so near and yet so far

Why do great sides never lose in the last minute? The answer is simple, “great” sides are winners and much as I dislike the reliance on braun rather than brain that characterises South Africa and France at the moment, they have both beaten England in the last three minutes of key matches. It is the morose winners not the gallant losers that get remembered.

Last night’s match between France and England saw England turn round the game with three tries in ten minutes either side of half-time. What did England do as a result? Unimaginably they took off their front row that was winning everything from line-outs to rucks and mauls – they were even winning the scrums against opponents built like bull-dozers. This was a dumb decision which led to an immediate French try when England’s replacement hooker overthrew a line-out,

Can you imagine Klopp or Guardiola replacing the back four  in such a position  – presumably because it was in the game plan. These managers react to the moment, they do not manage games with banks of strategists using computers, they use their brains, their intuition and their experience. When you have your opponent on the ropes, keep punching.

The sight of rugby’s management, sitting high in the stands , surrounded by lap-topped automatons feeding data for the future is completely against the spirit of sport. I deeply object to Sage’s data driven updates that come to us during the commercial breaks, sport is not about spreadsheets, it is about having fun. What starts at international level – ends up on the touchline of the under 9s game at your local club.

Great sides don’t lose sight of the unpredictability of the moment and are not in thrall to data analytics. They don’t sub off players who are on a roll but recognise the genius of inspiration.

I could hardly believe my ears when I heard one of ITV’s commentators saying that England’s problem was that they could not afford to hire some top referee to give them consultancy on referee decision making. I have been to Penny Hill Park where the England team do their training and marvelled at the huge expense lavished on their training facilities , quite apart from their nutrition and accommodation.  It has come to a pretty pass when teams are judged on their capacity to second guess the behavior of referees.

Which brings me to my final moan about the ossification of rugby into bone-headed corporate moronity.

At one point the referee was reviewing a review of whether a try was being scored and a stream of previous penalties – each of which could have given rise to a yellow card or a penalty try or both. We seem to be spending more time watching referees than players. Rugby’s interminable replays make football’s VAR dynamic! Add the numerous injury breaks and the avoidable resets of scrums, line-outs and even a mis kick-off which had to be re-taken because the “countdown process ” had not been followed and you see what I mean.

The whole ridiculous razmataz of rugby governance has made process more important than people and reduced sport to a series of set pieces that are interminable and deadly dull.

Even when the players are allowed to express themselves, their every action is analysed by television so that the last drop of spontaneity drains away. Sage is whirring its machines, the bank of laptops creating reports for the de-briefs.

Commentators no longer speak of singing in the valleys or dancing in the halls of Hawick, they speak of “execution”, “exiting” and “accuracy”.

If England are to be winners again, it will be because they abandon Sage and refereeing consultants and return to the joy of playing the game. Last night was very impressive statistically, the razzmatazz was up there with the later stages of the world cup, but I got bored and wondered off half way through the second half – missing the “epic ending”.

I got more fun watching Slough against Yeovil yesterday afternoon, even if we played rubbish!

Matchday Round-Up- Slough Town 0 Yeovil Town 0

Cooper: A draw was a fair result: https://t.co/RP24YpOc8J

Genesini: It feels like I am home: https://t.co/NwyQrQ8dTa

Match Report: https://t.co/z22AlokmvR#YTFC

— Gloverscast 🎙⚽️💚 (@gloverscast) March 17, 2024