England v Wales: "Twickenham Man" wants want rugby of the heart - Stuart ...

In the build-up to the Wales game on Sunday, we have taken the usual tour of

Anglo-Celtic grievances. The word “hate” has made its usual

appearance (usually, with a healthy dose of irony). Traditionally, Scotland,

Ireland and Wales are allowed to hate England and England must demonstrate a

boundless humility while promising not to cross borders and appropriate

livestock ever again.

You see the problem. While the Celtic countries have something to define their

patriotism against (England), the English have lacked a “culture and

identity”, in Lancaster’s phrase, unless you count having the most

players to pick from and the most BMWs per acre of stadium car park.

Twickenham has always been a gathering place for club rugby diehards,

corporates and 18-30-year-olds who like drinking huge amounts of ale and

singing on trains.

First, Twickenham should stop apologising for itself, as Lancaster intuitively

recognises. Second, England are within their rights to look beyond the old

loyalists who will turn up to watch anything with a red rose on its shirt.

The BBC’s current documentary series about London, to which Twickenham is

umbilically connected, has shown up vast change in the composition of

London’s capital. With a World Cup coming next year, it is natural that

England and the Rugby Football Union should want to look beyond nice couples

from Newbury and businessmen from Guildford.

So yes, Twickenham should be louder, more impassioned, a bit more edgy, but it

would be a mistake to tell anyone what patriotism is. People’s feelings

about their country are complex and strictly personal. The idea of claiming

kinship on passport-origin alone is ludicrous to many of us. We rally behind

the things we like about our country, not the flag we were born under. This

is especially true of younger generations raised in a world without

frontiers.

Lancaster’s lectures to his team about England internationals killed in the

First World War serve a purpose. Best of all was his idea of asking the

families of his players to write to their offspring to tell them what it

meant for fathers and mothers to have a son in the England rugby team. You

can see how this might percolate down in an age where international sport

has been used by some as a mere vehicle for personal advancement.

This Twickenham crowd is warming to this England team. But the rise in volume

and the fresh reverence is not based on anything abstract, such as flags. It

stems from respect for the unity and tenacity of the side itself, which

Lancaster has engendered. The polite punter with the plastic pint pot wants

to admire the players. He/she also wants to be entertained; and here we

really we get down to it.

What gets ‘Twickenham Man’ revved up? A mighty forward effort followed by a

thrilling Mike Brown counter-attack. For too long England fans have attended

seminars in bulldozer rugby. Like all Six Nations disciples, they crave

boldness, skill, speed, dramatic plot changes. They want rugby of the heart,

not just the head, and there are signs that Lancaster is starting to give it

to them.

This is what gets a stadium throbbing and sends people home giddy. Patriotic

fervour is an expression of happiness, not chauvinism. It is conditional

love.

Liverpool walking all over Manchester United

The flip side of Liverpool

players playing their way into England’s
World Cup

squad is that Manchester

United players are playing their way out. For David Moyes’s men

there is an extra international dimension to this ignominious club campaign.

As things stand only Wayne Rooney from the United gang is entitled to pack his

case already, though some are arguing that Daniel Sturridge should supersede

him as England’s first-choice striker. Sturridge was the one pushed out wide

in the win over Denmark but the seniority gap between the two is narrowing.

Michael Carrick is one of the few specialist deep midfielders in England but

he, too, has been overwhelmed by United’s poor form. Tom Cleverley, whose

very name was booed (disgracefully) before the kick-off, is currently a long

way short of Manchester United standard – never mind England – while Chris

Smalling and Phil Jones have stagnated.

Danny Welbeck probably still qualifies for a room in Rio, as third-choice

striker, but the United bunch are not bringing much to the party. They look

too preoccupied by private torments to focus on international opportunities.

A pity this, because a Brazil World Cup is a one-off in all their lives.

The battle to get to Rio ought to help shake these United men from their

torpor. As with the Premier League, Liverpool are walking all over them.

This sounds like pressure again for Jonathan Trott

The mystery of Jonathan Trott’s exit from the Ashes Tour remains. A

“stress-related illness” is now described as “burnout” by Warwickshire’s

Dennis Amiss, who faced a few Mitchell Johnsons in his time.

Simon Hughes of this parish took a battering for suggesting Trott might simply

have been smashed out of the tour by Johnson’s bowling. Not sympathetic

enough, some cried. Or too simplistic. But Hughes was entitled to discuss

it.

Six months later, glad to say, Trott is preparing to return on April 1 against

Gloucestershire, with Dougie Brown, Warwickshire’s director of cricket,

saying: “I am certain he will be back as England’s No 3 in

the near future.”

Perhaps we should stop trying to work out what went wrong with Trott and stick

to hoping it never happens again. Brown’s declaration, though, sounds a bit

like pressure.

Article source: http://www1.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12558/9162637/super-rugby-naka-drotske-names-cheetahs-team-for-lions-opener

England v Wales: "Twickenham Man" wants want rugby of the heart - Stuart ...