Biggar suggests alleged 'faults' the bedrock of his relentless 83-cap Test career
Dan Biggar will refuse to accept backhanded compliments as the limit of his powers as he chases “another dimension” to extend still further a glittering Wales Test career. The fly-half credits his 2018 move to Northampton for expanding his playmaking horizons, but even now, after 13 years at the top, the 30-year-old is far from finished.
What the detractors see as faults, Biggar considers the bedrock of a relentless 83-cap international career. Align Saints boss Chris Boyd’s fluent attacking influence with the tactical acumen forged right through Warren Gatland’s Wales reign, and Biggar can pivot towards yet more glory with both his nation and the British and Irish Lions.
Before any of that though, struggling Saints face the defining game of a turbulent season with Sunday’s Champions Cup quarter-final trip to Exeter. Second in the Premiership after ten matches, six defeats since the league resumption have plummeted Saints to seventh. After a lockdown and a restart to forget, Biggar will agitate for change at Sandy Park this weekend.
“What I’ve been good at through my career is what I hope will put me right up there with some of the best in my position,” Biggar said. “The other parts are about fine-tuning and that is something I’ve had to work a little bit harder at. But also it just adds another dimension to me as well.
“Whenever people say ‘oh he’s pragmatic and relies too much on a kicking game’, I always take that as a real compliment. I don’t see why people would see that as a negative. If I can improve little bits and little areas elsewhere, then that’s what I think will make a big difference for me.
Saints were left fearing being forced into uncontested scrums at Sandy Park https://t.co/WyApfDC45R
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 17, 2020
“It’s been really good for me these couple of years at Saints. I’m really, really glad I made the decision because I would have regretted not experiencing something different in my career, and not testing myself. It hasn’t been easy by any stretch, but the best things normally aren’t easy and you have to work for them.
“So I’m pleased I made the decision to chance my arm and really test myself up here. I’m obviously one of the fortunate ones to have accumulated enough caps to play outside of Wales, and again that probably made the decision a little bit easier.
“Had I been on 30 caps it would have probably been a different decision at the time. But I feel like that policy has allowed me to come here and flourish. The restart has been difficult for us, there’s no doubt about it. But there’s nobody going to come to the rescue.
“This weekend represents such a good challenge for us to really have a go at a different competition. The pressure is off, we can go down, play our game and try to do something pretty special. Chris has been great for us because his outlook on life, rugby, everything – everything is pretty level headed, it’s neither one extreme nor the other which is pretty good for a group which perhaps is a little bit short of confidence.
“So it is tough, but now it’s about making sure we go out there and puff our chests out a little bit. If we go down there looking up to those guys and thinking these are the league leaders here, etcetera, etcetera – to be honest, I’d rather not go down there.”
Wales will host Scotland on October 31 to close their coronavirus-delayed Six Nations campaign before stepping straight into November’s Autumn Nations Cup. The Lions will tour South Africa next summer, with Biggar clearly in the selection running having stood up strongly in New Zealand in 2017.
The status of Biggar endures as one of his former Wales boss and Lions coach Gatland’s most trusted lieutenants, but the combative playmaker knows that will count for precious little ahead of another hectic year. “Hopefully I’ll get back in with Wales in the autumn, but at the moment that feels like an eternity away,” said Biggar.
“I’d love to be involved there for a few more years and as long as I feel I can still add value then I’ll be sticking about. But if I’m totally, totally honest, the priority at the minute is making sure we turn the corner a bit here first, because that feeds into everything.
“Warren has given me pretty much all of my 83 caps, so obviously I owe a huge amount to him. But I also feel that’s quite a big compliment to me as well because Warren isn’t the easiest taskmaster. He’s not the easiest to please and you have to make sure you offer a lot to Warren to earn selection. So I suppose that’s quite a big tap on the back for me, really.
“He’s been really good, he’s given a lot of confidence in terms of that middle part of my career where I really started to establish myself as the number one. There was a lot of confidence towards me from that coaching group in particular. I’ll always be really grateful to Warren.
“I feel I’ve definitely improved since coming to Northampton though, because of the way we play and because of the way the coaches want the players to play and express themselves. Chris tells us never to worry about making positive mistakes. In fact, he’s saying he’d almost be harder on me from us shutting up shop.
“It’s definitely gutsy from Chris. We know we’ve got the coach’s confidence to express ourselves and be positive, and now we want to go and repay that.”
It's all falling nicely for the Chiefs as they chase breakthrough European success https://t.co/Fay7ICH0y5
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 16, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
NZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
22 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
22 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
22 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
22 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
22 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
22 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
90 Go to comments