Age of protectionism must come to an end
CHRIS HEWETT
THINKING ALLOWED
THE late Jack Rowell – how difficult the writing of that phrase remains – had a rich fund of pet sayings. “I'll have a gin and tonic with you,” was one. “Make that a double” was another. But the maestro's most telling one-liners tended to be rugby-specific, including the following: “The only way England can hope to beat the southern hemisphere nations more often is by playing them more often.”
It was for this reason that Jack, head coach of England after guiding Bath through their golden decade of unprecedented and perhaps unrepeatable success, threw his weight behind the Cook Cup venture: a significant expansion of fixtures against the Wallabies under which the countries met almost as often between 1997 and the World Cup final in 2003 as they had in the previous three decades.
And yes, the balance of power duly shifted in exactly the way foreseen by Rowell. England lost that '97 match in Sydney, which turned out to be Jack's last in the top job; were subjected to the full range of sporting indignities in Brisbane a year later; and finished second again ahead of the '99 global gathering. But the latter was a properly competitive affair and come '03, they found themselves perfectly placed to beat the Australians in Australia for the first time – a blinding performance in Melbourne – before doubling down on the biggest night of all five months later.
What is it they say about sauces and geese? Argentina's eye-opener of a victory over the All Blacks in Wellington a little over a week ago was a handy reminder of the essential truth underpinning what might be called the Rowell Doctrine: namely, that if rugby is really serious about making itself less predictable and more meaningful as a shop-window international sport, opportunity and exposure are the front-and-centre elements of the process.
How many times had the Pumas met New Zealand at Test level before finding a way past them for the first time in the Tri-Nations “pandemic” championship in 2020? That would be 29, spread over 35 years. Similarly, their first victory over the Springboks was registered at the 20th time of asking. If the barren stretches tested the patience of a governing elite more accustomed to waiting decades for their Armagnac to mature, the benefits are now accruing at a rate of knots, with the Argentines rising to sixth in the world rankings after Wellington, three ahead of Australia and five up on Wales, and harbouring legitimate ambitions of further improvement.
By the same measure, the French needed 17 goes to beat England, 16 to get past Wales and waited the small matter 73 years to register an away victory over the All Blacks (not that the two met particularly frequently back in the day). Italy have also benefited handsomely from the forbearance of the foundation nations, who still wield all the power in the sport.
Exasperatingly for those of us who want to see the union code grow to its full height as a major international attraction rather than shrivel
“Without regular matches against the best opposition, where would Argentina be?” into irrelevance – those movers and shakers who continue to resist Test expansion in all its forms are effectively sprinkling salt on the snail – the supply of goodwill is a long way short of infinite. There is no meaningful plan to give Georgia and Portugal a route into the Six Nations, or turn the likes of Chile and Uruguay into South American versions of Japan.
The plain-talking Georgia coach Richard Cockerill and the eloquent Portuguese captain Tomas Appleton have spoken quietly of their frustration, and while the “softly softly” approach reflects Appleton's personality, it is not generally considered to be a part of Cockerill's fiery makeup. Rather, the Leicester hard-head of old has rarely “hinted” at anything, preferring to make himself abundantly clear by calling a spade an excavator.
He would be justified in going off the deep end over the fact that almost half of the Georgians' 27 matches against foundation nations have been at World Cups, but glass ceilings are best smashed gently, if that's not too brutal a contradiction. As Cockerill tacitly acknowledges, the Georgians can do nothing except continue to prove themselves too good for the level at which they are currently forced to play in the hope that one fine day, the people who matter will open their eyes to the blindingly obvious and open up a route to promotion.
Where would Argentina be now without regular Test matches against the best opposition? Not sixth in the world, that's for sure, and they certainly wouldn't be going into their forthcoming Rugby Championship home matches against the Wallabies as racing certainties for at least one victory, if not two.
Harking back to Rowell's time at Bath, one of his principal coaching sidekicks, Dave Robson, had some favourite dictums of his own. First among them? “Rugby never stands still. You either move forwards, or you slip backwards.”
That being the case, we must hope and pray that rugby's governing class, obsessed as it is with money, will recognise the penny when it finally drops and take decisive action to bring the age of self-serving protectionism to a well-deserved conclusion.
