A sea of people hailed Carling like a Messiah

Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful

What’s happening here?

THE England supporters at Twickenham are being very un-English and going totally nuts minutes after England have beaten France 21-19 in the 1991 Grand Slam decider. Despite the stern voice of Peter Yarranton on the stadium PA telling them not to run onto the pitch they do exactly that and hoist England’s still youthful skipper Will Carling onto their shoulders.

A new breed of England fan is making known their approval of a team that has been copping flak in some quarters for its suspiciously ‘professional’ ways and aspirations. It’s only the second England Grand Slam since 1957 and the first to be clinched at home since Eric Evans’ team did the business that year. It’s both a time to celebrate and to perhaps dream of greater glories ahead.

What is the story behind the picture?

England had been under-performing seemingly for ever. Many had hoped that the 1980 Grand Slam under Bill Beaumont would have finally kick started a more consistent era but for various reasons – retirements, serious injury and a return to rank bad selection – it petered out and by midway through the decade England were a shambles again. The 1987 World Cup was another low point. Something had to change.

Then in 1988 new coach Geoff Cooke appointed youthful Quins centre Will Carling – at Durham University on an Army scholarship – as captain. Carling, with just five caps under his belt, was as surprised as anybody.

In fact when Cooke phoned him one Monday night in September he assumed it was to drop him from the squad. On the contrary he was now the man in charge.

Cooke wanted a new culture and that meant a new man at the top. His man. He overlooked all the old lags who might have had a better claim – Dean Richards, Brian Moore, Peter Winterbottom – and placed all his trust in Carling who he had first spotted playing for the Northern Division a couple of years earlier.

Progress was gradual. England got much fitter and there were couple of decent wins in the 1989 Five Nations but they still lagged well behind champions France.

In 1990 they were much better – impressive even – but then they got outplayed and out psyched by a very good Scotland team in the Grand Slam decided at Murrayfield. The disappointment of that defeat lingered long and hard but was a great motivator.

Older and wiser they tightened things up massively in 1991 and were ruthlessly efficient in recording wins over Wales, Scotland and Ireland in that order.

The Wales victory was their first in Cardiff for 28 years and featured a world recordequalling seven penalties from Simon Hodgkinson but was marred by the team’s refusal to attend the Press conference afterwards.

Most assumed it was some sort of protest against the RFU not entertaining the notion that they should be paid for some commercial activities.

The players insisted it was a kick back against overzealous Press and media demands in the weeks before the game. Whatever the case almost nobody talked about Hodgkinson’s heroics.

From the outside the whole campaign seemed a little fractious and fraught but the team were becoming close nit and determined to prove a point.

What happened next?

In the Grand Slam decider England came up against an inspired France at Twickenham where the crowd, initially, seemed paralysed with nerves and their side likewise. France scored three outstanding tries, one by Philippe St Andre which ranks among the greatest ever seen, and there could have been more. But dogged England kept plugging away, Hodgkinson kicked four penalties and converted a Rory Underwood try and Rob Andrew kicked a drop goal. Somehow England scraped home and the Grand Slam was theirs.

Why is the picture iconic?

This is one of the ultimate pictures of sporting deliverance minutes after a match England should probably have lost. The fans are celebrating not only a win and a Grand Slam but in their minds a minor miracle.

It’s all slightly biblical. Carling is being hailed almost as the Messiah, a white-clad figure being held aloft amid a sea of people who are reaching out as if to touch him. Who knew that England fans cared so much and were so passionate? That was the preserve of the Celts, the English were above all such emotional incontinence. Oh no they weren’t!

In the committee box I suspect the vanguard of old amateurism was mixing broad smiles with a few disapproving frowns, uncomfortable with this idolatry and celebration of the individual over the team. This is possibly the moment when, through no fault of his own, Carling was perceived as becoming bigger than the game itself and the blazers started to become suspicious and wary.

Footnote: England under Carling reached the final of RWC1991 and won two further Grand Slams in 1992 and 1995. Soon after the latter, however, he was summarily sacked as captain for a casual off-mike comment while being interviewed for a documentary when he described the RFU committee as 57 old farts. After a public outcry he was quickly reinstated for the 1995 World Cup. The RFU never really ‘got’ Will Carling and what he meant to England rugby fans.

“Who knew that England fans cared so much and were so passionate?”