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NZ Rugby World column,
May 2005
I
arrived in Auckland from New York on Sunday 10th April and got
up early the next morning to watch the Crusaders in Africa.
The game for me was ruined by the injury to Richie McCaw.
It seemed to be business as usual in the murky world flankers
inhabit and I was rocked when the stretcher, the neck brace and all the
medical paraphernalia came out.
I had horrible, churning thoughts of another Jock Hobbs outcome.
A
couple of hours later and I was in exactly the same position as Richie.
On a stretcher in an ambulance, heading for the Emergency Ward with
a bleeding scalp and a head injury.
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I’d been doing lat pulls in my gym at home, was in my third set pulling the bar over my head when the cable snapped and I pulled the metal bar at full force into my head. Cranium injuries bleed and this was no exception. My son Dan was on the spot and Auckland Hospital performed amazingly. If you’re having a head injury I guess the place to have one is New Zealand where most of our ambulance orderlies and nurses have been involved in several rugby injuries of this nature. I was in the Emergency Room at the hospital within seven minutes, went through four sets of rigorous head, neck and spine tests over the next four hours before being stitched up by a wonderful nurse called Margaret who had just finished her Masters. Stitching felt like somebody was moving my grey matter around with a red hot poker. How these guys get stitched up on the side of the park and then return to the fray is absolutely amazing to me. We take this stuff for granted and the courage, fortitude and commitment of our players is really something very special.
I understand Richie’s made a full recovery and we’re all praying that he’ll get through all this healthily and continue his magnificent career. And I want to pay tribute to the ambulance staff and the nurses at Auckland Hospital for getting me back on my feet within 24 hours. Not sure I would have been fit for a game of rugby, but I was able to give a speech at Thrive Auckland where around 2,000 entrepreneurs were stimulated and inspired by a day with the Prime Minister, Theresa Gattung, AJ Hackett, Lloyd Morrison, Peter Gordon, and the All Black’s inspirational leader Tana Umaga.
Two other inspirational players were in the audience, Inga Tuigamala and David Tua. David had a pretty good first outing going the full distance before knocking his opponent out which was ideal preparation on his return to boxing. Beating the Lions, winning the Grand Slam and seeing a New Zealander as Heavyweight Champion of the World would make for a pretty good next 12 months.
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During that same week the Lions squad was announced. If you can call it a squad. It seemed every rugby player in Britain is coming over to New Zealand on the tour. It was not surprising that there were no surprising omissions because there were very few omissions. Wilkinson will come if he proves his fitness and so will Tindall and Vickery. Woodward has kept all his options open and blended youth and experience, English discipline and Celtic flair, and will pick a team depending on the All Black line-up and on match conditions. I’m hoping that the English geriatrics have come on one tour too far but there’s no doubt Woodward has given himself the fullest possible range of strategies and tactics. One thing I thought was unusual was that he’s also picked an English development team. To make the tour from Ireland, Scotland or Wales you had to be a proven test player. If you are English these rules didn’t apply. He’s brought along half a dozen players I think with an eye to England’s future Six Nations. Smart work if you can get it.
Two other stories captured my attention this week.
The first was John Kirwan’s ouster as coach to Italy despite a contract through the 2007 World Cup. The Azzurri have to honour this contract which is great financially for John. Both Clive Woodward and Eddie O’Sullivan called him to express their support and amazement at the decision. John has taken a team from deadbeats to competitors. He is half-way through the job as his captain, Marco Bertolami, has said to all and sundry. Let down by appalling goal-kicking and lack of pace, he still had the team playing in a disciplined, focussed, committed way. I’m catching up with John in London in early May but when I spoke to him at his home near Venice he sounded very upbeat and positive. Initially he was shocked and hurt and from a personal point of view, it will be distracting to move Fiorella and the family from Treviso. However from a professional perspective the UK clubs are queuing up and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him going to one of the European Cup sides such as Munster or Leinster or to an English club like Gloucester. I think he served his apprenticeship well and is ready to move to the next level of coaching and working with top class players day in, day out will I think prove more rewarding and will see him continue his coaching development. The Six Nations will miss John and so will the media! All of us need him back into the game quickly.
And that brings me on to David Moffett who has truly had an annus mirabilis as CEO of Wales. He’s improved their bottom line by 33%, a £10 million swing, has restructured their league to make it competitive and has put together an organisation that won the Grand Slam and the Triple Crown. Ten Welsh players will be touring with the Lions and they’re playing the most exciting rugby seen anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. His final coup de grace was to get the All Black test on November 5, not in December. So we’ll have a chance for the Grand Slam, Wales will have a chance to beat us because Graham and his team only have two weeks to prepare the All Blacks following the NPC final, and Moffo has put together games against the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies to give Wales their own chance of a very different Triple Crown.
All in all a pretty good year for one of rugby’s unsung heroes and one of the best administrators in world sport.
Bring on the Lions.
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