Good Day
To suggest a bit of radical thinking as World Rugby’s panel gets read to decide upon the winners of the two most predictable award categories in world sport.
The short list for the World Rugby team of the year and World Rugby coach of the year prizes – which will be handed out at the annual awards ceremony on Sunday - were announced and, guess what, the All Blacks were on the list as their head coach.
Should they win it will be the fifth time in a row the All Blacks have won and the ninth time since 2005, while Hansen could be coach of the year for a fourth year in a row, his predecessor Graeme Henry having won it in four of the previous six years.
With two Scots – John Jeffrey and Scott Hastings - on the five man panel deciding upon the short list we hesitate to suggest that this is the latest evidence of a stultifying lack of imagination but, well… let’s just say that sometimes it is worth considering things like resources and opportunities.
Funnily enough the other World Cup finalists, the Wallabies, are also on the list of teams in the frame as is their coach Michael Cheika who, admittedly, has brought about a remarkable turn-around in their fortunes.
However there is room for some hope that the truly remarkable team and coaching achievements of the year will be acknowledged with Argentina and Japan and their coaches Daniel Hourcade and Eddie Jones all nominated.
Bad Day
For those of us hoping that the way in which the emerging nations have performed at this World Cup will make a difference in the years between this tournament and the next one in 2019 if the analysis of Jebb Sinclair, Canada’s back-row forward proves accurate.
One of many individual players whose sporting career has been transformed by representing a Tier Two side on the international stage, he is now playing for London Irish in the English Premiership.
However he believes that his national side and others at the same level continue to be ill-served by the sport as a whole.
Four years ago in New Zealand it was exactly the same argument but nothing has changed,” he told the BBC website.
“Everyone went on a campaign after the 2011 World Cup and were tweeting and writing articles about it, but once again it all faded away.”
His side having failed to register a win at this tournament he expressed the hope that there will be an improvement in their fixture list in the next few seasons.
“We played Scotland two summers ago and Ireland before that, but that was during a British Lions tour when they weren’t at full strength. If we get two or three of those games a year you would notice drastic improvements,” he reckoned.
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