Monday, 8 July 2013

Northern lights can shine even brighter after another epic win on that same ...


By

Sir Clive Woodward




PUBLISHED:


23:00, 7 July 2013




|

UPDATED:


01:05, 8 July 2013




This series victory for the Lions means that the two most significant events for Northern Hemisphere rugby in the professional era have now taken place on the same patch of grass in Sydney.


Ten years ago, when England won the World Cup, we arrived as favourites and the No 1 ranked team in the world. We left having proved not only that a European team could compete with the Southern Hemisphere, but win the biggest event of all away from home.


But this result can be even more significant. This is not just England. The Lions represent the best of Northern Hemisphere rugby and this series victory brings a shift in power. It is not simply that the Lions won but the way they did it.


Heroes: The Lions won their first series in 16 years after beating Australia in the third Test in Sydney


Heroes: The Lions won their first series in 16 years after beating Australia in the third Test in Sydney



Dominant: The Lions won the third and deciding Test 41-16 at Sydney


Dominant: The Lions won the third and deciding Test 41-16 at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium



Delight: The tourists were cheered on by a large army of fans during their tour Down Under


Delight: The tourists were cheered on by a large army of fans during their tour Down Under


The sheer physicality of modern rugby

is now being led by Northern Hemisphere teams and that represents a sea

change in the game. The All Blacks were totally blown away by England

last November at the breakdown and beyond and to see that result as a

one-off is a mistake. The Australians were smashed off the park on

Saturday and even the Springboks do not come to Europe and intimidate

with the physical threat they used to. 


It is the same story in the junior

ranks. England beat Wales in the Under 20 World Cup after they bullied

the New Zealand Baby Blacks with their physical clout in the semi-final.


All this sets up the 2015 home World

Cup beautifully and particularly the Pool A ‘group of death’ that throws

the three key protagonists of the last three weeks – Australia, England

and Wales – together. If the Lions had lost another series you would

fear another World Cup dominated by the Southern Hemisphere. But not

anymore.


We just need France to start selecting

the right team and the Northern Hemisphere sides can give our Southern

Hemisphere rivals a competition to set up a World Cup like nothing

before.


Setting: The Lions clinched the series in the same stadium that England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003


Setting: The Lions clinched the series in the same stadium that England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003



Warren Gatland’s power play is

spectacular to watch and the challenge for the Northern Hemisphere is to

understand that it is about far more than brute strength. It works

because the Lions found the right balance between skill and physical

conditioning.


The game plan is not just about

massive centres bashing the ball up the middle and getting over the gain

line, it is about laying a platform with your set piece and strike

runners to give the attack impetus – then you find the right moment to

strike. The line Jamie Roberts hit off Jonathan Sexton to score his try

was not a big lump running hard but a beautiful read of the Wallabies’

defensive shape, this takes tremendous skill as well as power.


Jonathan Davies is my man of the

series because he embodies ‘Warrenball’. He is a big physical specimen –

6ft 1in and 16st 8lb – but is he one of the most skilful players I have

seen play. With Roberts taking on the primary ball-carrying role, it

left Davies the freedom to float around as second playmaker in the back

line and take the pressure off Sexton with the precision of his passing

and his left boot.


Memories: 10 years ago, Jonny Wilkinson kicked England to glory in the World Cup final against Australia


Memories: 10 years ago, Jonny Wilkinson kicked England to glory in the World Cup final against Australia


Memories: 10 years ago, Jonny Wilkinson kicked England to glory in the World Cup final against Australia


Southern Hemisphere teams have always

had an advantage in terms of conditioning players to make them the

strongest and fittest they can be because of their central contracts

system which means each player can have individually tailored

programmes.


If you play too much rugby – or if

your season is not structured properly – you cannot build your power and

conditioning year on year, which is vital to your growth as a player,

and critical to young international players. But over recent years, the

science behind training has allowed the Northern Hemisphere to catch up

in this department and it seems Wales have led the way.


They have a converted police van

waiting in the car park of the Millennium Stadium with a cryotherapy

chamber inside for post-match recovery. In Poland, they have the

facilities to increase their training workload three-fold – instead of

eight to 10 training sessions over a 10-day period they can fit in 25 to

30 without suffering from any long-term fatigue.


Rout: Fly half Jonny Sexton ran in one of four tries for the Lions during their thumping win in Sydney


Rout: Fly half Jonny Sexton ran in one of four tries for the Lions during their thumping win in Sydney



Tough decisions: Warren Gatland was heavily criticised for leaving Brian O


Tough decisions: Warren Gatland was heavily criticised for leaving Brian O’Driscoll out for the final Test


Rugby coaches must run the show and

then the science comes in to augment the process. Graham Rowntree knows

what body shape he wants his loosehead to be in and then the

conditioning guys can go to work, and year-on-year create such a

specimen.


Every Home Nation player should now be

given a two-year programme geared towards arriving in peak condition

for the World Cup – but if only it was that easy. Instead, to use one

example, Jonathan Sexton has to be in France on July 24 and begins

pre-season with Racing Metro five days later. If I was Ireland head

coach it would be the first thing I would try to sort out.


The players must take the

responsibility for this and therein lies the secret – can the Six

Nations head coaches really get the message across to their players that

we really do have the ability to beat the Southern Hemisphere, but that

it will only happen if every individual arrives for the World Cup in

peak physical condition?


Flat out: The Lions


Flat out: The Lions’ series win puts Northern Hemisphere rugby in a strong place before the next World Cup



Standing tall: Geoff Parling emerged as a world-class player after an impressive tour


Standing tall: Geoff Parling emerged as a world-class player after an impressive tour



Administrators must also realise they

have a role to play in terms of player contracts and fixtures yet ultimately it is down to the players themselves. Are they going to give

their team, their countries and the Northern Hemisphere every chance of

ending the dominance of the Southern Hemisphere?


Sport has never been at a higher

standing in the UK – rugby can come to the party. But it is down to

every individual to make that commitment.  


One area in which the Northern

Hemisphere game is benefiting more than our rivals is specialist

coaching. The Wallabies lost their first-choice kicker in the first

minute of the first Test and their kicking game fell apart because of a

lack of specialist coaching. If the Lions had lost Leigh Halfpenny to

injury then Sexton or Owen Farrell would have done the job. 


Warren Gatland deserves enormous

credit. The No 1 skill of a head coach is selection and that final 

performance was total vindication. He got every big call right – the

front row, the back row, the centres. As a top coach you thrive on those

big decisions, the determination not to bottle it.


I have been on Lions tours as a

player, a head coach and now a journalist and it is certainly a very

simple game from the safety of the press box. The vast array of former

players who made comments after Gatland left out Brian O’Driscoll and

predicted a Wallaby win will be feeling a little daft today.


Picturesque: Lions captain Sam Warburton with the trophy in Sydney


Picturesque: Lions captain Sam Warburton with the trophy in Sydney



The first kick-off said everything

about the two teams’ preparations and going to Noosa clearly worked for

the Lions. To me it was an unnecessary gamble (I would have gone

straight to Sydney and done my surfing in Manly!) but it paid off in

spectacular fashion. The Australians could not have started as badly,

dropped the first kick-off, were smashed at the first scrum and conceded

a try within two minutes. Clearly, Noosa is the place to go!


Gatland also deserves credit for

holding nothing back and sharing everything with two English coaches.

This was a priceless experience for Andy Farrell and Graham Rowntree,

who will return to Twickenham and debrief Stuart Lancaster and the

coaching team.


Alex Corbisiero and Geoff Parling

emerged as world-class stars on this tour and in two years’ time the

English pack will rival the Welsh. But you cannot win a World Cup with

only one genuine ball player in the back line and England need to step

up or they may not even escape their group.


England must also be careful not to

over-analyse this tour. You learn lessons but do not go home and try to

build a poor replica of this Wales team. Rugby is 85 per cent worrying

about how you want to play and England need to continue to find the

England way.


English trio: Alex Corbisiero, Owen Farrell and Geoff Parling have a home World Cup to look forward to in 2015


English trio: Alex Corbisiero, Owen Farrell and Geoff Parling have a home World Cup to look forward to in 2015


As for Australia, I have never seen a

pack so dominated up front in a game at this level. To have a scrum

reversing that quickly and no genuine No 10 behind it is a nightmare

scenario that compounds the problem and has probably cost Robbie Deans

his job. But this is not a bad Wallaby team and this will hurt them

badly. They have the coaches and the talent to still to be a force at

the World Cup, but like many Australian teams at the moment, they seemed

to have lost their way.


Finally, I hope this series victory

means the Lions can start looking forward again instead of always

harking back to past glories and old names. I would love there to be an

Under 21 Lions tour once every four years for the next generation of

Lions.


I would say the same for Wales. This

is as good as any Welsh team there has ever been in a far more

competitive era of rugby. They have to start believing they can win in

2015 and this tour will have done plenty to install that intangible

inner belief that only comes from winning, especially away from home.


New Zealand presents a much tougher

challenge in four years and is a harder place to tour. Even the guy at

passport control in New Zealand has something to say to you about rugby

and compared with the Lions’ seven victories in nine tours to Australia,

they have only won once there in 12 visits.


But first there is a tournament coming

to our own door step in two years and it is time to start looking

forwards to the World Cup. The clock is already ticking.







The comments below have been moderated in advance.



Very good article, the 6 Nations next year is already building up towards the World Cup the year after – Northern Hemisphere rugby is looking in great shape



Dubai Exile

,


Dubai,

08/7/2013 12:49


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The surf is still about 22 degrees in Noosa at the moment,good choice.



Theo

,


Brisbane,

08/7/2013 11:19


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Your actually kidding yourself mentioning the nz loss at thickenham as a change in the guard. New Zealand were at the end of their season by that game and were missing key players. And didn’t England lose to the wallabies the week before? Southern rugby will always be a better watch and when irb changes laws for clock stoppages at the set piece as well as stopping forwards having breaks all game to improve the rugby spectacle your “big physical” bodies will be run over by the speed of the game. (Ball is only in play for 56 minutes on average in a game currently)



Kingos boss

,


London, United Kingdom,

08/7/2013 08:27


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Wales need a decent 9-10 axis. The get that and they will be very very difficult to stop in 2015. England are miles behind them all across the park at the moment and its very concerning.



russkijim

,


Moscow,

08/7/2013 03:39


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Article source: http://www.express.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/413191/England-star-Alex-Corbisiero-is-the-Lions-prop-idol


Northern lights can shine even brighter after another epic win on that same ...
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