity. The sooner England has a really effective Players Association, one with teeth, the better.
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
The Australian system is based around the success of the Wallabies James, but there don’t seem to be firm connections to the levels below. National coaches have little control of the system they are required to operate – so cannot for example influence what playing systems are used, the positions players play, their conditioning regimes etc…
If you accept that (as in Ireland) the game is minority, it needs optimise every single aspect of its performance, from youth systems and clubs up to SR and Test level.
Australia no longer appears to be producing the coaches which kept it ahead on the intellectual cutting edge of the game, either.
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
The Borg – yes, you too will be assimilated Rob! Classic 😀
Ireland are at the beginning of the process of building depth in all honesty Rob. But against the ABs they did manage without Conor Murray, Sean O’Brien, Dan Leavy – and they wouldn’t have been able to do that even 2-3 years ago. It’s a process for a small rugby country with competition for the available athletes from the likes of GAA…
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Good to hear from you Fin.
Wow! Brian Smith would be a turn up for the books! Would he be allowed to pick new assistants?
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
He wasn’t a big man – only about 6’1 or 6’2 – Tiny Naude was for example 6’5….
But Frik had the kind of athleticism that would be perfect for the modern game. He had great jumping ability (apparently his feet could pass a man’s waist, unassisted) for the lineout and he was a dynamic runner…
No doubt both he and Colin Meads could played managed he game as it is now…
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
They might accept four wins and a loss Ralph – as long as the loss isn’t to England in Dublin 😀
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
You seem to have ‘elided’ Gerald and Conrad into one (admittedly great) player MZ!
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
True – which highlights the gap between what is happening – or rather not happeneing – in the gap between youth levels and senior rugby. A noticeable number of good Australian players are now going to NZ to fill that gap.
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
At the start he was just a big lighthouse in the lineout MZ – but under Stuart and Leo at Leinster he has developed an all-round game, and especially his hands and passing ability, which is fundamental to the way Leinster play…
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
I don’t know if it’s still there, but the the Argentine prop Maurizio Horacio Reggiardo used to run a bar called La Cocina in Castres. That was a great place for a rugby-watcher…
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
You need coaches (and enough of them) with the will to invest their time in developing young players RW – the support system around them (for example with Skelton’s dietary needs…
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
This is a question of how promising young players are developed in the senior system Markus. Second rows like Skelton and Staniforth have been allowed to drift – Skelton overweight for far too long (see his new bodyshape at Sarries
https://www.rugbypass.com/news/it-was-a-light-bulb-moment-will-skelton-reveals-exactly-how-he-went-from-148kg-to-135kg/
Staniforth also was abetter player at Brumbies than he has been at the Tahs – so what is happening in the coaching/development process that ought to occur?
Look at the improvement Angus Taavao has made since returning to NZ from the Tahs.
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
I am going to keep an eye on guys like Skelton and Nic White over the next coupla months MZ – they may yet have a WC 2019 chance that was unforeseen a few short months ago…
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
“Seventeen and a half stones of pure Springbok beef on the hoof!” 😀
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Watching him perform one of those ‘basketball’ style offloads always reminds me of the taller kid who could hold the ball up above his head, out of the reach of everyone else in the playground!
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Yes I was talking to Graham Henry recently and he too was lamenting the way in which WA rugby had been cut off during the five-into-four process..
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin
Absolutely no idea whatever Cliff 😀
How Ireland won the battle of the big men in Dublin