20 November 28, 2021The Sunday Times 2GS
Rugby Union
The Barbarians website gleefully
claimed afterwards that this match
had set a new world record for
attendances for a stand-alone
women’s game. The new figure is
29,581, the vast majority of whom
appeared to revel in the action at
Twickenham, if not in the contest
which hardly existed.It was stand-alone because the
Barbarians men’s match against
Samoa was cancelled after a Covid
outbreak in the Barbarians camp,
though it could well have been that
everyone would have stayed on
anyway. And there is no law against
social media sites being so chirpy.
Though it wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Glee was not exactly in abundance
in Barbarians circles, either, as for the
second time in two years they had
failed to fulfil the fixture — and before
assessing the breezy and compelling
women’s game, it is appropriate to
share the pain of the Samoan men
who would have loved the occasion.And especially that of Joe Tekori, the
giant Samoa lock, and Rob Kearney,
the Ireland full back, who were denied
a fitting career farewell. Kearney has
been one of the players of this era in
world rugby, unbendingly
competitive, courageous and efficient.
And while the Barbarians still
sometimes face death by adoration,
and while not for a moment hinting
that the Covid cases were their fault, it
is long past time that their
administration enters the professional
era like their team. At present, the
Barbarians — and the British & Irish
Lions — are being ruled by groups of
players from long ago, anxious to keepStephen Jones
BARBARIANS
60SOUTH AFRICA
5their social links with the game with
requisite feasting and a spot of admin.
There was a rugby feast, to be sure.
I did not find this happy game
remotely as powerful as the magical
autumn series in which England took
rugby to another level, but it was not
meant to be. At least the great Katy
Daley-Mclean, leader of England’s
world champions in 2014, went out in
style alongside the unstoppable
flanker, Rochelle Clark. The most-
capped rugby player is still choosing
the decade in which she will retire.
At half-back, Daley-Mclean and
Natasha Hunt were gloriously fluent.
Sarah Levy, of the US, scored a hat-Ntamack’s
performance
helped France
destroy the All
Blacks last
weekendCATHERINE STEENKESTENtamack, Furlong and thrill of
unexpected reminded us why
this sport is to be treasured
I
mpossibly exquisite. That was
how my colleague John Westerby
described a part of the glorious
attack from deep launched by
Romain Ntamack of France
which electrified the match
against New Zealand last
weekend, one already
illuminating the whole arena of global
rugby. As he weaved his sumptuous
path, Ntamack was effectively staging
the opening ceremony for Rugby
World Cup 2023 in France. He and his
team made you wish away the next
two years, made you wish to devour
now the champagne placed on ice for
the big one.
All the talk last weekend was that
when rugby is played like that, it is
still the greatest sport of all. In favour
of this motion were the performances
of France and Ireland, a few lovely
sallies from England, and a few more
from Fiji, Australia, Wales and
Scotland.
All wonderful, except that it wasn’t
all impossibly exquisite. Sometimes,
rugby is just impossible. The sport
hardly ever knows what to think
about itself, let alone how it is
perceived by outsiders. Its natural
state is to be stuck in a morass of
indecision and disagreement, off and
sometimes on the field. It could cause
a major disagreement when standing
in a phone box by itself.
So what did happen these past few
weeks? France seemed blissful.
Ireland seemed dominant. For the
rest, did we see what we thought we
saw? How are we to measure
England’s progress? They beat South
Africa, the champions of the world.
And they beat Australia. Phew.
The marvellous clinching scores
came from the relatively unknown
Newcastle Falcons hooker Jamie
Blamire (against Australia), who ran
half the length of Middlesex to score;
and the match against South Africa,
with England apparently sliding
towards defeat, was rescued by a
gorgeous movement by Marcus Smithand Joe Marchant which created a try
for Raffi Quirke, a young man so new
that the paint on him had not dried.
Suddenly, some fellow travellers
on the Eddie Jones train of doubt
disembarked. Here were England
winning when predictions had them
being hammered up front; when
their bench appeared weak and when
their tactics appeared not so much a
policy as a whole series of confusing
micro-policies.
And winning is everything. It never
matters how the wins came. What we
had was an acclaimed victory, food
for thought for those who contend
that performance means more than
victory in the long term. Last
Saturday evening in southwest
London, that poppycock assertion
was more redundant than ever.
Yet the bizarre truth is that
England were hammered up front,
casting doubts against the form and
possibly futures of Joe Marler, Kyle
Sinckler and others. Their bench was
indeed weak. Blamire, Quirke and
perhaps even Smith were premature
in the team. So add all that to the fact
that England were roasted in the
penalty count and you have all the
raw material for a thumping great
defeat. How did England win? I
haven’t the foggiest.
The week confounded more trains
of thought — for a long time there had
only been one way to play rugby, a
slavish devotion to over-coaching.
But what a stylistic contrast between
Ntamack and France and TadhgFurlong of Ireland, who were
glorious in their own way. Not so
exquisite, but still marvellously
watchable. The colossal Furlong can
sidestep with the best of them as well
as scrummage great holes in New
Zealand and Argentina. Some of his
efforts of late constitute the greatest
all-round display of tight-head
propping we have seen for decades.
Ireland, unlike England, choose
their strongest and most experienced
team, no maverick fringe selections.
They are full of genuine leaders,
tough as old boots, they know
precisely what they are about. This
Ireland have to hurry because Johnny
Sexton, the fly half and springboard,
is past his mid-thirties. Yet when the
odds appeared for the Six Nations in
the aftermath of the autumn Tests,
and revealed Ireland as only third
favourites at 9-2, there was something
of a stirring in the heart, and not to
mention in the wallet.
More questions. Have New Zealand
gone, poor dears? It is something to
cherish for them when their most
disastrous losing run extends not back
into the mists of time, but for only two
games. But should that losing run
continue much longer there is no way
that the All Blacks will wait as long in
turfing out their head coach Ian
Foster, the man with the hidden
personality, as did Manchester United
in dispatching Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
If you want more confusion, then
consider the past few days alone.
World Rugby announced that those
players stolen or eased away from the
nations of their birth or parents can
return after a three-year break to
their original national teams. It is a
shame that the stand-down period
was not simply two years or even
one, but the lovely truth is that — for
example — Billy and Mako Vunipola
could return to play for Tonga; that
the talented Lima Sopoaga could
return to play for Samoa; and so on.
Frankly, Scotland and Australia
will be nervous. If Scotland’s SouthStephen Jones
The voice of rugby
Some of Furlong’s
efforts of late
constitute the
greatest all-round
display of tight-head
propping we have
seen for decades
A rugby
feast with
touchline
dancing