England will have to be in full cry
WHEN it comes to rugby’s toughest cookies, Brad Thorn takes the biscuit. In fact, he would probably polish off the whole packet.
A dual- code international and 2011 World Cup winner who played 59 times in the All Blacks’ second row, last season Thorn was still turning out for Leicester at 40 – and turning in the performances of a man half his age – before eventually deciding to hang up his boots.
He retired with a well- earned reputation for doing the donkey work, making the hard yards and never taking a backward step. A chip off the same granite block as Martin Johnson.
But Thorn admits he sobbed when he and his All Black team- mates lifted the Webb Ellis Cup on home soil four years ago. The tears that fl owed after the 8- 7 victory over France in the fi nal were a mixture of “elation and relief” at fi nally satiating the New Zealand public’s hunger for a World Cup triumph after 24 fallow years.
England will be in a similar pressure- cooker environment when they kick off the tournament against Fiji at Twickenham on September 18. Thorn says Stuart Lancaster’s men will either handle the heat of playing at home or be burned to a crisp by it.
“It comes down to your mindset – the pressure can either be a burden or something that inspires and lifts you,” said Thorn, who is appearing in a Rugby Aid charity match tonight for a Rest of the World XV against an England XV at the Stoop. “There was defi nitely a lot of pressure but I embraced it. For me, having the whole country behind you, wishing you well, was a special thing.
“The fi nal itself didn’t go that well for us. Everyone had written off France but whenever someone is cornered, it makes them very dangerous. It was not the most exciting match but we hung in there – and there was a part of me that liked winning that way. It was ugly, it was tough, but we did the business.
“For three weeks in the knockout stages I was ‘ in the zone’, I put everything into it and I didn’t really switch off. So after the fi nal whistle went I felt elation, quickly followed by relief and emotion.
“I shed tears – a lot of them – and it all came out. It wasn’t until the next day that I started to feel really good about winning the World Cup.”
Thorn can also relate to Sam Burgess and his struggle to get to grips with union as a league convert. Thorn won three league caps for Australia, having moved across the Tasman from New Zealand at the age of eight, before switching codes in 2001.
He returned to the NRL from 2005- 7 and then decided to pursue his World Cup dream with the All Blacks, so he knows all about the diffi culties of jumping between the codes. And Thorn is preaching patience to both Burgess and the England fans who are expecting instant results.
“It was tough for a long time,” said Thorn. “There’s a whole heap of differences between the two games and I felt like I was just trying to keep my head above the water, learning as fast as I could.
“We’ll see what sort of time Sam gets on the pitch, as the World Cup can be a bit of a cauldron. Sam has had to learn a new game, so it takes patience, perseverance, grit and stubbornness – but over time, you can progress.”
If Burgess can match the ‘ grit’ Thorn displayed throughout his career, then perhaps he can match his achievements at a home World Cup as well. Rugby Aid kicks off at the Twickenham Stoop tonight at 7.45pm. Tickets are £ 20 and available via www. tickets. quins. co. uk or on the gate, with all proceeds going to Rugby for Heroes. It is exclusively live on BT Sport.