Will Carling is one of rugby’s great captains. Appointed in 1988 when he was 22 and the youngest player in the team, he led England in 59 of his 72 tests, winning three Five Nations Grand Slams.
In 1991, he led them as hosts to the Rugby World Cup final and looked on course for a repeat in 1995 until blown away in the semi-finals by the unstoppable firepower of fellow-Heineken Legend Jonah Lomu and the All Blacks.
He was one of the towering figures of the age immediately before the shift to professionalism in 1995. Identification with the captaincy slightly obscured his excellence as a centre three-quarter with terrific hands and a watertight defence who served as an admirable straight man to the more flamboyant talents of partner Jeremy Guscott.
And while he thinks the best way to watch rugby is “to sit with your feet up at home” with “a very cold Heineken”, he’ll be bringing his insights and memories to bear as a member of the Heineken Rugby Studio team.
Thinking back to his earlier tournament as captain, he says: “This will be so much bigger than the last time this was here in 1991.”
But it was the second tournament in which he led England that produced his favourite memory. “Watching Nelson Mandela, standing there in a South African shirt and handing over the Rugby World Cup trophy”, he says, looking back to the 1995 final. “Because I just would have loved to have received that cup, it was just something that was way bigger than rugby.”
He would like nothing better than to see Chris Robshaw receiving the cup at Twickenham on 31 October. “My heart says England, which would be brilliant”, he says, while admitting, “My head probably says something else.”
So if not England, who? He’s not being drawn on that, but clearly thinks the team that beat his own in the 1991 final has a shot at a repeat. “I have a sneaky feeling the Australians will get themselves in a very, very good spot and if they do pick Matt Giteau, they’re bringing back a world-class player.”
As you might expect of a centre, midfield backs figure strongly in his choice of players to follow at the tournament. These include Ireland’s Jonny Sexton, England’s Jonathan Joseph and All Black Dan Carter.
And he’ll be watching the traditional pre-match coin toss with the insights of a man who took part 59 times, saying, “Sometimes it can give you a little bit of psychological edge because if you win it and want to kick off, it’s your chance to get a little bit of territory and to get the first hits in. And in the early parts of the game, bizarrely, it’s all the little psychological edges that you want to get.”
