Sean McGuire: Union code is paying the price of divided loyalties

Sep 6 2007 by Sean McGuire, Liverpool Daily Post

AS England’s rugby union world cup squad boarded their plane to France on Monday it was clear they had a winning mentality.

They were going all-out to win, as no-one was having any thoughts about a tie.

But on reflection this open-necked policy may have another purpose.

The pictures weren’t clear, but I would hazard a guess that no-one was allowed a belt or shoelaces either.

After the euphoria of 2003 there could be a painful few weeks ahead.

Already there are murmurings about poor preparations and former coach Andy Robinson has predicted only a semi-final finish.

As no coach has ever underplayed the chances of his former charges – the unsubtle subtext being, ‘if I was still coach then we’d get to the semi-finals’ – we can prepare ourselves for an ignominious quarter-final exit.

And when the rugby union world is tuned in to the final on October 20, it will give England time to reflect on just how badly the last four years have been wasted.

It seemed that rugby union could permanently defeat cricket and rugby league in the competition to be the nation’s second most-popular team sport.

But while club rugby union has grown in size, the sport has lost the all-conquering majesty it created while the William Webb Ellis trophy was on a nationwide tour in the winter of 2003-04.

A good World Cup is the last thing England need as it will add some more sticking plaster to an already fragmented union.

Now is the time for the sport’s bosses to decide on their future direction.

Are they a club game, like football and rugby league, or an international game, like cricket?

My feeling is that the sport’s rulers and casual observers favour England matches but increasingly the paying fan is developing a tribal loyalty to their club.

The likelihood is that there will be more ‘club versus country’ rows as openly-professional rugby union approaches its teenage years

But it will be in the actions of the RFU and the leading clubs that the attitude will become clear.

Would they, for example, follow the lead of the Israeli FA, who called off a weekend of matches at the request of the national coach to ensure their players were able to prepare for the crucial Euro 2008 qualifiers?

Steve McClaren doesn’t have enough backing to be able to postpone an I-Zingari match, yet we wonder why England invariably play like 11 strangers.

That approach is because games like Liverpool-Derby and Bolton-Everton are treated by too many fans, officials and even players as more important than England’s trip to Israel.

Which is fine, except there shouldn’t then be huge criticism from the very people who handicap England’s chances of winning a major championship.

England fans, of both the rugby and association football teams, may have to reach for their rose-tinted glasses over the coming weeks if they are to glimpse a silverware lining on the autumn clouds.

Beware folly of taking eye off the ball

EXPECTATIONS are more easily managed when there is a greater chance of seeing Championship football next season rather than Champions League.

It is one of the unspoken advantages of the uncompetitiveness of the Premier League.

At most only four sets of fans think their team can become champions while nearly half must in their quiet moments acknowledge the chance that this could be the year it all ends in tears and planning trips to Plymouth.

Apart from prize money and bragging rights there is no difference between finishing seventh and 17th. No European football, but no relegation either. By August it is all forgotten and it starts again. Rugby league, however, encourages fans to look to the stars. Never mind that only four clubs have won the league since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Never mind that St Helens have won the last five trophies and could add numbers six and seven in the coming weeks.

The play-off system, where any of the teams that end the regular season in the top six could become champions with a strong finish to the season, helps to feed the impossible dream.

Last year Salford City Reds made the play-offs, although their capitulation at Bradford in their play-off match gave a truer indication of their title ambitions.

Nevertheless this created a surge in expectation for 2007. Salford were not meant to be anywhere near the two-horse race to avoid relegation between Hull KR and Wakefield, yet last weekend their relegation was confirmed.

So what went wrong?

The last 12 months have seen a catalogue of bad decisions that proved their good season was an aberration that was soon forgotten. Bad signings, bad preparation, bad moves during the season and a misdirected focus.

Their new recruits didn’t fit in and results went badly, so they ditched their coach and endured a disastrous, rudderless month before he was replaced.

Shaun McRae was unable to stem the bleeding from their early-season wounds.

Off the field they have been guilty of taking their eye off the ball.

Their much-vaunted forthcoming stadium has been all the club have talked about for the last three years. And it is hard not to surmise that they have neglected the day-to-day business of winning matches. Fancy architectural drawings don’t get you any points on the league table.

While relegation is not something that Liverpool, Everton and Saints should fear, they should pay heed to Salford’s lesson. The idea of ‘build it and they will come’ doesn’t hold true if what the fans are watching is not the standard they expect.

There is no point in having a Super League stadium if you are playing National League rugby.

That’s what they call a folly.