It is about now in a Rugby World Cup cycle, with just over 40 days and nights in the phoney war wilderness still to endure, that the truth starts to emerge. There is only so much iron you can pump in a gym: if anyone hoping to lift the Webb Ellis Cup is not fit by now they never will be. You cannot fake it at a World Cup and expect to have a realistic chance.
With a slew of warm-up Tests shortly commencing for all the European nations, nevertheless, those seeking clues about the prospects of Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy and others should not focus purely on August’s results. Four years ago, for example, England saw off France and Ireland at Twickenham before hosting the 2015 tournament and still exited in the pool stages. Scotland, conversely, lost against the French and Irish yet came within a midge’s whisker of the semi-finals.
Warm-up scorelines can also be warped by variables: coaches protecting their star men, conditioning experts trying to ensure everyone peaks in October and early November rather than August. If you really want to know how a team are feeling, studying their off-field body language or quietly consulting the landlords of nearby public houses is probably a better bet.
Because, as an excellent new book based on the first-hand experiences of former Wales players makes clear, champion rugby teams are built as much on camaraderie and self-belief under pressure as on fat tests and mineral water. Ross Harries, the highly respected Welsh rugby broadcaster, has spoken to myriad ex‑internationals about their memories of representing their country and the result, Behind the Dragon, is a vivid, revealing and often hilarious read.
The subject of World Cup preparations is the source of particularly rich material. Twenty years ago, for instance, Wales were about to host the entire event. Assisting the management was Steve Black, a central figure in Jonny Wilkinson’s career and a motivational guru like no other. Blackie was universally popular but his habit of staying up all night to write 30 personal letters to each member of the squad sometimes caused him to doze off during the day. Craig Quinnell recalls being asked to do a session on a treadmill without checking how long he should keep running. “Twenty minutes later you’d be blowing out of your arse thinking: ‘When’s he going to stop this bloody thing?’ Then you’d look around and he’d be fast asleep.”
It was also Black who decided that Wales should actively try to feel like world-beaters before the 1999 World Cup had even kicked off. During a camp in Brecon, Quinnell recalls the players being told to climb up the steps of the school cricket pavilion and salute an imaginary crowd before hoisting the imaginary trophy. Some of the squad dutifully bought into the idea but more cynical teammates were less easily persuaded. They were proven right: Wales duly lost against Samoa in the pool stages and were beaten 24-9 by Australia in the quarter-finals.
Before 2003, it was a similarly offbeat story. Before the tournament Wales were beaten 43-9 in Cardiff by a virtual England second team, having barely touched a ball, and spent the majority of their time running up hills outside Pontypridd and sand dunes near Bridgend. Subsequently, their then coach, Steve Hansen, had the idea of billeting the team in self-catering accommodation to encourage them to cook for each other and, as a result, bond more tightly. He underestimated the desire of certain squad members to save some of their food budget by bulk-buying cheap baked beans; after a week of beans on toast, some players were found to have lost so much weight the cunning plan had to be binned.
Harries, who shares the same birthdate as Tom Jones and has a similarly finely tuned ear for an evocative Welsh yarn, also revisits the buildup to the 2007 tournament, before which England belted Wales 62-5 in a famously onesided warmup fixture. There wasn’t much happening in the small French coastal resort of Pornichet where Wales were staying, prompting the winger Mark Jones to borrow a local sheep and hide it in Dwayne Peel’s room while he was out doing a press conference. Not only was the video footage of Peel returning to his wrecked room comedy gold but the sheep also turned out to have fleas, leaving the scrum-half itching and scratching for several days.
Wales duly lost against Fiji but, interestingly, have outperformed their neighbours England on the biggest stage ever since. In both 2011 and 2015 it was not their warm-up form that catapulted them to the latter stages but truly brutal summer training camps arranged by Warren Gatland in places such as Poland, Qatar and Switzerland. As Dan Biggar says in the book: “We’re a country where the easy option is to be negative, to look for excuses and to come up short. Gats refused to accept that. Whatever the circumstances … we were going to find a way to win.”
And so to the summer of 2019, which has so far seen Wales slogging it out again in the Swiss Alps and England undertaking the first of two hot‑weather training camps in Italy. Everyone needs some competitive rugby, of course, but in many ways the die is already cast. Whoever wins at Twickenham this Sunday and in Cardiff the following week, history suggests it will be a red herring.
Behind the Dragon: Playing Rugby For Wales by Ross Harries (Polaris Publishing)
Trouble at mill
The controversy surrounding Yorkshire Carnegie has taken another twist, with Richmond among those complaining at the Rugby Football Union’s decision, as it stands, to allow the financially troubled club to kick off the coming domestic season in the Championship. Richmond clearly have a vested interest in the affair, having been relegated last season while Yorkshire stayed up, but firmly believe clubs who spend beyond their means and subsequently crash and burn should not profit at the expense of more responsibly run rivals. “It cannot be in the best long-term interests of the game that clubs can run up debts of over £6m and cancel players’ contracts,” said Peter Moore, a Richmond director. “We are very disappointed with the RFU decision which we will ask to be reviewed.” The sorry saga is not done yet.
And another thing
Australia play New Zealand in Perth on Saturday with a lot of people watching closely from afar. To date the All Blacks have not set the Rugby Championship alight, having recorded a hard-fought 20-16 victory against Argentina and a 16-16 draw against South Africa. The death of the legendary Sir Brian Lochore has further dampened spirits in New Zealand; now would be an excellent time for Steve Hansen’s side to transform the national mood.
