No hunger in waving white flag
No hunger in waving white flag
September 19, 2007
The time for excuses from northern hemisphere teams is past, writes Rupert Guinness in Montpellier.
As the Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks continue their charge towards the World Cup finals in France, expectation of a southern hemisphere whitewash of the tournament is growing by the day.
Last weekend's round went a long way to firming that belief with South Africa humiliating England 36-0, a second-string New Zealand thrashing Portugal 108-13 and then Australia defeating Wales 32-20.
But perhaps the saddest reflection among the northern hemisphere nations that they are on a hiding to nothing is that France, who began the World Cup with a real chance of winning it, is joining in the doom and gloom.
"It's unfair. How do you expect us to compete against players who have been preparing [for the World Cup] for seven months?" said France's coach Bernard Laporte in the French daily Le Figaro.
Given the importance of confidence to a sporting team and that it be shown from the top pillar of leadership Laporte holds, little wonder France can be so hot one day, and cold another.
Laporte is not the only northern hemisphere coach to bemoan the dominance of southern hemisphere teams, which include Argentina who stung the host side with their round-one win.
But for the coach of the reigning dual Six Nations champions - who returned to their winning ways on Sunday with an 87-10 win over Namibia in Toulouse - to virtually concede defeat so early in a World Cup on home soil is at best the biggest of bluffs, at worst shameful.
Sure, there is an argument behind Laporte's thinking that is shared by many others in Europe, including Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan. But why go public on it at a time when you are trying to reinvigorate a team that was shell-shocked after losing to Argentina in Paris and must now return to the French capital for a must-win clash against the Irish on Friday?
Laporte, a controversial character, should focus on that hurdle before worrying about domination of the southern hemisphere sides, of which his side will meet New Zealand in the quarter-finals if it qualifies.
Much of the debate over an imbalance of form between sides from the north and south centres on the scheduling of the World Cup.
The argument is that the tournament has clashed with a cluttered club and international schedule in England and Europe, whereas the Australian, New Zealand and South African sides have been able to time and execute their World Cup preparations to perfection without the worry of starting it drained from an excessive playing calendar.
If so, that is hardly "unfair" as Laporte claims. The rugby world has long known when the World Cup would be held and where. Laporte has also been given every means of ensuring France wins, including the multimillion-dollar rugby training centre at Marcoussis, near Paris. While the pressure is now on the northern hemisphere sides, it is excessive for them to start finding excuses, especially France.
In any case there is an argument that the World Cup's timing should help northern hemisphere sides, says Wallabies coach John Connolly.
"I think it favours the northern hemisphere sides," said Connolly.
"It's not a bad build-up for the northern hemisphere. They finish their season in May. They can have a couple of months off and then come in with three or four Tests under their belt very fresh after a break. Southern hemisphere sides have had the Super 14 that started in January, went all the way through, straight into the Tri Nations and they've been playing non-stop or training since January." Where north and south will agree is that, based on the first two rounds of the World Cup, the divide in form seems to be widening.
Former All Blacks star Jonah Lomu has observed the gap.
"The Irish, English, French and even the Welsh have shown nothing in this World Cup," Lomu wrote in his column for Rugby Hebdo. "They seem out of shape, not yet ready at this stage of the competition. Perhaps the Tri Nations better prepares teams than the Six Nations does? Still, I also believe that they could still wake up.
"Since the last World Cup [2003], the southern hemisphere sides have improved a lot, most notably in preparation.
"The Australians have an approach that is relatively scientific for rugby. The South Africans rested a lot of their players in the Tri Nations. The All Blacks had a lot of very hard training camps before arriving in France, but they didn't play in the start of the Super 14. The result is … they are starving for ball."
