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'An under-appreciated gem': The online reaction to Tandy making the Lions three years after Ospreys sacking

By Josh Raisey
(Photo by Getty Images)

Fans, players and pundits have been busy congratulating Steve Tandy online for the incredible turnaround in his career that culminated this week in his inclusion as an assistant coach with the Lions for their upcoming tour to South Africa.      

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Tandy’s appointment by Warren Gatland was been keenly discussed as he had parted ways with the Ospreys in 2018. He joined the Waratahs later that year and worked as their defence coach during the 2019 Super Rugby season before joining Gregor Townsend’s Scotland coaching team after the World Cup. 

Scotland had the best defence in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations under Tandy, conceding a paltry five tries across the Championship. The defence was then the second-best in this year’s Six Nations behind Ireland, conceding the joint-fewest tries with ten. That included limiting England to only six points at Twickenham – a far cry from the pre-Tandy Scotland defence of 2019 which conceded the second-most points and tries.

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Wales out-half and Lions selection hopeful Dan Biggar guests on RugbyPass All Access

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Wales out-half and Lions selection hopeful Dan Biggar guests on RugbyPass All Access

Scotland will obviously now be without their head coach and defence coach for their summer’s internationals, but fans are hoping that having two coaches on Gatland’s staff will open the door for greater representation of Scottish players in the Lions squad this year. 

The lack of Scottish players has been a feature of Gatland’s Lions squads in the past, but that was expected to change anyway before the appointment of Townsend and Tandy given the team’s performances this year.

https://twitter.com/JamesRees8/status/1381909639768444931?s=20

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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