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Why Creevy still rocks for Irish just weeks from his 37th birthday

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)      

London Irish boss Declan Kidney has explained why he was determined to keep Agustin Creevy at the Gallagher Premiership club even though the veteran Argentine hooker is just weeks away from his 37th birthday. Creevy last week agreed to a one-year extension to his existing deal with the Exiles amid speculation that he was wanted by some clubs in France.

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Given his age, it would have been understandable if the Irish hedged their bets and decided to go with younger players for the 2022/23 season. However, Creevy has been in such exceptional form this season that he is currently joint top try scorer along with Saracens’ Max Malins, scoring nine in his eleven league outings, while he also added two more tries for good measure in his sole Challenge Cup appearance.  

It’s the sort of strike rate that would make the record-breaking Sam Simmonds envious, but this knack for finding the try-line didn’t even get a mention from Irish director of rugby Kidney when asked by RugbyPass about the impact of Creevy, the 89-cap Los Pumas forward who harbours ambitions of making the 2023 World Cup even though he hasn’t been capped since the 2019 tournament in Japan.  

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Francois Hougaard on Wasps beating Leicester and his Bakkies Botha memories

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Francois Hougaard on Wasps beating Leicester and his Bakkies Botha memories

“The perfect fit is always a difficult word, but it’s just his personality. He is a very good person and we wouldn’t be the first team to say that good people make good players. He brings all that experience with him. 

“Look, he has been at more team meetings and has worked with more coaches (than anyone). He has worked through it all and his enthusiasm has never waned and it’s his whole enthusiasm for playing the game really that makes him such a good fit.  

“You see his effect on all the front five really just in terms of his technical ability, in terms of the props and all the help he is giving them. He is a veteran by age but he has kept himself very fit, he is a very good scrummager, his lineouts are excellent, he has a calmness about him and he has the experience as a captain of an international side and he brings that to play as well then too in it. He has quite a number of factors about him that make him a very valuable player to us.

“It’s just how he goes about his business. He is at training all the time, he just does everything that he is asked to do and that little bit more. He enjoys his rugby and is just a pleasure to work with.

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“He is (bucking the trend in the game towards youth) but it just goes to show what can be done if you look after yourself. He is not the only player doing it. Jimmy Gopperth is doing it up in Wasps and others have done it. Donncha O’Callagher has done it, Peter Stringer, so there are plenty of players that have done it well and beyond the age that Gus is at the moment.”

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J
Jon 5 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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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

33 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

33 Go to comments
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