This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with individual brilliance, individual idiocy and collective uncertainty…
There is probably only one performance in modern times to match Beauden Barrett’s on Saturday: that haul by Dan Carter in the second Test of the 2005 British & Irish Lions tour.
That’s a sentence that might naturally spark inquiries as to which was the best, but to do that would be to do one fly-half or the other an immense disservice. Arguments about the supine nature of either opposition are irrelevant; both Carter and Barrett were good enough to render their opposition supine, not the other way round.
There’s no doubt now in anyone I have spoken to’s mind that Barrett is well on his way to carving out a place in All Black history books either, nor is there any doubt that he is now shuffling off any notion of being merely the ‘new DC’.
He’s better on the hoof and gets around the field more, also showing perhaps more of a long burn of pace than his illustrious predecessor. Yet Carter is likely to remain the one who was always able to steer a game towards whatever outcome he felt it needed. Barrett can inspire more, but can he dig in as well? You feel perhaps not.
Which is, to an extent, what sets the two display apart. Carter’s was an all-round show of game management, iced with one mesmerising solo try. Barrett – helped somewhat by what seemed to be a slightly more expansive game-plan – was more prominent with his hands and running lines, but less so with management, for which New Zealand appear to have assumed a much more collective responsibility over the past four years anyway.
Two different displays, different oppositions, different eras even. But New Zealand are still the best in the world, regardless of who pulls the strings.
Meanwhile, in England…
Eddie Jones was down at Harlequins this week, chatting to Poland’s national coach Duaine Lindsay and passing on some nuggets of wisdom. One wonders whether the Irishman plucked up the courage to ask the question on how to deal with wayward genius.
As if Jones has not been let down enough by some of his players this year, two of the players he might have felt he was going to come to look on as some of his greatest achievements in terms of patiently waiting for maturity have shot themselves firmly in the foot.
If Danny Cipriani was perhaps predictable though, Chris Ashton was certainly not. A whole season in the relative volatility of France passed not only trouble-free but with try-scoring records broken and ambition still burning brightly.
And then all it took was Rory Kockott’s hand holding Ashton down and ‘boom!’ Up went Ashton’s designs on the England jersey in smoke, as did Jones’ willingness to forgive – already dealing with the hammer blow of Cipriani’s Jersey indiscretions.
If ever a week displayed the depth of difference between the state of England and New Zealand ahead of their clash in November, it was this one.
Troubled times
But then the club game in England is not exactly in rude health either. While the Premiership is certainly improving on the pitch, off it there are storm clouds gathering.
The losses among the twelve clubs in the 2016/17 season, announced in total to have been an eyebrow-raising GBP 28.5m, do not add credibility to rugby’s image of a game working its way into professionalism with moderation, nor does the excuse of spiralling wages display a healthy relationship between players and employers – not least when the wage costs are roundly blamed for the parlous state of the clubs’ collective finances.
But as this column has previously pointed out, that relationship was hardly healthy anyway, given that the players are paying more handsome a physical toll for their trade than might otherwise be either necessary or reasonable.
It’s very laudable of the clubs to now get together and decide to trim things down collectively but that spirit will be facing a stiff test of resolve if English clubs continue to struggle in Europe and the national team continues its decline, while players may toe the line for a while, but may also find their heads quickly turned by the riches continuing to be on offer across the channel.
At least Exeter, and to a lesser extent Leicester Tigers, have shown the way to sustainability, but as the example of Northampton, whose troubles have culminated them in making a loss where before there had been none, shows, even a sustainable team can be hostage to performance on the pitch, while an unsustainable model, like Worcester‘s currently or that of Wasps pre-Coventry, is one rarely far from disaster.
These are currently days of decent credit conditions and there’s no shortage of rich city types willing to stick a pile into a well-known rugby club.
But while players demand more money, owners and clubs are going to demand more games and revenue-generating activities, meaning more injury crises and probably more demands for compensatory wage levels from players, leading to the clubs needing more games and revenue-generating activities, causing… you see where I am going here.
A few weeks ago, this column wondered aloud how long it was before the club game in England suffered its next political meltdown. This financial report makes us think it really won’t be all that long at all.
Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan