Jonny Wilkinson's retirement leaves big gap
The England rugby team will now be looking for fresh blood in key
positions following the retirement of several players in the wake of the
2011 World Cup It was the West Indies cricket captain, Clive Lloyd, who
best summed up the biggest dilemma for any mature professional
sportsman.
"It's time to retire," said Lloyd, "when your eyes go, your knees go
and your friends go." By those criteria Jonny Wilkinson's decision to
call time on his international rugby career was a little premature. He
still has all his faculties and, at 32, is six years younger than his
new Toulon team-mate Simon Shaw, who remains available if England want
him. Wilkinson, though, could clearly sense the prevailing mood at
Twickenham.
Barely had Stuart Lancaster, England's caretaker coach, settled into
the temporary hot seat before he was making clear he intended to pick a
more youthful elite squad. Those playing their club rugby outside
England would also be struggling. The south of France is some distance
away but Wilkinson will have picked up the vibes easily enough. With
Lewis Moody having taken a similar decision - writing your autobiography
is clearly so exhausting it saps your ability to play Test rugby -
Lancaster's dilemma is precisely how far back to prune the red rose.
"There'll be an emphasis on youth but I won't ship out all the
experience," he stressed. It is a tricky balancing act at any time,
particularly in the wake of England's toxic leaked World Cup review.
Lancaster already has to find a new fly-half, hooker (Steve Thompson has
been forced to retire) and open-side flanker. They just happen to be
among the three most influential positions in any rugby team. Toby
Flood, Dylan Hartley and Tom Wood will almost certainly fill the gaps
against Scotland at Murrayfield on 4 February but change is in the air.
If the new regime were to whistle up three 21-year-olds instead it would
truly amount to a cultural revolution. Something along those lines could
yet materialise.
A new breed is certainly emerging. Within the Rugby Football Union
there is a growing recognition the modern player is different to his
predecessors. Kevin Bowring, the former Wales coach who is now the RFU's
head of elite coach development, has been studying this shifting
landscape closely. "I'd call the type of players we're dealing with now
Generation Y.
Most coaches are probably Generation X. It's important to raise that
awareness." The thoughtful Bowring also makes the logical point that the
new wave of talent requires a different style of coaching. "The modern
coach has to be a relationship manager. For me England have now got
three of them. There's nothing lovey-dovey about Stuart Lancaster,
Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell but they know how to get the best out
of people, whether it's firm and disciplined or relaxed and
arm-round-the-shoulder. Look at modern coaches such as Jim Mallinder,
Toby Booth, Conor O'Shea, Bryan Redpath.
They're all good relationship managers. I think that is key now to
moving on with the modern player." Maybe that was what, in the end,
undermined Martin Johnson. Interestingly, Bowring says the RFU would be
happy to support Johnson if he decided to study for the formal coaching
qualifications he still does not possess. "He has to recover from the
experience and decide what he wants to do but the union is very
supportive of anyone who wants to develop," says Bowring.
"Martin admitted from the outset that he hadn't done any coaching
qualifications and was a team manager." The underlying message is that
old-school assumptions are no longer applicable. Bowring, who has worked
particularly closely with Lancaster and was part of the panel which
appointed the 42-year-old Cumbrian, says he is trying to develop
"T-shaped" coaches.
"The vertical part of the T is your depth of knowledge in a
particular area. The horizontal part is the breadth of knowledge you
need across all components of performance: technically, tactically,
mentally, physically, lifestyle, discipline, leadership etc. All that
grows with experience. International coaching is different from week-in
week-out club rugby." It is also about gelling a bunch of talented
players into one structure with one identity.
For all Wilkinson's colossal contribution, he represents England's
past; Owen Farrell, Alex Goode, Tom Homer, Ben Youngs, Courtney Lawes,
Henry Trinder and Jamie Gibson are the future. In a perfect world
England should be aiming to build a side with the next two World Cups in
mind, not merely 2015. Clearly it helps to win a few games in the short
term as well but English international backs in their early to mid-30s
look set to become a near-extinct species. What matters most, of course,
is not how old the new guys happen to be but how good they are.
Australia under Robbie Deans did not get it entirely right in time for
the World Cup but Kurtley Beale, James O'Connor and Quade Cooper are all
now seasoned internationals in their early 20s; had they been English
they might still be playing in the Premiership A league. - The Guardian |