Blood & Mud

Stuart Lancaster pretty much ruins his decent start as England coach.

New ideas are generally good things.  

Without new ideas we'd still believe that the world was flat, storks deliver babies, Shane Williams is a third choice squad scrum-half, and Iain Balshaw was any good.   Indeed, it was a new and decent RFU idea that brought England's new coaching team into their posts bringing fresh selections to the national team.  So far, so new, so good.

But, an obsession with new can sometimes lead to doing very silly things; the Sinclair C5 and Barrie-Jon Mather for example.  

Stuart Lancaster seems to have fallen into the latter trap by inviting Gary Neville and some other random  sports stars to expound about the honour of playing for England and the behaviour that should go with it.  In his heady excitement it seems the new Head Coach has belted so fast into THE NEW that he has shot straight out the other side and tripped accidentally into the adjoining "What the fuck is this all about then?" room.

Leaving aside the wounded soldier Simon Brown, who everyone should be listening to frankly, here are the others Lancaster believes his players need pointers from for some reason.

Gary Neville - It's hard to think of a more divisive person than the former Man U defender, he is like Marmite if Marmite was a little bloke with a ratty beard and too much to say. Plus, any Liverpool fans in the squad are likely to smack him rather than listen to him.  Lancaster is also treading a very dodgy line in believing that rugby players want to be lectured on anything by anyone associated with association football.

Hugh Morris - Opening bat who played 3 tests for England in the dark days of the 1990s, averaging a not exactly earth shattering 19.16, and captained perennial dross county Glamorgan to the Sunday League title in 1993.  Retired in 1997 to a life of administration at the ECB.  Oh, and he's Welsh!

Jamie Peacock - Great RL player for Bradford Bulls and Leeds Rhinos, and a thouroughly decent and frighteningly hard man.  Has spent his international career losing crunch games in major tournaments to Australia and New Zealand.

Kevin Sinfield - As above, except for the Bradford Bulls and frighteningly hard bit.

No, I don't get it either.

 

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Comments

Stuart Lancaster pretty much ruins his decent start as England coach.

New ideas are generally good things.  

Without new ideas we'd still believe that the world was flat, storks deliver babies, Shane Williams is a third choice squad scrum-half, and Iain Balshaw was any good.   Indeed, it was a new and decent RFU idea that brought England's new coaching team into their posts bringing fresh selections to the national team.  So far, so new, so good.

But, an obsession with new can sometimes lead to doing very silly things; the Sinclair C5 and Barrie-Jon Mather for example.  

Stuart Lancaster seems to have fallen into the latter trap by inviting Gary Neville and some other random  sports stars to expound about the honour of playing for England and the behaviour that should go with it.  In his heady excitement it seems the new Head Coach has belted so fast into THE NEW that he has shot straight out the other side and tripped accidentally into the adjoining "What the fuck is this all about then?" room.

Leaving aside the wounded soldier Simon Brown, who everyone should be listening to frankly, here are the others Lancaster believes his players need pointers from for some reason.

Gary Neville - It's hard to think of a more divisive person than the former Man U defender, he is like Marmite if Marmite was a little bloke with a ratty beard and too much to say. Plus, any Liverpool fans in the squad are likely to smack him rather than listen to him.  Lancaster is also treading a very dodgy line in believing that rugby players want to be lectured on anything by anyone associated with association football.

Hugh Morris - Opening bat who played 3 tests for England in the dark days of the 1990s, averaging a not exactly earth shattering 19.16, and captained perennial dross county Glamorgan to the Sunday League title in 1993.  Retired in 1997 to a life of administration at the ECB.  Oh, and he's Welsh!

Jamie Peacock - Great RL player for Bradford Bulls and Leeds Rhinos, and a thouroughly decent and frighteningly hard man.  Has spent his international career losing crunch games in major tournaments to Australia and New Zealand.

Kevin Sinfield - As above, except for the Bradford Bulls and frighteningly hard bit.

No, I don't get it either.