the times | Tuesday July 28 2020 1GM 57
Sport
Twelve years have gone by since a
McLaren driver stood on the top step of
the Silverstone podium and the
evidence of the opening races of the
2020 season offers little to suggest that
the barren streak is set to end at this
weekend’s British Grand Prix.
Yet as the Woking-based team settle
into their garage at the Northampton-
shire circuit they can draw satisfaction
from the fact that they have made their
best start to a Formula One season
since 2012, hold third place in the con-
Formula One
Alasdair Reid
Silverstone, with its high-speed sec-
tions, is a circuit that should suit them.
The next two weekends at Silver-
stone, which is also staging the 70th
Anniversary Grand Prix on August 9,
already look pivotal for McLaren and
Norris. They might start to clear things
up in his own mind, too. “I’m not veryNorris finished
third in the first
race of the seasonreadily brought to heel. The skirmish is being
fought this autumn; the war that they will both
fight is for every autumn thereafter.
Laporte is in the middle of all this. He needs to
appeal to the international unions because one
day he will require their vote for the World
Rugby chairmanship. He is therefore
jeopardising his standing at home, where the
Top 14 clubs regard him increasingly as the
enemy. This is a jungle of agendas. It needs a
leader to rise above the politics. Instead, it has
Laporte deep in the thick of it.In Laporte’s home nation, though, the threat
of courtroom action gets ever louder. Last week,
when World Rugby announced that a
recommended autumn international window
had been reached “following extensive and
productive consultation”, the French clubs
responded with a statement expressing extreme
disapproval. They are awaiting clarification this
week and have a team of eight lawyers lining up
ready to oppose it. Yet these could be just the
first shots. The English clubs are holding their
tongue for now. The French clubs are not soRugby needs a
leader, not loose
cannon Laporte
Owen Slot
Rugby Writer of the Year
ANTHONY AU-YEUNG/GETTY IMAGEST
he second most important man in
World Rugby is arguably the most
powerful in the game and, to some, the
most dangerous too. Last week
Bernard Laporte let slip to the Frenchmedia the dates of the rearranged Six Nations
games, in October. This was a minor
transgression by the man who is both deputy
chairman of World Rugby and president of the
French federation (FFR), but it was by no means
the first.
Three weeks earlier Laporte told the annual
meeting of the FFR that a nine-figure deal had
been concluded with CVC, the private equity
house, to buy a share of the Six Nations. No, it
has not, the Six Nations said, in a statement that
was released immediately afterwards.
Laporte is the kind of charismatic maverick
that has people shrugging shoulders. They call
him a loose cannon. “Ah, that’s Bernard for you”,
they say, as you do of a person with a power and
charm that is hard to oppose. For how long,
though, can this be a valid response?
This is the same Laporte who, in April, went
public with his plans to axe the European
Champions Cup. That took a lot more
unravelling, partly because the FFR is a
signatory to the Champions Cup organisation
and Laporte was therefore in breach of his
position, and partly because, at that very time,
Laporte was running in the election for the
World Rugby vice-presidency and Bill
Beaumont, who was standing to be president,
clearly had no idea what his running partner
was going to say next.
Beaumont immediately had to divorce himself
from those Champions Cup comments, though
both he and Laporte were already embroiled in
a far bigger scandal.
The FFR had seconded the nomination of
Francis Kean, the president of the Fiji rugby
union, to a position on the World Rugby
executive committee. And Fiji, represented by
Kean, had seconded Beaumont’s bid for re-
election as chairman. This is the same Kean
who had a manslaughter conviction on his
record and has, with other scandals being
investigated, now been removed from the front
line of rugby politics.
These cosy associations are messy enough for
Beaumont. Yet just imagine if his very deputy
was to be tarnished too — because there is still a
case open against him.
Two and a half years ago the French police
conducted raids on Laporte’s home and the
offices of the FFR after a formal investigation
had been opened against Laporte for an alleged
conflict of interest. At the time Laporte had a
private business contract with Mohed Altrad,
the owner of Montpellier; at the same time
Montpellier were facing a number of financial
and sporting sanctions. Then, after an
intervention by Laporte, the sanctions against
Montpellier were reduced drastically and six
members of the FFR appeals board resigned.
Cue the investigation. The case against Laporte,
who denies any wrongdoing, has not been
concluded. In France, they shrug: it probably
never will.
In France, they also know his qualities so well.
He is a force of nature, a wonderful speaker, a
great salesman. He was therefore at his best as a
coach, adept at bringing the best out of players.
He masterminded the glory years at Toulon,
winning three European Cups between 2013 and
2015, got Stade Français a Top 14 title (1998) and
won two grand slams in eight years with France.
As FFR president, his influence on the
national team has been smart and sharp. He saw
that Guy Novès was not up to the mark as
national coach and moved quickly to replace
him; then he built a succession plan around his
successor. France look a world threat again.
What are his priorities? Some will say: to the
French national team. Some may say: to
Bernard Laporte. He governs day to day; he is
not a long-term policy man. His single clear
long-term policy is to take over from Beaumont
as the next World Rugby chairman. That is why
he is powerful and dangerous, because he moves
to better himself rather than to better the game.
Right now the global game looks more
divided than ever. The Covid-19 crisis had
appeared to be a unique opportunity for
strident, bright leadership, yet consensus and
progress seem ever farther away. The southern
hemisphere looks increasingly fractured. New
Zealand is acting increasingly autocratically;
South Africa and Argentina are marooned. This
is the supreme test for World Rugby.Silverstone speed can help Norris to build on fine start
structors’ championship and are
watching Lando Norris start to fulfil his
potential. The 20-year-old’s burgeon-
ing talent was most evident in Austria in
the season’s opening race, where a late
blast of speed gave him both the fastest
lap and third place overall after he
edged out Lewis Hamilton by 0.2sec.
Fifth place in the Styrian Grand Prix
was followed by 13th in Hungary. But he
still holds fourth place in the drivers’
championship — seven slots higher
than at the end of 2019, his rookie
season in F1. Can he hold on to that
position? McLaren have taken advan-
tage of Ferrari’s woes this season, andgood at answering this question of what
I can achieve by the end of the season,”
Norris said. “I just need to do the best
job I can. My reference is Carlos [Sainz,
his McLaren team-mate, who finished
sixth in the drivers’ table last year]. My
best outlook is to look at him and
compare my performances to him.”
Norris struggles to recall when he
first visited Silverstone but he remem-
bers the feeling of being in the presence
of greats. He is disappointed that this
year will be a spectator-free event.
“Everyone loves their home race
because of the fans,” he said. “Without
them it doesn’t mean as much.”Matches postponed after
Covid-19 hits Miami squad
Baseball The new Major League
Baseball season has suffered a
significant setback after two matches
were postponed because of an
outbreak of the coronavirus in the
Miami Marlins squad.
It was reported last night that 14
Marlins players and staff had tested
positive, leading to the cancellation of
their game against the Baltimore
Orioles. The Philadelphia Phillies,
who played the Marlins at the
weekend, also called off their game
against the New York Yankees.
The shortened 60-game season
only started last week. The MLB said
it would carry out additional testing.Kiwis leaving rivals to play catch-up
A
nother weekend of
Super Rugby
Aotearoa, a further
exhibition of the depth of
talent and the breadth of
skill that has been honed for
seven weeks. The players are
looking increasingly
comfortable playing
ferocious and fast — and we
are no longer talking about
refereeing and
interpretation decisions.
But if you are a South
African or an Argentinian,
does it still look so muchfun? Does it not make you
wonder: how far ahead have
the Kiwis got?
In Australia, they now
have their own internal
Super Rugby competition.
The South Africans and the
Argentinians have nothing.
In South Africa there is talk
of “mini-Super Rugby” but
this is, at best, vague. Quite
possibly, there will be
nothing.
In October they will then
all set sail to a single-nation
destination — almostcertainly New Zealand — to
start a full six-week Rugby
Championship competition.
When they land, every
opposing nation will be
behind the All Blacks; no
one will have played as much
high-quality rugby as the
Kiwis, some may not even
have had a hit-out.
A South African headline
at the weekend summed it
up aptly: Is it tougher to win
a Rugby Championship in
New Zealand than a World
Cup in 2019?Beauden Barrett, of the Blues, is halted by Chiefs’ Sam Cane at Eden Park, Auckland, on Sunday