New year’s resolutions...
attentively It was Steve Tandy who said after Scott Baldwin had been bitten by a lion ahead of the Ospreys’ Guinness PRO14 game with the Cheetahs: “I don’t know what sort of wildlife show Scott has been watching where you can pat a lion on the head as if it’s a kitten.” It’s a fair point. Lions bite. Attenborough has spent much of his life reminding us of that.
His shows are popular, too. Baldwin really ought to watch them more closely. Saracens fans: Maintain the high standard of rugby chants When Scott Baldwin appeared off the bench against Saracens at Allianz Park in October, his first outing since being bitten by a lion more than three weeks earlier, home fans serenaded him with a few choruses of “In the Jungle”.
Credit to Baldwin for taking it all in good spirit. Steve Tandy: Build up some credit in the Bank of Public Opinion The only way to do that is for the Ospreys to enjoy a significant upturn.
After the Liberty Stadium region’s recent European wins over Northampton Saints, a chap dared to raise his head on social media with the two-word offering: ‘Tandy In’.
But the Tandy Out brigade were not long in flooding the scene following the Boxing Day loss to a 14-man Scarlets.
Nothing less than a 2018 surge up the Guinness PRO14 table to secure a Champions Cup spot for next season is going to convince the waverers to get behind Tandy. A European knock-out place from a group that includes Clermont Auvergne, Saracens and Northampton wouldn’t be a bad achievement, mind.
Whatever, the Ospreys need to improve.
Their efforts this season have been patchy and mediocre and no one will know that more than the head coach. James Davies and Dan Evans: Insist on playing games in luminous jerseys to help the Welsh selectors know you actually exist Everything else has been tried.
Davies did as much as anyone to hoist the Scarlets to the Guinness PRO12 title last term and he has quickly re-engaged his best form after returning from injury.
Evans was a beacon of consistency throughout 2017.
Yet Wales ignored both players. Perhaps the selectors have blind spots over them both, so something obviously needs to be done to remedy the situation. The Welsh Rugby Union: Understand the concept of self-harm By the standards of previous years, the WRU haven’t had a bad 12 months.
Those running the show are largely seen in a favourable light and they have managed to avoid the strife that scarred the previous regime.
Even so, it just seems weird that they have allowed a situation where Rhys Webb will be deemed off- limits to Warren Gatland after he moves to the Toulon next summer.
The situation will hurt Wales and could have been avoided had the union and the regions exempted those who had agreed fresh moves from the new rule that says that to continue their Wales careers exiled players must have 60 caps in the bank.
Webb wants to play for Wales, Warren Gatland evidently wants him to as well. But it isn’t going to happen. Even at this stage, someone ought to do something about it. Sam Warburton: Stay wrapped in cotton wool The former football manager Tommy Docherty once said of ex-England international John Barnes: “His problem is he gets injured appearing on A Question of Sport.”
He might have been saying the same of Sam Warburton.
Of course, the flanker plays in a sport and a position where the casualty rate is high. And his fearlessness and physicality will always leave him a likely bet to pick up a bump.
But, still, he has spent a disproportionate amount of his career on the sidelines.
He is currently out with a knee problem, after missing the opening half of this season with a neck injury.
Hopefully, Lady Luck will smile on him as he continues his recovery.
But, just in case, if anyone asks for the 6ft 3in, 16st 3lb forward to go ice skating or paragliding it might be advisable to politely decline. Brian O’Driscoll: Don’t enter any rugby quizzes any time soon Brian O’Driscoll is an affable man who has most of what it takes to be a hugely successful rugby pundit.
He is articulate, unafraid to say what’s on his mind and can draw on a bank of knowledge built up during one of the great sporting careers.
But he probably needs to avoid ‘Wales fringe players’ as a specialist subject should he ever get invited on Mastermind.
Cut to last summer and O’Driscoll admitting that Cory Hill, one of the ‘Geography Six’ called up by the Lions, hadn’t previously registered on his radar screen.
“I wasn’t even aware who Cory Hill was to be honest with you. I’m a pundit and I’m meant to know these things.”
What are we to make of it all? Well, O’Driscoll asked so many questions of Wales over the years that maybe he can be excused failing to answer one on a Welsh player. Nicky Thomas: You know what you have to do, mate This chap could be the powerscrummager Wales are looking for at tight-head if only he got himself seriously fit.
Adam Jones said it wasn’t until deep into his career that the penny dropped as regards the importance of good conditioning. It isn’t too late for Thomas. If he doesn’t take this chance, he will regret it later on.