Posts filed under 'sport'
December 31st, 2011
One of Scotland’s longest serving and best rugby stars announced his retirement from international play a few days ago and in today’s New Year Honours list was awarded a much deserved MBE.
After the World Cup I said I hoped that he would carry on playing for another year but it seems he’s decided that he wants to go out at the top, and maybe the current hip injury that is preventing him from performing his usual kicking duties for Edinburgh has been a contributory factor.
Always an exciting runner in whatever position he appeared, he also became probably the best kicker in the world for a substantial part of his career. The big question has always been what his best position was. His early career seemed to suggest he would be a natural running stand-off of a type that we haven’t had since John Rutherford, but a number of coaches seemed to disagree and since he wasn’t being played there regularly it was always going to be difficult to capture that spot in the national side. As a result he mostly appeared at either full back or wing and while he was often deadly in broken play there are many who will always wonder if he could have controlled games from the number 10 shirt and encouraged the sort of running rugby that we aspire to.
He’ll be missed, both for his jinking running and his faultless kicking; particularly as Rory Lamont seems to keep getting injured. Thanks for some great memories Chris – enjoy your remaining time club career.
December 3rd, 2011
I’m just about to watch the Wales v Australia rugby international at which Shane Williams will end a glorious career. The worry is that we might never see another like him.
Earlier this week no less a legend than Barry John praised Williams as a player who would get into the best ever Wales team – high praise indeed when you consider the wonderful wingers that Wales have had over the years – the immortal Gerald Davies with a side-step to die for, and the electric-paced JJ Williams to name only two of the obvious candidates. But John was also concerned that we may have seen the last of the small, fast, balanced wingers who run round people instead of the man-mountains who run through them. A few years ago I voiced the same concerns in a post here Rugby’s problem in the professional era – big strong men.
Somehow rugby has turned into American Football – everyone except the scrum-halfs seems to be built bigger than the lock forwards I remember from my youth. Only in sevens do we still regularly see the value of the smaller men. Remember the wonderful Scottish three-quarters from a couple of decades ago? If Chris Paterson is criticised for being too small for full back what chance would Andy Irvine have? What of that lovely pairing of Jim Renwick and David Johnston. Would even as magnificent a player as Philippe Sella the magnificent French centre get into a modern international team?
If there is no room for player like these to flourish in the game then the glorious entertainment of rugby played with flair and imagination may become a thing of the past and it will descend into a wrestling match with the occasional kick. And that would be a tragedy. lets hope the coaches that watch todays’s match recognise the value and excitement that Shane has brought back into rugby during his career.
October 9th, 2011
We’re now at the semi final stages of the Rugby World Cup. It’s been a strange tournament; engrossing at times but seldom spectacular. The weather may have played a large part in that – I’ve seldom seen so many kicks missed – but there seems to be something a bit apprehensive about much of the play, as if the worries of the home fans that everything could go wrong again have spread to the other teams too.
Some of the results have been a bit odd too. All of the teams that were in Scotland’s group, including England, are out. Ireland, who started so well with a victory against Australia and who have been playing some lovely stuff, are out. South Africa, who beat Wales in their group, are out.
France, who have looked disjointed and disinterested, who were hammered by New Zealand in their group, whose coach couldn’t even give away free beer to his players, are in. Australia, who seem to have lost their character, lost to Ireland, and were largely dominated by South Africa, are in. If you are a fan of either New Zealand or Wales then you’ll be feeling optimistic right now. Except that for the Kiwis there is the worry of whether any of their stand-in stand-offs can replace the injured Dan Carter.
What of Scotland?
The stats would suggest that Scotland had a bad tournament; after all this is the first time we’ve failed to make the quarter finals. We didn’t score heavily against either Romania or Georgia while our main rivals did. However it can be argued that we got them early when they were at their most determined and the weather was against high scoring or the game we wanted to play. Then there were the two games we lost. Argentina should have been beaten: only the referee seemed not to see one of the most blatant offsides at the crucial drop goal at the end of the game. We were in charge for most of the game and really should have put enough on the board to render their late try irrelevant but we failed to find that crucial finishing edge. Against England the final result was a travesty that was probably brought about by a failing optimism in the last few minutes that we could maintain enough of a winning margin to get the bonus point we needed. The fact was that despite bad luck in losing Jackson early and Evans at half time, and a couple of very dubious penalty awards that allowed England back within the magic margin, that we were again in control of the match for 70 minutes. Three times the excellent outside breaks of Ansbro were inches from escaping the last tackle (if only that had been Evans), Foden performed outstanding heroics in getting a hand to prevent Danielli scoring, and De Luca will still be having nightmares about the failed pickup with the line abegging.
So despite the results I’m optimistic about the forthcoming 6 nations and with England as the first game the players should be really fired up for it. I hope Paterson stays to provide both his experience and kicking ability for a little longer. I’d like to see Mike Blair back at his best as I think he’s still lacking a bit of his old sharpness, but Jackson is still developing very promisingly.
Semi final prospects
But back to the World Cup. Can New Zealand win without Carter? They’ve been the best team in the world for as long as I can remember yet they haven’t been World Cup winners for 24 years. It seem inconceivable that they can’t win on home turf. Yet their games against Australia often don’t go to form.
Can Wales re-emerge as a genuine world force and give their supporters some new legends to supplant the memories of the golden age of Barry John, Gareth Edwards, JPR, Gerald Davies et al. In Shane Williams they have a supreme finisher who would crown a fabulous career with a winner’s medal in what would probably be his last match. They seem to have come together as a team and have an inspirational captain. But you just never know what the French are likely to do next – they could be awful or they could be incredible.
I’d dearly like to see a New Zealand – Wales final full of running rugby instead of some of the boring finals decided by kicks that we’ve seen too often. And if that happens then the best team on the day will be worthy and popular winners.
July 16th, 2011
Regular readers of this blog (two men and a dog in Kazakhstan) may be surprised to know that I don’t play golf, though I’ve written about it quite a few times. So much to do and so little time. I do enjoy watching it though. It one of the few sports that you can be certain is clean and where there’s no cheating. But what I really like about it is that it’s such a visible match of man against the elements and it exposes all the good and bad points in the players’ personality – the confidence or lack of it, the nerves, the determination, the composure, the imagination, the ability to accept the rub of the green or the bounce of the fairway. On the golf course under the cameras there’s no place to hide.
So here we are at the Open again, and what a privilege it is to watch the play and the demeanour of Tom Watson. Two years ago Tom did something that was by all reasonable measure quite simply impossible. At 59 and having recently had a hip operation he gave the youngsters a lesson in links golf and led for most of the tournament and was a stroke ahead going to the last hole. Forget the fact that he missed the putt that everyone in the watching world except maybe Stewart Cink’s mother wanted him to hole and then lost the play off – he finished joint first in the Open at 59. That was simply unimaginable.
Now here he is again at 61 and still competing, and we have the lovely story of him playing alongside the very promising young amateur Tom Lewis (40 years younger) – who was actually named after him! Surely only in golf could such a thing be imaginable let alone actually happen. To any golf historian the very words Old Tom and Young Tom have an immediate resonance of course. And here again we seem to have the youngster taking over from the revered older man with a tournament-leading first round score.
But Watson has outlasted not just his contemporaries (and of course we tragically lost his old rival Seve recently) but many of the stars that came after him, with a swing that is the purest you could ever hope to see and has stood up to everything that his favourite links winds have thrown at him. Indeed there is the suspicion that if the winds had blown more over these first two days he might have been nearer the leaders than he is. The crowds everywhere love him, though up here in Scotland I sense there is maybe even more affection, as he seems to have been adopted as one of us, a man who plays golf as we feel it should be played. He handles himself with dignity and modesty and clearly enjoyed his young namesake’s play.
You’d think that would be all you could expect, with maybe making the cut as a bonus when ex-champions all around, not to mention the top two players in the world, were failing to do so. But no, this legend had one more present for the crowds – a 4 iron clipped perfectly at the 6th hole that never left the line of the flag and took one bounce before diving in for a hole in one. You really couldn’t make this stuff up because no-one would believe you. And once again he handled it with grace and charm. A truly special player and man.
The forecast for tomorrow is for bad weather – we may not have seen the last of Tom even yet.
July 8th, 2011
Wimbledon is over for another year, lots of good tennis if maybe not a classic year, but thank heavens we can get a rest from the endless build-him-up, knock-him-down media frenzy about Andy Murray. When will we ever learn? When will we tell the media that they should get a life and be realistic about him, and for that matter about any of our other sportsmen and women, instead of following them like sheep and splitting into love/hate camps.
Some countries support their sports stars, nurture them, encourage them, help them to be better. Champions don’t spring forth fully formed, they have to learn, develop their skills, work on minimising their weaknesses, building their confidence and mental strength. We seem to demand instant results.
Did Seb Coe (still the most electrifying athlete I’ve ever seen, despite his politics) arrive on the scene winning senior medals from the word go? Of course not, he worked his way through the junior and student ranks and built up through early performances before blossoming into a wonderful runner. Did Stephen Hendry sweep all before him immediately? No, he was wonderfully good but he had to learn how to handle the pressures of the Crucible, and then how to beat Steve Davis before he started to dominate the snooker world. Did even as precocious a talent as Seve Ballesteros win straight away? No. Yet I recall listening with astonishment to a Radio 5 discussion when Andy Murray was about 19 that slagged him off for not having the right physique and basically writing him off before he’d hardly started his career. They compared his build unfavourably to Nadal, who was a very early developer physically and is now running into problems with ankles and knees because of the strain he puts on them. And of course Nadal is now talked about by many as being one of the all-time greats.
The fact is that Murray is a very good tennis player who has developed his game and skills over the last few years and has had great success. He’s won many tournaments and has reached the final of majors. He reached the semis at Wimbledon, which was exactly where his seeding and world ranking suggested he would reach. That’s not failure, that’s being beaten in the latter stages of a tournament by a player who is supposed to beat you as current form stands. If that was the Olympics he’d have got a medal and we’d be celebrating it, not bemoaning his loss and declaring he’ll never win a gold. Give him some encouragement and maybe he’ll win one.
This attitude runs throughout British sport these days, if you’re not the greatest ever then you’re a failure. It takes a seriously strong mental attitude to survive the pressures the media puts on our sports stars. We expect them to be winning machines instead of human beings, forgetting that the real glory of sport is often in dealing with our human weaknesses and overcoming seemingly impossible problems. Think of Danny McGrain who came back from a career-threatening fractured skull to be one of the best full-backs in the world, of the battles against depression of Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree or a couple of England test cricketers. Of Bob Champion and Aldaniti. Sport isn’t a black and white contrast of champs and chumps, it’s a continual striving to be the best you can be and any media pundit who forgets that does sportsmen and us all a great disservice.
May 13th, 2011
Good to see the various moves to permanently commemorate the life of Seve Ballesteros – his death a few days ago saddened everyone who remembers his golden period when you didn’t have to know anything about golf to be aware of him. He was such a dynamic and charismatic figure and turned the game into something dramatic that people wanted to watch for the passion and personality as well as the skill.
Even after his deteriorating back made his driver something of a hit and hope implement his short game was still wonderful to watch – at the height of his powers it was pure sorcery with touch so delicate and an imagination so tuned that other top golfers could only marvel.
Tom Watson, who I’ve extolled here before, would undoubtedly have won at St Andrews if he’d been up against anyone but Seve and would have been an immensely popular winner, but all eyes were magnetically drawn to the Spaniard and his reactions on the last two holes have become indelible images. It’s immensely sad that he didn’t have the chance to return to the scene and walk up the 18th one last time and hear the roars of acclaim that would certainly have rung around that ancient course
His will to win and his infectious determination inspired his Ryder Cup team members to a degree that’s almost impossible to appreciate and his captaincy took that inspiration to new heights. Other Spanish sportsmen such as Nadal have risen to the top using his example and he was in every sense a national treasure.
His performances should be compulsory viewing for every young golfer who goes through the tour school, but there’ll never be another quite like Seve. We who saw him in action were privileged and will never forget him.
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