I really don't get it - Jim's Friday Five
Jim Hamilton looks at five talking points across the game of rugby heading into the second round of the Heineken Champions Cup.
ELLIS GENGE TO BRISTOL
I didn’t like the timing of the statement from Leicester and then the next day the content put out by Bristol. Then again, that is the new age. Genge is a big name and Bristol are a club that is really struggling this season, so you can understand why they want to give their fans some good news with the homecoming of Bristolian prop.
I find it very strange that he is leaving Leicester, a club that is top of the Premiership and where he is the captain. I don’t know from a rugby playing point of view that you would want to leave the best team in the country. Is it money (Pat Lam says it isn’t)? Does he want to go back home to be close to his family?
Regardless, it is a huge signing for Bristol and a massive loss for Leicester. It’s not the fact that they can’t replace Genge – there is talk of Steven Kitshoff being on the market. But that is another South African player and I’m sure the Leicester fans would like their captain to be an Englishman.
VAN GRAAN TO BATH
Bath have just announced a new defence coach after having had an inquest into their team’s performance this season. The review said that defence is an issue. No s***. Of course, it is! Look at the number of tries they have leaked! They shipped 70-odd points to Saracens earlier this season. Big changes are needed. I presume Stuart Hooper will stay in his role as DoR and Neal Hatley as head coach until the end of the season, with Johann van Graan taking over in 2022/23.
It’s a weird one for Munster. They are losing their head coach and also Stephen Larkham. They haven’t won anything under the current regime and the province haven’t won silverware of any kind at senior level since the 2010/11 Magners League season. They seem to be a team that is again in transition. Forwards coach Graham Rowntree has added massively to the squad. They have struggled with a high profile 10. They have got that now in Joey Carbery, but he is unfortunately injured again.
You wonder who is going to come in next from a coaching point of view. The opportunity appears to be wide open for Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell. Could you imagine the dream team coming back to Munster? They would obviously be welcomed with open arms, but is the timing right for that pair? I don’t think it is. O’Gara needs to see out his time at La Rochelle. Is it a move he wants to take now? He has said it isn’t.
You don’t necessarily want to look at what football does, but the narrative around Frank Lampard at Chelsea, the romance around that – or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United – might be appealing. Or does O’Gara go down the Steven Gerrard route, travel around the world and see different styles of play, cultures and languages and get a more holistic understanding of the game and then go straight for the Ireland job? O’Gara has already coached in New Zealand and France. It’s going to be an interesting one. Regarding Bath, time will tell, but I don’t think a coach will come in and turn that club around with the click of a finger.
BRAD SHIELDS’ BAN AND APPEAL
I tweeted about it. The general consensus in the rugby fraternity is that it wasn’t a red. It was probably a yellow card at worst. Shields’ high tackle on Dave Kilcoyne was a game-changing moment for Wasps against an understrength Munster team and it was game over. I thought he was going to get off with it at the disciplinary hearing, but he was initially given four weeks. I can’t get my head around that decision. I feel like the panel might be trying to look after Romain Poite, with all the controversy around his decisions in the past. I understand that the suspension has now been successfully appealed and he is free to play this weekend if Wasps’ match against Toulouse even goes ahead.
JOE SCHMIDT’S SELECTOR ROLE
I’m not shocked to see this decision. The rumour was Schmidt was going to take over the All Blacks if it wasn’t to be Scott Robertson. It’s good to see Schmidt back in the mix. There is clearly a lot of pressure and questions around current head coach Ian Foster and the team’s results in the Autumn Nation Series, even though they won the Rugby Championship. The All Blacks are expected to win every game.
Schmidt will add a different dimension to the All Blacks in terms of his knowledge in Europe and that could be a big thing for New Zealand heading into the 2023 World Cup, having been spanked by Ireland and France. He will be across the Irish obviously and he will understand French rugby as well having coached in Clermont and he will offer a different take on things.
We know the All Blacks are a team that when they come over to the UK and Ireland, they don’t even know the opposition players’ names. There is an arrogance and a confidence in the All Blacks camp, with the perception being they only think about themselves (Brodie Retallick couldn’t name one England player in 2014). They can start learning some names. Schmidt can start teaching them some of the Irish names, although you suspect they might know some of the Irish lads’ names now.
RASSIE HEADING FOR TROUBLE
The latest Rassie video features Ice Ice Baby, a packet of cigarettes on the table and him drinking a pint. He seems happy and fluffy, comfortable and safe for Christmas. I know the situation in South Africa from a Covid standpoint but we know he is not allowed near the rugby pitches. Is it making a mockery out of World Rugby? I’m not sure. I’m enjoying his social media videos. He hasn’t got quite as many followers as me at the minute but I’m sure he will do by the end of the year. My favourite one was the bulldog one – “You’re an English bulldog” – and the dog was going ballistic. It is keeping us entertained.
Okay,but I will probably delete if I get to much "bite" from South Africans!
After all it's for them who we working and playing ?? https://t.co/e780si5w4E pic.twitter.com/tehF9rG4fp— Rassie Erasmus (@RassieRugby) December 16, 2021
Let’s not forget we are talking about one of the best coaches of the modern era putting out social media videos. Out with the old guard, in with the new. I like Rassie, I like South Africa – I like what they stand for. We know that his Lions videos and comments didn’t go down well in the Nic Berry household, on a professional and on an emotional level, but I do like Erasmus. He has got to be careful, though. You can see something is brewing.
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments