Does Groom’s eerie prediction signal change in game plan?
OF all the predictions made by pundits both before and during the Rugby World Cup, none, surely, was as bang on the money as the one delivered by Edinburgh scrum-half Nic Groom a few days in advance of the tournament. Speaking at his first press conference since joining the team in the summer, the South African explained the particular conditions in which he believed his own country would win it.
“I think if we lose the first game against the All Blacks, we’ll win the World Cup,” Groom said. “I think it’s good for our psyche to be backs against the wall. Then we’ve got it all to play for … It will get the ticker going for the boys. There’s a risk we beat the All Blacks first game and it can work against you in a funny way.
“I am for the first time really heart and head thinking South Africa’s going to win the World Cup,” he continued. “Normally it’s heart.
“I think we’ve got a smart game plan. I think we are well equipped for the conditions there. And I just see us well aligned compared to previous years. I haven’t been this excited for a World Cup in ages. The Springboks love the underdog tag.”
Groom’s “not there yet” verdict certainly made sense after that opening pool game, in which the South Africans dominated much of the time but lost 23-13 to a New Zealand team whose defence was virtually impregnable and who counter-attacked with devastating effectiveness. Six weeks down the line in the final, though, the South Africans were very much there, overpowering England 32-12.
Although New Zealand were the favourites to win the cup for the third time in a row, South Africa were one of the four or five teams generally accepted to have a realistic chance of emerging victorious.
But what made Groom’s prediction particularly interesting was his insistence that losing to the All Blacks had to be the initial step to winning the trophy.
By contrast, throughout the opening weekend, a plethora of other pundits kept reminding us no team had ever won the cup after losing a pool game. And the implication was it couldn’t be done.
The fascinating thing about the competition as a whole was that no-one was on top of their game for very long. Ireland, the No.1 team in the world when it all kicked off, were pretty impressive in their first match against Scotland, but were dismantled by the All Blacks in the quarter-finals. A week after that, it was the New Zealanders’ turn to be outplayed by England. Seven days later, England fell well short of their best form against South Africa.
There are multiple lessons there for coaches, strength and conditioning staff, and, of course, the players – and the team that comes up with the best answers will surely benefit.
Do they accept that no team is able to be at the top of its game for very long and leave the rest to luck? Might they take a different view on squad rotation if they think individuals cannot be at their best for two or three weeks in a row? Or can they take a chance by planning not to be at their best right from the first kick-off?
In other major tournaments, whether that is the football World Cup, Wimbledon or the snooker world championship, the received wisdom has long been that you build into the competition and avoid peaking too soon. Italy’s 1982 World Cup win was the classic example of that, albeit partly by chance – they can hardly have planned to draw their first three games and squeak through the first group stage.
You don’t play for a draw in rugby, and the physical-confrontation aspect of the game is so intense the default position of many teams is to go full metal jacket from the off. But is that likely to change at future World
Cups? Has inconsistency become the new consistency, with coaches actually planning to have their teams under-performing slightly in their first few games? We should probably ask Nic Groom and see what he thinks.
SEAN Lineen believes the new Super6 league will be a major step to creating a development pathway for players and coaches similar to rugby in his native New Zealand.
But the former Glasgow Warriors coach also warned that the system won’t be an overnight sensation.
Lineen is in charge of on-field development of the Super6, which launches this weekend.
“It will take a while, it won’t be right straight away but it will give young players the chance to play regularly and put our coaches at a level where they can really challenge themselves,” said Lineen, who arrived in Scotland from Auckland in the late-1980s to play club rugby for Boroughmuir, and has ended up becoming part of the fabric of the game in this country as a player, coach and administrator.
“I equate it to the third tier in New Zealand but not with the same level of players at the moment.
“It will be like the Mitre10 – at that level, below the All blacks and Super Rugby – except here it will be below Scotland and the two pro teams. We will have a really good level of competition and some good level of cross border competition.
“When you reduce from 10 teams to six it concentrates the player base a bit more,” he reasoned, when asked why he believes the new competition will be a step up from the Premiership, which was previously the top tier of the Scottish club game.
“From the top down, we are looking for consistency. You can’t rest your best players – you have to be on your game every week.”
Each Super6 squad consists of 35 contracted players, including five at each club who are stagethree players of the SRU academy programme, having been identified as the nation’s best young players who are most likely to progress to the senior pro and international game.
“The academy guys are 18 to 20 years old and I would say it will take two or three years for them to come through at the top level,” said Lineen. “Talking to the players, the coaches and the supporters, we can’t wait to get Super6 started now and let it grow.
“There is a lot of great talent there, and now they will playing against quality opposition with good coaches week-in and week out. They will be under the spotlight and be more accountable.”