Jones entitled to pick Shields for England
OPINION: Eddie Jones is absolutely within his rights right to pick Brad Shields for the tour to South Africa. International rugby has never been about principle. It has always been about results. Never mind trying to occupy the high moral ground. Jones’s only concern is scaling the peak that is the Rugby World Cup in Japan next year.
All other considerations fall by the wayside. Jones is on course to take the Hurricanes flanker to South Africa for the three-test tour in June and has set that process in motion. The approach to Shields has caused a storm in New Zealand, where there are mutterings about fighting the switch of putative allegiance in the courts. Jones should take no heed. He should pick whomever he wants. And the reason is simple.
You win or you lose (or occasionally draw) at test level. That is how Jones and this England generation are judged. Their stock soared as they ratcheted up a record-equalling 18 successive victories before being felled by Ireland in Dublin last year. And now they are on their comparative uppers after three defeats in the Six Nations and a fifth-place finish in the championship, their worst-ever return.
From cock of the walk to feather duster in one tournament, Jones is well aware of how fickle sporting life can be. As he put it: ‘‘I used to be referred to as the England head coach. Now it’s the Australian in charge of England.’’
After England’s miserable World Cup in 2015, Jones was hired to raise the national team in the rankings. He has done just that by having a clear focus – getting results on the field.
Stuart Lancaster had a much broader brief, taking over in late 2011 when the Rugby Football Union was in meltdown. The repair job entailed a complete makeover; of image, identity and culture. In that regard, Lancaster did a fine job. Yet he is remembered as the man who failed to get the hosts out of their World Cup pool, the first time that has ever happened. That has been a tough reputational blow to bear for Lancaster.
As the 2018 nosedive in England’s fortunes has shown, the only thing that anyone cares about is the scoreboard. Anyone who pretends otherwise is a hypocrite. Just ask Lancaster, thrashed in the public domain, despite all the advances made.
So, if Jones wants Shields to tour South Africa, then that is what he should do. Any other action would be a betrayal of his contract. He was hired to deliver. If Shields is to be part of that winning jigsaw then best to get that piece slotted in as soon as possible.
Of course, there is unease in some quarters about Shields being fast-tracked. Guff, too, about his supposedly strained eligibility. The 27-year-old is Englishqualified through his parents. Yes, they themselves emigrated when they were youngsters, Kiwi-reared as is their son. And, yes, Shields, part of the New Zealand Under-20 squad who won the World Cup in 2011, is having a tilt at English honours because the All Blacks have not come calling until very recently.
So what? As with a host of those who have gone before him – Bundee Aki in Ireland this season, likewise Hadleigh Parkes in Wales – rules are rules. Anything else is emotive twaddle.
Shields joins Wasps in September. That contract was signed last November, so enabling Jones to argue that the back-row forward meets the RFU requirement to be playing in the domestic game.
As to pondering what sort of message Shields’s swift elevation to the test ranks sends to those players toiling away in the Premiership without being selected, there is a simple riposte – play better and you, too, will be selected. On a practical level, Jones would wait to see how Shields performs for Wasps, but the World Cup would be only 12 months away once he starts playing here.
A tour is the perfect chance to run the rule over him and, if he cuts the mustard (and there are legitimate doubts as to whether he might), for him to get used to England’s patterns of play.
Is Shields a mercenary? What does that actually mean? Playing for money? Well, then, Shields is no different than any of the hundreds of others plying their trade and hoping to get noticed. Jones has noticed him and that is why he should go to South Africa.
BRAVO WEBER
Israel Folau’s comments that gay people ‘‘should repent of their ways or face damnation in hell’’ were abhorrent. The three-code Wallaby fullback ought to have been dealt with far more severely by his employers at the Australian union, who have tip-toed around the issue, fearing either some sort of legal riposte under freedom-ofexpression rulings or rebuke in that it was religious belief that underscored Folau’s social-media posting.
If the authorities have been lily-livered, then no such charge can be laid against two New Zealand players, Chiefs’ Brad Weber or Hurricanes’ TJ Perenara. Weber, in particular, should be held up as a role model for young professionals, many of whom are scared to voice what might be construed as an opinion. Sport is not at a remove from society, it is an integral part of it. Weber stated that he was ‘‘kinda sick of us players staying quiet’’.
Bravo. Too many refrain from speaking, as if having a view might somehow damage team spirit, break the bond of squad omerta.