If anyone watched the All Blacks or Wallabies play on the weekend, they probably noticed something markedly different than what took place in most internationals this year – very little kicking, and lots of ball-in-hand running! It’s still possible, and very rewarding when you try it!
I hope everyone takes a lesson from this, realising that running rugby is indeed possible, and rewarding, under new Law realities. Rather than play ‘kick and hope’ negative rugby, teams should realise that winning your own ball at a ruck is not an impossibility with the tackler-hands-in clarification so long as ball carriers hold their feet and support is present and tenacious. What I also noticed was very little of the short pass to a static pod 5m from the last ruck – I hate this ‘tactic.’ I realise it’s meant to move things along and disrupt the defence from the last static ruck, but it rarely serves that purpose. What the Kiwis and Aussies showed was something I thought we all considered when defences got more organised – you have to get away from the clutter and attack the space out wide. I felt giddy watching forwards making deft passes and hitting spaces rather than faces out wide – especially from my new hero, Benn Robinson. Then the rest of the front row set up Pocock’s try playing ’scrum half’ and ‘fly half’! I joked that if Giteau got hurt, Deans wouldn’t have to worry as their whole front row had all the skills to replace him. And I think that’s an important aspect that Australians and New Zealanders haven’t forgot – that rugby is best played when every player has the full range of skills to be a productive member on the field in any situation.
Alas, I don’t think even some of the other top 10 nations, let alone us minnows, can (or at least have the will to) keep up, as their players just don’t have the skills. This should have alarm bells ringing that we need to focus on creating skilled players, not physically imposing monsters. Having watched England the last few weeks, the likes of 6′7″ wing Matt Banahan and human cannonball centre Dan Hipkiss have demonstrated that many international backs don’t even have the full range of passing and awareness skills! That said, I fully believe England has the personnel available to them – the likes of Ben Foden, Mathew Tait, Dominic Waldouck – but Johnno and the lads simply won’t pick them for whatever reason. As the criticisms have been fast and furioius the past few weeks – on many nations, not just England – I hope change is a comin’ soon. I think many of the critics, including some of the old guard who are still playing, like Simon Shaw, are right in saying that the modern professional player tends to be a ‘gym monkey’ and not a fully skilled and dynamic ‘rugby player.’ I hope the lessons taught to them by the All Blacks and Wallabies will reverse the paradigm shift from the time when everyone wanted to find their ‘Lomu’ – harking back to an era when the smaller, skilled back was the ideal, but also combining that with a more modern one where even forwards are expected to do the right thing in an attacking situation. It’ll be interesting to see what the Six Nations adopt in the new year as a result of the lessons the Aussies and Kiwis taught them … and even from the Boks, whose woeful performances were simply a result of their misguided ‘kick everything’ policy. Hopefully they make the right adjustments for the sake of not only the fan who wants to see an exciting game, but also viewers who (often misguidedly) adopt international / professional styles of play at the amateur level.
My face is cut out because I’d just stumbled out of bed and it’s smeared in drool and yesterday’s mascara.
). BUT, I can work on making my arms and legs look a little more solid. Apparently, that work has so far been paying off 
I’m a little apprehensive about announcing it to my wider circle of acquaintances, co-workers and old schoolmates. They all think I’m crazy for leaving a solid journalism job. For so long I’ve been told that I’m a good journalist. I think that’s why I stuck it out, because I was just following the praise. These people just assume I’d do what I’m good at, but being good at something is not enough. 
