Jonny on rampage Down Under
It’s 20 years ago this month that one of the strongest England Schools sides, spearhead by Jonny Wilkinson and Mike Tindall, travelled to Australia and kicked arse like never before in the Antipodes. On their return they were whisked off to Twickenham for a reception and greeted by Clive Woodward who had been confirmed as the new England coach a couple of days earlier. Heady stuff.
It was the culmination of a glorious purple patch for England Schools under the coaching of Geoff Wappett and was a tour that launched, by my count, no fewer than 21 players into the brave new world of professional rugby that was just putting its head above the parapet.
Ten of the squad were subsequently capped at senior level, another two became England A players while Simon Amor and Tony Roques both starred for the England Sevens team, a squad they now coach.
I mention those figures because, while acknowledging the very fine work of many club academies in recent years, Schools rugby has always been the tried and tested conveyor belt of English rugby talent. The Schools system has served English rugby superbly well, but alas these days their continuing contribution rather gets kicked into the long grass.
School is where most young players start, hone the basic skills and learn to love the game with a passion. It’s where and when they start dreaming of excelling and making a career from rugby.
The club scouts flock to the touchlines of the big games and/or quietly film endless games at the Rosslyn Park Sevens and other tournaments. That’s where the raw material is quarried year after year.
Never was this more so than the class of 97, a massive melting pot of raw talent and ambition which, with their early summer exams a distant sweaty memory, gloriously let rip, a last staging post before the new emerging professional clubs started to pick from the low hanging fruit.
“It was an incredible trip,” recalls coach Geoff Wappett. “To get such a freakishly talented and dedicated group of youngsters together for five or six weeks in near perfect playing conditions was/is a coach’s dream.
“It was an odd time. Professionalism in England was just one year in and nobody knew quite how it was going to work out, if at all. The lads were ambitious all right but I’m not sure quite so many really thought they would be able to make a living out of the game. What the tour did open their eyes to was just how good they already were and perhaps how good they might become.
“There were a couple of easier games on the itinerary – Northern Territories U20 in Darwin was an interesting experience and Victoria in Melbourne was another – but at that age you can use those matches to expand your own game.
In the big encounters we crushed the New South Wales and Queensland teams and in the Test Australia defended like bloody heroes to keep the score down to five tries and 38-20. People assume that it can’t have been a vintage Aussies side – well they beat New Zealand handily enough a few weeks later so I think we can surmise that they were pretty useful.”
A few months before the tour England had fought their way to a Five Nations Grand Slam in a closely contested tournament with the crunch match coming against Wales at a sunbaked Narberth where they trailed 17-15 going into injury time.
At which point a ridiculously youthful looking Wilkinson took control and directed his pack this way and that as they mauled their way upfield before he demanded the ball 35 yards out and stuck a dropped goal between the posts. The ref was blinded by the sun that day and it was the Wales full-back who signalled that the kick was good.
That victory over the Welsh had been England’s third Grand Slam in five years under Wappett who left the England Schools coaching job in 1999 with a record of P30, W26, D1, L3.
He had been been appointed following a calamitous whitewash in the 1993 Five Nations and a painful kicking in New Zealand that summer where they shipped over 50 points against a Jonah Lomu-inspired New Zealand Schools. Jonah was playing No 8 that day and caused carnage
Wappett continues: “I was blessed with a terrific back-up team and had a lot of trust in my selectors and the system.
“I did have the final say when it came to team selection, if I wanted, and on occasions also tinkered with the positions of players, but I felt very much as if everybody was pulling in the same direction and was happy to play their vital roles.
“We tried to be totally professional in our preparation and training because in my book anything less is totally unacceptable, but we also tried to have a laugh on the way. Just because they look like fullygrown men doesn’t mean to say they have yet reached maturity.
“Sometimes a 17-year-old schoolboy wants, well, just to lark around like a 17-year-old schoolboy! As long as it doesn’t go over the top, it’s a very healthy state of affairs. You want the lads to be happy and relaxed, not all anxious and feeling under pressure. It’s hard enough being a teenager in the first place!
“To be fair ‘97 was a once in a lifetime team. Jonny, Iain Balshaw, Mike Tindall, Lee Best, Simon Danielli who ended up playing for Scotland, Alex Sanderson, Andrew Sheridan, Steve Borthwick, Lee Mears and David Flatman. Andy Beattie was another top player and Tony Roques. An extraordinary bunch by any standards.”
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the class of 97 is that the majority of possibly the most intimidating pack England Schools have ever put out, were a year young. The Dulwich College trio of Flatman, Dawson and Sheridan – who was considered a lock at the time – all came back the following year as did Borthwick and Sanderson who captained the team during 1998. And, of course, Wappett famously opted to play his skipper James Lofthouse ahead of Wilkinson, right, at flyhalf in Australia, moving Jonny to centre alongside Tindall. Wilkinson had lost out to Lofthouse, who was from Sedbergh school, at Under 16 level but had impressed at fly-half throughout the Five Nations when Lofthouse had been injured. Once the Aussie tour began though Lofthouse was restored and, with Tom May unavailable for the tour, Jonny moved into midfield. Wappett says: “Jonny was very interesting at that age. We had clocked him early on in the trials but had noticed in the divisional games how intense he got when things went wrong, either for him personally or his team. Until you learn to control those sort of emotions they can be a problem at the pivotal position of fly-half “His talent was massive though so initially when planning for the Five Nations I decided to switch Jonny to centre, and at fly-half called on James Lofthouse, who at that time looked an equally exciting prospect and was a very calm operator at No 10 . He was also obvious captaincy material.
“Then fate, as it often does, played a hand and James got injured for the Five Nations matches. Jonny went to fly-half and never looked back. James was fit in time for the tour and then reverted to fly-half and it all worked very well. Jonny played centre alongside Mike Tindall, who I always rated very highly although some selectors though he was a yard short of pace, and, of course, Jonny went on to play his first season of international rugby at inside-centre alongside Jerry Guscott.
“Andrew Sheridan was probably the most powerful schoolboy rugby player I ever encountered, a massively strong man/boy. I played him at lock but seriously considered moving him up to the front-row. One of the problems trying that switch was that every time he packed down in the front row at training opposite David
Fatman, his good mate from Dulwich, the sparks would fly and I was in danger of losing both from the Test match with lf-inflicted wounds! “I abandonedand packed the ‘Sheri’ experient alongside Steve Borthwick as usual. What a combination they were too. Steve played half the Test with one ear hanging off or at least loosely connected with some very hurried streches. We had to get straight off to the hospital afterwards to have it re-stitched. It didn’t surprise anybody on that tour that Steve went on to have his great career and be the most enduring lock in Premiership history. Nothg stopped him. “Alex Sanderson was anothcracker – probably the hardest, meanest, most streetse schoolboy rugby player I ever saw. “He was also a brilliant natural captain, leading from the front. He was my skipper the following year. He was a defite future England captain. Alex won a few caps and had something of the Lawrence Dallaglio about him but serious neck and back injuries alas ended his career way too soon. He’s making up for that by being a great coach. That drive of his is still there.”
Wappett’s backroom team was drawn totally from the community of Schools rugby. It consisted of Richard Cooper, director of PE at Queen Mary’s GS, Walsall, who was the chairman of the 18-group committee and the tour manager. Mike Summers from Headlands School, Swindon, was the assistant manager. Peter Kingston, former 19-group and senior England scrum-half from Pate’s GS, Cheltenham, assisted Wappett with the coaching and succeeded Wappett as coach to the 18-group in 1999.
Overseeing everything with the lightest of touches was the England Schools president Captain Mike Peary
It was a management group and system that served England mightily and possessed inherent strengths that we are in danger of losing.
Yes, the Academies might get the youngsters working more systematically in the gym, running around in well organised pods and discussing different exit strategies ad nauseam but Schools is where youngsters develop their own unique and individualistic styles, delaying that process whereby the pressure comes on to become and identikit’ professional’ player.
Wappett concludes: “Bottom line is that they were an exceptional and unusual bunch, very individualistic who thought for themselves and provided the drive themselves.
“You didn’t have to motivate them much. We must organise a reunion sometime, there’s a fair bit to remember and chew the cud over.”
1997 AUSTRALIA TOUR PARTY:
Backs: S Amor (Hampton School), I R Balshaw (Stonyhurst College), L M Best (Durham School), M Walker (Dinnington CS), M J Tindall (QEGS, Wakefield), P C Greenaway (Colston’s Collegiate), J P Wilkinson (Lord Wandsworth College), SC J Danielli (Cheltenham College), P D Christophers (RGS Lancaster), J Lofthouse (Sedbergh School) (c),J Grindal (King Henry VIII, Coventry), D JR Smaje (RGS High Wycombe), S D Brading (Bedford School), C D Hill (St Joseph’s, Ipswich).
Forwards: D L Flatman (Dulwich College), L A Mears (Colston’s Collegiate), J Collins (West Buckland School), D A Giles (Kirkham GS), J G Hynes (KE VI, Fiveways, Birmingham), A Hubbleday (KE VI, Fiveways, Birmingham), J J Dawson (Dulwich College), A J Sheridan (Dulwich College), S W Borthwick (Hutton GS), A Sanderson (Kirkham GS), AW S Roques (Sevenoaks School), A J Beattie (Hampton School), M McCarrick (Sevenoaks School), A L Balding (Caludon Castle CS, Coventry), S Williams (Colston’s Collegiate), R Siveter (Coston’s Collegiate). Officials: R C Cooper (Manager), M R Summers (Assistant Manager), G Wappett (Coach), P Kingston (Assistant Coach), P Bradley (Physiotherapist), Dr S Hall (Doctor), Capt M A Pearey (ERFSU President), E J Blackman (ERFSU representative).
TOUR RECORD:
P8 W 8 F 543 A 62 Results (England score first): Northern Territories U20 115-3 New South Wales Country 72-8 ACT 41-3 NSW Combined High Schools 64-5 Victoria 111-0 Queensland 54-8 Queensland Select XV 48-15 AUSTRALIA 38-20 (Sydney).