In today’s announcement, fiendishly devised by Rob Andrew and the English Rugby Football Union to cast doubt upon my rugby prediction skills, Brian Ashton was promoted from Attack Coach to Head Coach of the England team.

Ashton has a lot of things going for him, but I don’t think he’s the right man for the job, this appointment smacks of desperation with the Rugby World Cup happening next year.

Rob Andrew has no doubts about moving Ashton up:

Brian is the most experienced coach in England , he has enormous respect with the players and he has massive international and club experience. This coaching team have only been together since May and I believe Brian is the right man to lead the coaches and players into a new period for English rugby starting with the Six Nations opener against Scotland.

Jeff Probyn (former England prop) thinks Ashton’s appointment was a mistake.

It’s a short term stopgap and that’s not what England need, they need to put in place a structure that will take them forward for the next 10 years rather than taking a short-term view. The current thinking is obviously let’s appoint Brian, get through the World Cup and then appoint someone else. Brian works well alongside others who make decisions. Coaching-wise he’s the man to take England forward. But as a head coach, decision-maker and planner of the broader vision to take England forward, he’s not the right man.

Exactly my thinking. Here’s some other commentry on Ashton as England boss:

Sir Clive Woodward:

Not that good in terms of winning international rugby matches

Will Carling:

He’s a great coach but I think we need a manager

Donal Lenihan:

I have a huge amount of respect for Brian and I’m sure the England players will as well

Stuart Barnes, unfortunately worded:

England need a head coach who is not scared of losing and that man is Brian Ashton

And finally Ashton himself:

It’s a massive privilege. I recognise the challenges ahead of us and along with the other coaches in the team my focus now is to prepare England to play Scotland on February 3

Will he be successful? It’s hard to know what success is in terms of this team – beating Scotland, Italy and one other in the Six Nations would be a good start. One positive for him is that English rugby can’t possibly get any worse.

Despite Serge Blanco’s best efforts the Heineken Cup is still up and running this year. Yesterday the tournament organisers announced the fixtures for round 6 on the weekend of 19th to the 21st of January 2007.

HEINEKEN CUP 2006 / 2007 – ROUND 6

FRIDAY 19 JANUARY, 2007

• Pool 2 Gloucester Rugby v Leinster 19.30 Sky Sports/RTE
• Pool 2 Edinburgh v Agen 19.30

SATURDAY 20 JANUARY, 2007

• Pool 1 Castres Olympique v London Wasps 14.30 FR2/Sky Sports
• Pool 1 Perpignan v Benetton Treviso 14.30
• Pool 3 Stade Français Paris v Rugby Calvisano 16.30 Canal+
• Pool 3 Sale Sharks v Ospreys 15.30 Sky Sports
• Pool 4 Cardiff Blues v Bourgoin 17.35
• Pool 4 Munster v Leicester Tigers 17.35 Sky Sports/RTE

SUNDAY 21 JANUARY, 2007

• Pool 5 Llanelli Scarlets v London Irish 13.00 Sky Sports
• Pool 5 Toulouse v Ulster Rugby 14.00
• Pool 6 Overmach Rugby Parma v Border Reivers 16.00
• Pool 6 Northampton Saints v Biarritz Olympique 15.00 Sky Sports/FR2

Heineken Cup – Round 4 results

Catching up with the weekend just gone, the Irish sides had a great weekend of it last weekend, with Round 4 wins for Leinster away to Agen , Munster at home to Cardiff , and Ulster at home to London Irish . The table looks pretty good from the Irish rugby perspective.

Leinster look to have cemented place in knock-out stage

Leinster’s 13 – 25 away win was somewhat against the odds with the French side expected to put on a strong performance, and Leinster with their key playmaker Comteponi still injured. It was a scrappy first half, honours even, with a strong showing from Agen early in the second, but Leinster clinched it with a strong final quarter. Dunne shone through as replacement kicker with a drop goal and conversion when he came on, both scores in injury time, after D’arcy and Dempsey once again proved how badly Comteponi is missed in that department.

Leinster are top of pool 2 with 3 wins, 1 loss and 3 bonus points, their rivals Gloucester have 2 wins, 2 draws and 3 bonus points, with Agen close behind.
Agen: Elhorga; Ahotaeiloa, C Stoltz, Mirande, Caucaunibuca; Miquel, Morlaes; Van Niekerk, Narjissi, Meeuws; W Stoltz, Koulemine, Lievremont, Yukes, Soucaze. Replacements: Fulton for Morlaes (71), Guinazu for van Niekerk (46), Socol for Koulemine (53), Tiatia for Lievremont (73), Culine for Yukes (65). Not Used: Faaletino, Mignardi.

Leinster: Dempsey; Horgan, O’Driscoll, D’Arcy, Hickie; Warner, Whitaker; McCormack, Blaney, Wright, Hogan, O’Kelly, Keogh, Gleeson, Heaslip.
Replacements: Dunne for Warner (80), Jackman for Blaney (23), Corrigan for Wright (47). Not Used: Finegan, Jowitt, Easterby, Fitzgerald.

Munster roll on

The Munster machine is not lacking this year, they’re sitting pretty at the top of pool 4 with 4 wins from 4 and 2 bonus points after a hard fought 32 – 18 victory over Cardiff Blues on Saturday.

Munster: S Payne; J Kelly, B Murphy, T Halstead, I Dowling; R O’Gara, P Stringer; D Hurley, F Sheahan, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (capt), A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: Pucciariello for D. Hurley (64). Not Used: Kyriacou, Wyatt, O’Sullivan, O’Leary, Manning, Mafi.

Blues: B Blair; T James, J Robinson, T Shanklin, C Czekaj; N Macleod, M Phillips; J Yapp, T Rhys Thomas, T Filise, B Davies, D Jones, S Morgan, M Williams, X Rush (capt). Replacements: Stcherbina for James (34), G Williams for Thomas (58), G. Powell for Filise (51), Lewis for Jones (52), N Robinson for Stcherbina (57). Not Used: White, Evans.

For the record

Munster are unbeaten 12 games in the Heineken Cup now, and their 31 game unbeaten home record is screaming for someone to knock it over…

Our home record is something we are very aware of. We talk about it before matches and none of us wants to be in the team that finally loses a Heineken Cup tie at the ground. Of course we know it is going to happen sometime as records are merely there to be broken. It puts pressure on us and there is certainly a bit of a fear factor involved.

Paul O’Connell speaking after their Round 3 game at Cardiff.

Ulster win too late to save them

Ulsters strong 29 – 13 win over London Irish was well fought, but appears not to be enough as Llanelli Scarlets achieved a brilliant 41-34 away victory over Toulouse. This means that to top the group Ulster now need to achieve bonus-point wins against the Scarlets and Toulouse in January and hope that Llanelli also slip up at home against London Irish.

In other news from Friday’s game in Ravenhill it appears that London Irish are to lodge a formal complaint over alleged racial abuse

Smith said that he had already verbally lodged the complaint to ERC chief Derek McGrath, who attended Friday’s game.

The London Irish coach added that there was “no love lost” between the sides after the two recent games.

“It starts from number one to 22 and carries on through the management.”

Ulster chief executive Michael Reid said that he was “comfortable that the allegation is unfounded”.

Connacht disappoint in European Challenge Cup

Montpellier beat Connacht 35-22 in a battle of the also-rans. Connacht were a man up almost all game, after the Montpellier out-half was shown red in the 5th minute, and managed to run in 4 tries for the second week in succession. Match report from ConnachtRugby.ie implies the penalty count was strongly to blame (I’m sceptical).

What’s left in the Heineken Cup?

ROUND 5: 12 / 13 / 14 January, 2007
ROUND 6: 19 / 20 / 21 January, 2007
QUARTER-FINALS: 30 / 31 March / 1 April, 2007
SEMI-FINALS: 20 / 21 / 22 April, 2007
THE 12th HEINEKEN CUP FINAL – TWICKENHAM STADIUM – Sunday, 20 MAY, 2007

The guys at Geared Up reminded me of this video, been intending to post it but just plain forgot… Once you see, you’ll understand why a fella might want to put it out of his mind 🙂

No, it’s not pretty, but at least it’s not Brittany Britney Spears, eh?

Technorati Tags: rugby, Heineken Cup, Munster

Dean Richards will be new the England rugby coach .

No, it hasn’t happened yet, but that’s my bet now and here’s why: on Tuesday, Eddie Jones committed himself contractually to the Queensland Reds. He’s definitely there until the end of May 2007 when the Super 14 ends – it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that he’d be available for England after that.

This afternoon Sir Clive Woodward ‘s pick for the job, Nick Mallett , is reported to have ruled out the England job, at least according to his current boss.

I met with Nick yesterday and he told me he had no interest in the England job. We’re in negotiations to extend his contract for a further year.

The list of potential candidates for England coach now looks something like this:

• Rob Andrew (ruled himself out)
• Warren Gatland (boss ruled him out)
• Eddie Jones (ruled himself out)
• Martin Johnson (ruled himself out)
• Nick Mallett (boss ruled him out)
• Dean Richards (said he “could be persuaded”)
• Jake White (worked hard to cement his tenuous hold on the South Africa job – unlikely to quit before Rugby World Cup 2007)
• Brian Ashton (current attack coach)
• A N Other (is there anyone else suitable who’s available? I don’t think so)

You saw it here first.

Update:

Jilm over on boards.ie mentions another possibility – Brian Ashton:

Brian Ashton getting a promotion to Head Coach – even just for the short term – might be a possibility.

I don’t think Ashton will get it because Andrew doesn’t want to appoint from within the current administration. A new, outside candidate is what he needs politically. English rrugby is far from appointment by merit at this stage. It looks like the BBC disagree with me:

England could have a new head coach as early as Wednesday – and the hot tip for the job appears to be Brian Ashton.

Ashton, England’s attack coach under former boss Andy Robinson, is thought to be the choice of new Rugby Football Union elite director Rob Andrew.

Rob, seriously, you might want to give this a little more thought. Didn’t you say that you would take the time necessary to find the right man for the job?

Pop-quiz: can you name the two fallen giants of European rugby The most consistent two teams in the Northern Hemisphere since the dawn of professional rugby ? The two teams with the highest number of Six Nations victories ?

England and France have thrown the future of the Heineken Cup , Europe’s premier club rugby competition, into serious doubt, because the two nations have failed to create an effective long term strategy for professionalism.

French clubs threatened to pull out of next year’s competition. They are unhappy with how many games they will have next season and axing the cup would free up several weekends.

England’s clubs are already in dispute over the cup’s future and have refused to sign a successor to the agreement which governs the competition. Premier Rugby, which represents England’s top-flight clubs, wants them to become direct stakeholders in the competition. The RFU opposes giving them a greater say in running the competition.

While I feel (a little) sorry for the state of French and especially English rugby at the moment, I’m extremely annoyed that they are putting one of the best rugby competitions in the world at risk.

Over a week ago England’s Rugby Football Union finally sacked poor Andy Robinson . Or rather, they didn’t sack him, but he’s “standing down” more than a little reluctantly and with a lot of confusion about the exact nature of his leaving the job. I’m sure 300,000 pounds sterling helped the kick in the teeth a little.

Now coachless, whither, England

English rugby is deep in crisis. It’s mid-December now, only a few short months until the Six Nations begins on Feb 3rd, and 10 months (10!) until the Rugby World Cup. What’s the plan now that they’ve kicked Robinson out the back door? According to Rob Andrew the plan is … nothing, especially if you’re a betting man…

If you are a betting man you would think it is highly likely no-one will be appointed by 3 February

Woodward: World Cup win “a disaster”

This is the headline of a sure to be controversial article in today’s Sunday Times, in which Sir Clive Woodward lays out why English rugby is in such a decline. If you’ve read his book “Winning!” -which I highly recommend for anyone interested in either sport or business management – you’ll know that the England job is all about managing the relationship with the Premiership clubs so that the elite players are available and properly prepared.

Woodward mentions this in his article, pointing out that the two form sides in the world currently are New Zealand and Ireland , and both have complete control of their international players. On the other hand, England management is a quagmire of day-to-day negotiations with clubs who are in control of the top players. The RFU had to go to the High Court to have players available for the New Zealand test and, ominously, Premier Rugby Ltd. the body representing the clubs said:

The clubs must now carefully assess the ramifications of this potentially reduced protection from international release and the impact this may have on clubs in the future.

Even the judge urged the two sides to reach an agreement!

Sir Clive also was critical of the image of Rob Andrew hovering over Andy’s shoulder during the autumn games. A “heavy duty top coach” would have told Andrew in “two short words” to stop hovering and remove himself to the commitee box. I wonder what those words would be?

We won the World Cup in spite of the system

When your World Cup winning manager says something like that, then no matter what your personal feelings are about him you must give it some serious consideration. This includes you, Francis Baron.

Who wants the England job?

A host of names have been linked with the England job, including World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson, former South Africa coach Nick Mallett, Harlequins coach Dean Richards and former Wasps and Ireland coach Warren Gatland.

Add to that list (from BBC Sport) some other potential candidates: Jake White, the current and under fire South Africa coach, and Rob Andrew himself, the currently elite director at the RFU who has ruled himself out. Let’s assume that these guys are all insane enough to take on the job of coaching this train-wreck to RWC07 and will put up with the inevitable defeats, the disgusting nastiness on the back pages, the boos at Twickenham and dealing with Francis Baron, Rob Andrew et al. If they’re willing to put up with all that, then managing the team to the World Cup will be a walk in the park. Who’s actually available?

• Martin Johnson: Despite his on the pitch leadership, has never coached a team in his life. And he says he’s not keen on the job.
• Nick Mallett: Not well known in this hemisphere, currently in Cape Town with Western Province. Has criticised the RFU recently and doesn’t seem very keen but he did express interest in the elite director position previous and is willing to move to England.
• Dean Richards: Currently boss at Harlequins, says he could be persuaded: another potential candidate. Has the backing of the England captain, Martin Corry.
• Warren Gatland: His boss at Waikato has insisted that Gatland would refuse any advances.
• Jake White: He’s survived a vote of no-confidence at South Africa so might not be going anywhere.
• Eddie Jones: has also expressed interest in the position.

Woodward is pretty definite about what should be done:

Nick Mallett, the South African, is far, far ahead as the best candidate as new head coach. But he would not dream of becoming enmeshed at present. Yet he is the one man who comes remotely close to matching the profile of what the job should be.

Mallett has said he does not want the job. Of course he wants it. It is just that he does not feel the need to apply – and more to the point, would have no part in the current structure.If the RFU is serious about recovery, it should go out and land him.

My feeling on it, unfortunately, is that the RFU is going to dismiss Woodward’s article as a personal attack due to his failure to get the elite director post. We’ll see how they respond in the press this week.

Whatever happens in English rugby between now and the Rugby World Cup 2007 , one thing’s for sure – there’s going to be 80,000 green clad fans in Croke Park on Feb 24th and we just can’t wait.