Adversity has brought the best out in the Bristol and England tighthead prop before and it can do so againEveryone who has ever been rejected, in any walk of life, knows how deeply it can sting. Which makes the soothing balm of subsequent affirmation all the sweeter. At least four publishers turned down George Orwell’s Animal Farm while the curt advice once issued to F Scott Fitzgerald – “You’d have a decent book if you get rid of that Gatsby character” – has also entered literary lore. One person’s opinion is not necessarily the gospel truth.It is similarly the case in sport. Rugby is full of examples of successful players who were rejected, overlooked or released on their way up....
Warren Gatland’s selection will have been affected by the 2009 tour when we were not ready for the Springboks’ brutalityFor those players selected in the British & Irish Lions squad on Wednesday, the tour starts this weekend. That’s how I felt when I was lucky enough to have my name read out in 2009; you feel a sense of wanting to prove you deserve your place and you are already thinking about pressing your claims for the Test team. I was up against Shane Williams who had been named World Player of the Year in 2008 so I knew I had my work cut out.My first match after being selected was a European quarter-final against Leinster and my last was...
Warren Gatland faces tricky decisions before Thursday’s naming of a squad facing only eight matches in South AfricaThe squad announcement for the British & Irish Lions is usually rugby’s equivalent of a general election, preceded by a frenzy of speculation, leaks and vitriolic exchanges. So a social media blackout the weekend before might be no bad thing.This year – or rather this quadrennial – given the ravages of a global pandemic, the Lions do not know, literally, whether they are coming or going. Refreshingly, that seems to have dampened much of the febrility of the pre-pick posturing, even before the lights were dimmed on social media. Not a leak, either, to be felt down the back of the neck. It’s...
For his final Observer report, our stalwart writer offers his reflections on decades covering a sport rich in drama and spectacle but that now stands at a crossroadsThe car was a cross between a Lada and a Trabant, a cut-and-shut probably. It was parked in a taxi rank outside the one hotel in Bucharest that had any swank or alcohol. It was 1994 and the following day Wales were playing Romania as punishment for making an early exit from the World Cup three years before. The International Rugby Board had held a media conference about nothing very much and it was time to retire to a modest establishment on the outskirts of the city to serve up the match preview.Behind...
For players such as Elliot Daly and Billy Vunipola, the Six Nations tie in Dublin is a final opportunity to ensure they are selected for the Lions tourWherever Warren Gatland is basing himself in the UK at the moment, I imagine a whiteboard is never far away. There’ll be about 45 names on it and I’d have thought that by this stage he has a pretty good idea of his preferred starting lineup for the first British & Irish Lions Test against South Africa. Given Warren is going to be in Dublin this weekend, it is the final audition for several players to force their way into that 45, or make sure they don’t get a strike through their names.All...