>> Jackson: Here are my award winners for 2020
The winner of the Boris Johnson Crystal Ball as used by the PM to predict 2020 ‘is going to be a fantastic year for Britain’ … Eddie Jones. In a highly competitive category, the gung-ho England head coach beat every other challenger hands down. “France can expect absolute brutality from England,’’ he said in bullish mood heading for Paris on the opening round of the Six Nations. “We’re going out there to make sure they understand what Test rugby is.’’
Unfortunately, it never seemed to occur to him that they understood it rather better on the day than Les Rosbifs. Result: France 24, England 17.
The Mike Tyson Award for demonstrating that ‘everyone has a plan until they get a smack in the mouth’ goes to …. Mohamed Haouas.
The judges made the French tighthead a clear winner, fittingly so given his antics at a venue in which one of his notorious predecessors, Gerard Cholley, floored four of the Scottish pack without the referee wagging as much as a finger at him.
Haouas acted as if unaware that the game had moved on since the permissive Seventies and that the TMO had a ringside seat. His punching of Scotland flanker Jamie Ritchie in the face four minutes before half-time put a large fist through what would surely have been the first Gallic Grand Slam for ten years.
Roy Keane’s Barbed-Wire Rant
of the year may have been aimed at Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea but Scottish supporters swear it ought to have been fired at the Welsh Rugby Union instead.
Why? Because their eleventh-hour postponement of the Six Nations match in Cardiff would have had Keane on one of his favourite subjects, ‘shocking defending’.
At 9.40 on the morning of Friday, March 13th, the WRU issued an email ‘confirming that the game will go ahead as planned’. The Premier League’s almost simultaneous announcement calling off their entire weekend schedule left WalesScotland as just about the last match standing before lockdown.
That afternoon the WRU did a volte face and called it off, leaving thousands of Scottish fans stranded.
Captain Tom’s Award for exceptional endurance at an advanced age goes to a centre 61 years his junior … Ma’a Nonu, below.
At 38, the dreadlocked All Black still doesn’t know when to quit. Two seasons after relocating in San Diego for a last stop in the Californian sunshine, he is now back in the thick of the hardest slog in Europe, at Toulon in the unforgiving Top 14. He will be 39 before the season ends and then what? Either a new contract or another club.
The Pink Floyd album Wish You Were Here: To the multitude of fans forced to turn some of the mightiest stadia in sport into stony silence. To paraphrase another hit, from Buddy Holley and The Crickets, the game misses you more than words can say which raises a challenging question: How many will come back when it is at last safe to do so?
Two of the most frightening quotes of the year: Mrs Mel Popham on husband Alix’s claim that too many on-field blows have caused the onset of his dementia:
“He gave his heart, body and soul to rugby. But he didn’t know that he was giving his brain as well.”
England World Cup-winning hooker Steve Thompson on the final in Sydney: “I was there but I can’t remember at all being there. I couldn’t tell you what the changing rooms were like. I can’t remember being there.’’
And one of the more humourous from Glenn Webbe on touring apartheid South Africa as a black player with Wales in the mid-Eighties: “Well, I thought they treated me really well. They gave me my own bus to go back and forth to games. I had my own little outhouse behind the hotel and they always made sure I had a table to myself when we were eating.”
Try of the year: Justin Tipuric for
Wales against England at Twickenham, finishing off a four-pass move covering almost 80 metres. Even the Red Rose legions appreciated it.
Unforgettable match: Exeter 31 Racing 27 in the Champions Cup final, an eight-try thriller complete with the fairytale ending.
Forgettable tournament: The Nations Cup kick-a-thong, as if condemned by an unwritten law forbidding anyone running the ball from deep.
Best single achievement: Wallaby captain Michael Hooper reaching a Test century in little more than eight years. It would have been the fastest of all time but for Covid-19 wrecking the schedule.
Best Test newcomers: 1 Romain Ntamack (France) 2 Jack Willis (England) 3 Cameron Woki (France)
Best Test performance: The Pumas, beating the All Blacks for the first time with something to spare: 25-15.
Worst decision of the year: The Argentinian
Rugby Union suspending skipper Pablo Matera one minute, then reinstating him the next despite vile racist tweets about black South Africans sent some years ago. How can the game be serious about racism when it stands back and does nothing?
Comeback of the year: Munster, down and all but out within half an hour at the Stade Michelen last weekend, somehow recovered from 9-28 to win 39-31. An achievement staggering enough to make the Phoenix rising from its ashes look very average.
Club of the year:
1 Exeter Chiefs. 2 Exeter Chiefs. 3 Exeter Chiefs.
And, finally, some of those we have lost: (see also Brendan Gallagher P24-25) Christophe Dominici (48): A troubled soul who brought crowds to their feet all over the world.
Andy Haden (69): The prototype professional of the amateur era with a win-at-any-cost attitude as Wales discovered in 1978.
Mike Slemen (69) left: Liverpool born and bred, England Grand Slammer, Lions Test wing, World Cup coach.
JJ Williams (72): Leaves a Lions record which will never be matched let alone surpassed: four tries in the same four-Test series.
Phil Kingsley Jones (72), left: Amateur prop and professional comic who moved from Blaina to New Zealand and discovered Jonah Lomu.
Dougie Morgan (73): Played, captained, coached Scotland over 20-year period and found time to be on 12th man duty against MCC at Lord’s.
Terry Cooper (79): As the Press Association’s rugby man broke news of England team selections over five decades.
Frank Myler (81): Widnes and GB, the last captain to win an Ashes series in Australia.
Raymond Hunter (82): Ireland and Lions centre who had a longer career as an international cricketer.
John Young (82): Fastest wing of his time, probably of all-time: AAA sprint champion at 18, Harlequins at 19, England at 20, Lions at 21.
Silas Nkanunu (87): Human rights lawyer, first black manager of the Springboks acclaimed as the Mandela of rugby.
Michel Celaya (89): Mighty second row from Biarritz who captained France for most of the 1950’s.
Ray Prosser (93): Pontypool lock, Test prop for Wales and Lions before transforming his home-town club into serial champions.