As I settle in after an entertaining afternoons rugby, I feel myself needing just that little bit more to fully satisfy my hunger for big hits, great support play and outrageous dummies. Unfortunately, Super Rugby has finished for this year so I had to make do with the latest instalment of the French top division 'best bits'. It is very pleasing to see Sir Jonny of Wilkinson clearly enjoying life as an ex-international in the second set of highlights, being involved in every phase of a direct attack before slinging a 20 yarder to put Steffon Armitage in at the corner. Enjoy!
Saturday, 8 September 2012
Aviva Premiership Round-Up - So far
London Welsh got a dose of reality against Quins on Friday night, making, and I may have this wrong, the shortest journey between two premiership clubs from Old Deer Park (not Oxford!) to the Stoop. Monye and Robson grabbed a brace each, with Quins showing the kind of merciless attacking that made them so successful last season (40-3).
London Irish continued their unspectacular start to the season against Gloucester (31-40), with RGN favourite Ben Morgan (who I may have a punt on as highest scoring forward this season) scoring his first try for the cherry and whites. Added to Freddie Burns' 25 point haul, good times seem to have returned to the Glaaster camp, for the short term at least.
Saracens upset the party in Salford by beating Sale at their new ground (16-23). Sale were up for it to say the least and showed improvement from last week's humping by Exeter, but their 'rabbit in headlights' impression in the red zone is what they need to improve on, and fast.
We had Bath and Wasps going at each other like the reinvigorated teams they are, with Bath coming out on top (30-23) and making Gary Gold's appointment appear as possibly one of the most inspired DoR recruitments since Dean Richards took over at Quins. Early days though. Special mention to Kyle Eastmond who at points looked like a carbon copy of another former rugby league convert who played for Bath (albeit very briefly) Jason Robinson. However, have a look at the footage below to see that he has more to offer than feet and gas.
London Irish continued their unspectacular start to the season against Gloucester (31-40), with RGN favourite Ben Morgan (who I may have a punt on as highest scoring forward this season) scoring his first try for the cherry and whites. Added to Freddie Burns' 25 point haul, good times seem to have returned to the Glaaster camp, for the short term at least.
Saracens upset the party in Salford by beating Sale at their new ground (16-23). Sale were up for it to say the least and showed improvement from last week's humping by Exeter, but their 'rabbit in headlights' impression in the red zone is what they need to improve on, and fast.
We had Bath and Wasps going at each other like the reinvigorated teams they are, with Bath coming out on top (30-23) and making Gary Gold's appointment appear as possibly one of the most inspired DoR recruitments since Dean Richards took over at Quins. Early days though. Special mention to Kyle Eastmond who at points looked like a carbon copy of another former rugby league convert who played for Bath (albeit very briefly) Jason Robinson. However, have a look at the footage below to see that he has more to offer than feet and gas.
Friday, 7 September 2012
WE'VE ALL BEEN THERE
We all know the feeling, about 10 minutes into the game and you can feel your stomach turning after a particularly lung burning period of play. Your gut has not realised that your raised heart rate and profuse sweating is not a symptom of food poisoning and it feels a need to relieve itself. Sometimes you can fight it back down, sometimes you just wretch. Sometimes, you vom your guts up on the spot you're going to have a scrum on in about 5 minutes because you can't make it to the sideline.
We are massive fans of Ben Morgan at RGN, and respect him more after this quite impressive display of reverse eating. Real men don't fear pink sick.
WARNING: GRATUITOUS THROWING UP INCLUDED IN THIS VIDEO CLIP
England Rugby and Canterbury - be still my beating heart parts 2 and 3
OFF THE GRID
One by one, we introduced ourselves around the room. 'Hello I'm David, I am a minis coach from Stevenage'. 'Hello, my name is Steven, I coach my local club's 2nd XV' and so on. Everyone had to do it, including myself. This was the opening activity of my RFU Level 1 Coaching Qualification, and I was already bored. Not the instructors fault, I have the attention span of a hyperactive primate.
The first bullet point, and I'm paraphrasing here, said something along the lines of 'Rugby is a later developing sport'. It was explained to us, the concept that rugby requires such a variety of skill, technical know-how and physical demands, that ability in the game can be directly related to the biological, psychological and sociological development of any individual player. In short, some players get it quicker than others.
Now what do Tom Johnson, Ben Morgan, Chris Ashton, Brad Barritt, Dylan Hartley and Mouritz Botha have in common? Give up? They have represented England within the last twelve months but have never played for an England age group team.
Surprised? Maybe not. But there has to be a message there somewhere. Please don't read this as an attack on the RFU in finding and nurturing young talent. All you have to do is reel off names like Danny Care, Ben Foden and Manu Tuilagi to know not to pull at that thread. But is the RFU doing enough to identify talent that may have slipped through the net? No one could blame them if they're not, such is the enormity of the task with around 2,000,000 players involved on some level in England alone. But why doesn't the RFU look beyond academies as the future of the game?
As I said before, one of the the first things the RFU teaches its coaches is that some players don't develop into a good player until very late in the day. Courtney Lawes only started to play when he was sixteen years old. Sixteen! Luckily his class won out and he was playing representative rugby by eighteen, and yes you could argue that this is evidence of a successful system. The fact that people like Lawes, Morgan and Johnson didn't make the grade early on but ultimately pushed their way in could be evidence to say all is well. My point is this, for every player that makes it 'the hard way' be it through club or university rugby, I'd hazard that there are three of four more who have simply been overlooked and with the right direction from the top, could be genuine contenders for Premiership and even international honours.
Phil Chesters seems a good example. The Ealing Trailfinders wing scored 42 tries last season and at one stage was averaging 2.1 tries a game. He broke Chris Ashton's try scoring record for crying out loud but he remains at Ealing. Now they are a fine club and helping keep the game alive in the area, but has someone not called him and said if he was ready for the big time? Number Eight Andrew Daish of Old Albanians is another, and he has played a good standard of representative rugby, had a stormer of a season last term and could probably play Championship rugby, if not higher.
I could have this all wrong and the players I've mentioned enjoy the standard they are at and are content, and more power to them. Ultimately it's about enjoying the game and this doesn't necessarily mean chasing fully professional rugby. But I bet there are players that would bite the hand off anyone offering a Premiership contract, even if they end up dual registered, and these players should be the focus of the RFU once they have exhausted representative age groups and academies as a source. Maybe then we would stop having to look to Southern Hemisphere players qualifying through residency and stand-out rugby league players, as much as I may like watching them.
Do we need a committee or permanent scouting networks to ensure that those with above average stats and mentions in match reports are looked at? Does something already exist like this? I don't know, but we can't rely on the philanthropic nature of lower division coaches to make the RFU and Premiership aware of their talent, it must be sought.
I'm back in the classroom, daydream over. Were now talking about key skills we are trying to teach young players. 'Communication' someone says, my mind begins to wander again.
Our eyes were directed to the big screen at the back of the classroom and we were given the outline for the weekend, starting with a brief introduction to the concept of 'player development'.
 |
| Could Phil Chesters cut it in the Premiership? |
If the opening activity nearly put me into a boredom based coma, this statement snapped me right out if it like a shot of adrenaline to the brain.
Now what do Tom Johnson, Ben Morgan, Chris Ashton, Brad Barritt, Dylan Hartley and Mouritz Botha have in common? Give up? They have represented England within the last twelve months but have never played for an England age group team.
Surprised? Maybe not. But there has to be a message there somewhere. Please don't read this as an attack on the RFU in finding and nurturing young talent. All you have to do is reel off names like Danny Care, Ben Foden and Manu Tuilagi to know not to pull at that thread. But is the RFU doing enough to identify talent that may have slipped through the net? No one could blame them if they're not, such is the enormity of the task with around 2,000,000 players involved on some level in England alone. But why doesn't the RFU look beyond academies as the future of the game?
As I said before, one of the the first things the RFU teaches its coaches is that some players don't develop into a good player until very late in the day. Courtney Lawes only started to play when he was sixteen years old. Sixteen! Luckily his class won out and he was playing representative rugby by eighteen, and yes you could argue that this is evidence of a successful system. The fact that people like Lawes, Morgan and Johnson didn't make the grade early on but ultimately pushed their way in could be evidence to say all is well. My point is this, for every player that makes it 'the hard way' be it through club or university rugby, I'd hazard that there are three of four more who have simply been overlooked and with the right direction from the top, could be genuine contenders for Premiership and even international honours.
 |
| Untapped Resource: National 1 and 2 |
Phil Chesters seems a good example. The Ealing Trailfinders wing scored 42 tries last season and at one stage was averaging 2.1 tries a game. He broke Chris Ashton's try scoring record for crying out loud but he remains at Ealing. Now they are a fine club and helping keep the game alive in the area, but has someone not called him and said if he was ready for the big time? Number Eight Andrew Daish of Old Albanians is another, and he has played a good standard of representative rugby, had a stormer of a season last term and could probably play Championship rugby, if not higher.
I could have this all wrong and the players I've mentioned enjoy the standard they are at and are content, and more power to them. Ultimately it's about enjoying the game and this doesn't necessarily mean chasing fully professional rugby. But I bet there are players that would bite the hand off anyone offering a Premiership contract, even if they end up dual registered, and these players should be the focus of the RFU once they have exhausted representative age groups and academies as a source. Maybe then we would stop having to look to Southern Hemisphere players qualifying through residency and stand-out rugby league players, as much as I may like watching them.
Do we need a committee or permanent scouting networks to ensure that those with above average stats and mentions in match reports are looked at? Does something already exist like this? I don't know, but we can't rely on the philanthropic nature of lower division coaches to make the RFU and Premiership aware of their talent, it must be sought.
I'm back in the classroom, daydream over. Were now talking about key skills we are trying to teach young players. 'Communication' someone says, my mind begins to wander again.
Thursday, 6 September 2012
The BIG Interview - Cyprus International Christo Kasabi
RGN: Hi Christo. So how
did you first get into rugby?
CK: I first started
playing in the first year of secondary school in 1996/97. I already saw RWC 1995
and thought I would like to have a go at that, so when the opportunity arose, I
gave it a go.
RGN: How did you first get called into the Cyprus team?
CK: There are a
number of players based domestically, which include key members of the team.
Despite our limited exposure, word has reached out to all areas of the UK &
Ireland, France & Holland where players play at all different levels, from
Level 2 down to Level 9.
RGN: What is the domestic rugby setup like in Cyprus?
RGN: You play at a decent domestic level, how do you the juggle work commitments to training, matches and a fair bit of international travel?
CK: I played
against Azerbaijan in Paphos, 29th October, a 29-0 victory in the very early
stages of Cyprus Rugby in the FIRA-AER League 3D.
RGN: How did it feel?
CK: I used to love
watching the obvious like Jonah Lomu and Jonny Wilkinson. Being a Saracens fan,
and having used to play back row, Richard Hill used to be my fave. I also liked
Thomas Castaignède & Joost van der Westhuizen.
RGN: What is a Moufflon and why is it prominent on the Cyprus Rugby emblem?
CK: I first started
playing in the first year of secondary school in 1996/97. I already saw RWC 1995
and thought I would like to have a go at that, so when the opportunity arose, I
gave it a go.RGN: How did you first get called into the Cyprus team?
CK: I was on my lunch
break at work, googling away, and discovered there was a Cypriot national team
playing their first international game. I checked the dates, it was played the
previous weekend! On their website, it had a link to contact if you are
eligible for Cyprus to contact them so I did. They invited me over for a yearly
exhibition game that was happening in a month’s time vs. the British Army (basically
‘Team Fiji’). After that I was called up for my first full international games.
RGN: Where abouts do all the players come from who play who play for Cyprus. Are they mostly domestic based?
RGN: Where abouts do all the players come from who play who play for Cyprus. Are they mostly domestic based?
RGN: What is the domestic rugby setup like in Cyprus?
CK: There are
currently 8 teams in the CRF League – 4 local sides and 3 army based sides.
There are regularly held youth tag tournaments with Limassol & Paphos
having both establishing junior sides. Recently we have gone into schools for
tag sessions, while some of the local schools who had never seen rugby before
came to watch our recent game vs. Greece (72-5 win). After that game we were
told that the children were throwing a rugby ball in the playground in the
weeks after which is great for what is a Football dominated country
RGN: You play at a decent domestic level, how do you the juggle work commitments to training, matches and a fair bit of international travel?
CK: It’s tough but
worthwhile. Twice a week training at the rugby club, I try to fit in two gym
sessions a week *cough cough* and a game on Saturday. Balancing work, I’m
lucky, work hours rarely cause problems with getting to training, although,
good old London Underground makes it difficult sometimes. I have to keep
holiday time from work for the international matches (around 3 days each game,
4 games a year), so I do get some time to use holiday away from the rugby
field.
RGN: Do you get any financial help from the Cypriot RFU or anyone else?
RGN: Do you get any financial help from the Cypriot RFU or anyone else?
CK: We have a few
small sponsors who help keep the CRF afloat, we have very little government
backing and in the world financial crisis we all realise times are hard. As
players we pay for our own flights and off-field kit, which players do find
hard to do.
RGN: Which country did you play against for your first cap?
RGN: Which country did you play against for your first cap?
CK: I played
against Azerbaijan in Paphos, 29th October, a 29-0 victory in the very early
stages of Cyprus Rugby in the FIRA-AER League 3D.RGN: How did it feel?
CK: A feeling like
no other, to represent your country is the pinnacle. I will never forget that
feeling in the tunnel, facing the opposition, our captain barking down the line
to his men, ready for battle. The match is like a blur now, unfortunately, it
was the first of three games over two and a half weeks. We went on to win the
next two games and win the league which was a great achievement. Those bonds we
built together started something special for the team going forward into future
internationals.
RGN: Who is the hardest international side you have faced?
RGN: Who is the hardest international side you have faced?
CK: The hardest
game I would say would be our play-off defeat against Israel after winning League
3D. Ten months had passed since that tournament, and a change in management.
The fixture was announced with not much preparation time, about 3 weeks I seem
to remember. Due to short notice, some players couldn’t get away due to work
commitments so the squad was weaker than the 3D tournament. The result didn’t
go our way, but ultimately, we didn’t perform. Since then, despite winning 15
consecutive games, there have been tough away trips. There was Bosnia in the
snow, with some players having never seen snow before, never mind play rugby in
it! Greece away was another as we had no coach due to a family illness. A
rejuvenated Finland, in which the score line didn’t reflect their performance
(5-52), in our last group game this year, was another tough one.
RGN: How difficult
is your route to World Cup qualification in 2015?
CK: Pretty tough.
We have to finish top of our current league season, after that it’s knockout
qualification. Three rounds of qualification in close proximity from May to
June, winners always playing the team who finished top of their league at home
(except the first round which is the team from our league at home to winners of
the league below). It then resumes in May 2014 where there is two more stages
of European qualifying. The European qualifier will face an African nation,
then the winner of that game will face a nation from either the Americas or
Asia – the winner takes their place at RWC 2015. As you can appreciate it’s a
pretty tough task.
RGN: What are your long term goals for Cypriot rugby and within the game generally?
RGN: What are your long term goals for Cypriot rugby and within the game generally?
CK: For the game to
grow on the island – more kids playing the game, local teams growing their
player base. For the sevens, who narrowly missed out on the World Cup
qualifying stages by one place, to grow and break into Europe’s top 10 is an
achievable goal. The dream is to qualify for a major tournament like the
Commonwealth Games, 7’s World Cup, Rio 2016. For the 15’s it is just taking one
game at a time. We have targets set, to win this league, to break the record of
18 consecutive wins, and to go into RWC 2015 qualifying with the aim of still
being in contention into 2014. These targets are achievable, but only with hard
work on and off the field.
RGN: Who are your rugby heroes and why?
RGN: Who are your rugby heroes and why?
 |
| A Moufflon: Not its actual colour |
RGN: What is a Moufflon and why is it prominent on the Cyprus Rugby emblem?
CK: A moufflon is the national animal of
Cyprus, a kind of wild horned sheep that roams free in the extensive forests of
Western Troodos and has also been used as the symbol for the Cyprus Airways.
CK: The Butcher is
an easy one, Kasabi spelt “Κασάπης“ in Cypriot, is translated to butcher.
RGN REACHES 1000 HITS!!!
It's true, we've made it, and in the five full days RGN has been online, we have received 1000 views! Move over facebook, sit down friends reunited and do one google search page, there's a new boy in town.
Before I get too excited and start calling the London Stock Exchange to find out how you float an internet start-up, I just wanted to again say thanks for everyone's support. A few individuals, most notably my dad, Tom Simpson and future contributor Colin Campbell, have gone to great lengths to give this whole idea a push and for that I'm very thankful.
Just a brief reminder that we are on twitter @RuckingGoodNews and Facebook so get following! The Cipriani article and the Lions selection have caused the most controversy between readers so far, so expect plenty more of the same over the next few weeks.
Later today, the interview you've all been waiting for, Cypriot international Christo Kasabi gives us the insiders view as he sets his sight on World Cup qualification and exactly why his nickname is 'The Butcher'.
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