Premiership face getting an even lower settlement for player release
The picture of Serge Blanco and Jon Webb at the end of the ‘91 World Cup quarter-final that was in last week’s Rugby
Paper brought back so many great memories of my seven matches (we won six) against les Bleus.
I have to say that in my mind the French are by far the best team to play rugby against, particularly if you are a forward. As a back you faced one of the most innovative, instinctive and talented group of players who could produce majestic moves from anywhere on the pitch, but as a forward it was a different game.
Facing the French was always a challenge, especially in Paris. They were physically and technically very good and were schooled in a game that said ‘when at home you never lose’.
At club level in France the game was refereed very differently with partisan crowds who would not think twice at abusing a referee if the home team lost. This effectively led to the home side being given
against the visitors, which explains why so many front row players in France have broken noses and the travelling teams always seemed to end up losing.
My first cap was against the French in 1988 where we faced the side that had just lost out to the All Blacks in the first ever World Cup final. It was expected that we would lose by a cricket score because they were an established side, whereas we had a new manager, Geoff Cooke, and three new caps – Will Carling, Micky Skinner and myself.
In the end we lost 10-9 but could have won if Micky had not accidentally knocked over referee Owen Doyle who had to disallow a try scored by Kevin Simms because he didn’t see it. If only they had a TMO then! That was the only time I lost when playing against France but I always knew I had been in a very hard, physical game.
The article about the picture was correct but Blanco wasn’t a target for the whole game, merely at the start, as we all knew he was very temperamental and only needed a slight ‘knock’ to put him off his game.
The plan was to put the ball up and catch him early and ruck over which worked well until Jason Leonard, the youngest and fittest forward, arrived late and stood on him. The resulting penalty led to Nigel Heslop being punched by Eric Champ and then Blanco giving rise to the Skinner-Champ face-off.
Blanco was a great player but sometimes he took credit for other players’ initiative and a perfect example was the great try at Twickenham in our ‘91 Grand Slam.
Everybody thinks he started it but it was in fact Le petit General
Pierre Berbizier, who caught the ball and pretended to touch it down and, as we turned to run back, passed it to Blanco who ran ten yards and passed to Philippe Sella, who passed to Didier Camberabero who chip-kicked, regathered then cross-kicked to the middle of the pitch where Philippe Saint-André picked up and scored. Amen.