FLASH FLOOD HAS FALCONS FLYING HIGH
Former England star playing pivotal role on and off pitch
AS HIS Newcastle team- mates were tearing into training earlier this week ahead of today’s trip to Bristol, Toby Flood was the one sipping a cup of tea on the sidelines with his feet up.
With age comes wisdom and the former England stand- off is smart enough to know there are different ways to peak for game day.
“Show ponies always need to be managed don’t they?” said Flood. Newcastle head coach Dave Walder, a team- mate of Flood’s before he decamped to Leicester and Toulouse, says protected pensioner status suits him.
“If we treat him as the elder statesman of the group he gives a lot back,” said Walder.
“He does half a session a day, the lads all give him s*** and complain about it but he turns up at the weekend and does all right. I tell him every day he’s an old b****** but he has been brilliant for us.’’
At 35, Flood has been pivotal to the Falcons’ remarkable return to the Premiership, in which they are unbeaten four games in. He admits they have even surprised themselves.
Next stop is Bristol who, because of coronavirus, will field an entire front row making their first Premiership starts. But the Bears will have their show- stopping Fijian Semi Radradra.
“It reminds me a little bit of when England played the All Blacks a few years ago and they picked Sonny Bill Williams in midfield,” said Flood. “Mike Ford [ defence coach] called an emergency backs meeting and he basically showed Sonny Bill Williams just carting through people, offloading off the floor, doing ridiculous things and he turned around and said: ‘ So lads, how do we stop that?’ Everyone just went: ‘ Er.. dunno. Not play the game?’.
“It was closer than we thought it might be and had we not butchered a couple of opportunities we might have snuck it but Sonny Bill was brilliant.
“We know how good Radradra is – we may have to give up a few yards here and there but then there are opportunities going at them too.” Part of Flood’s role is developing the promising Brett Connon, who is on the bench today. For the Northumbrian, this is full circle from the phase of his career when he was an up- and- comer learning from Jonny Wilkinson at Kingston Park.
“Jonny helped me no end in terms of how I should hold myself on the field and off it,” he said. “If I can add a tenth of the value that Jonny did to my game, then I’ll be leaving the club in a better place.” Flood has 18 months left on his contract but cites Mike Catt, his one- time England team- mate who played on until 38, as an inspiration. “The real world terrifies me so I am going to be playing until I am 50,” he said. “If I can play professional rugby in golden shorts, where no- one can tackle me like vets rugby, I am living the dream, aren’t I?” Referee Nigel Owens, who announced his retirement from international rugby last month, has been shortlisted for the Rugby Union Writers’ Club personality of the year for 2020. Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones and France scrum- half Antoine Dupont have also been nominated along with Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter and ex- Samoa international Dan Leo for his tireless work representing Pacific Island players.
The real world terrifies me so I’ll play until 50