Monday 23 November 2015 15:40, UK
Farewell to Jonah and welcome to Eddie. Last Wednesday the bleeping phone at the break of day alerted me from my stupors to something big. Alas, it was huge; the death of Jonah Lomu.
I have written elsewhere on the terrible and premature end of the great New Zealand winger. But to put it briefly, for a final time:
1. Jonah was the man who signalled the birth of the professional game. The sport was leaving the old for the new. The 1995 World Cup in South Africa bridged past and present and Jonah was a colossus that linked the past and future tenses. His performances in that tournament opened rugby to the wider world, suggested a new game was coming our way. He did not win a World Cup but his bruising brilliance on the field and gentle disposition off it won him a place in rugby's heart.
2. Farewell to Jonah and two days later it was hello to Eddie. Jones, who reinvented himself in the rugby world's eyes with his detailed management of everyone's second favourite team (unless you happen to be Japanese), is back in the spotlight. Ian Ritchie overreacted to the madness of two previous under qualified coaches being appointed to England's top job by limiting the field for the next coach to coaches whose qualifications could not be questioned.
Whether a few Kiwis have slipped through the net is open to question. What is not is that we will have all a lot of fun with Eddie in charge. He's not as careful with his words as Stuart Lancaster was. Having slated the captain through the World Cup and the style of England's game forever he is suddenly preparing to chat with the skipper and endorse England's pragmatism.
These are early days. He's not going to rock the boat for a while. Expect him to stick to his guns and find a new captain and expect him to utilise the traditional power of English rugby now that he is in charge of it and not facing it. Words and deeds are two different things that lead to results, good or bad.
There are some incredibly talented young front row forwards in England. The weak set piece of the World Cup looks like a blip.
3. No sooner does the new man mention `pragmatism in alliance with English forward play' than the Premiership clubs unleashed a pounding that rocked the rest of European rugby. After two rounds of action Exeter are the only team to have lost a game. The club game has given the players a platform from which to bounce back from the disappointments of the World Cup.
4. The scrums are headline news again; this time for the right reason from an English perspective. The set piece folded at Twickenham but at club level it is again a potent weapon. Two teams in particular used it to great effect at the weekend. Bath were so dominant against Leinster (with their Irish international front row) that the only surprise at the Recreation Ground was the narrow margin of victory. There is plenty for Bath to work on given the foundations laid by Nick Auterac and Henry Thomas and the failure to win with plenty in hand.
Northampton's eighty minutes in Glasgow eclipsed Bath. It was a well-balanced performance but the dominant scrum was the root of the victory with Kieran Brookes outstanding. There are some incredibly talented young front row forwards in England. The weak set piece of the World Cup looks like a blip.
5. Saracens were superb in the first half against Toulouse last week and almost as good in the second half against Ulster in Belfast this one. The other two halves were models of good professionalism. It was been a stunning start to Europe by a team long berated as being a home for aging South Africans. That species is far from extinct but the climate is breeding a host of exciting young Englishmen - and a Scot in Duncan Taylor.
6. The great news for the English game is that Wasps are playing so well it's hard to know whether they or Saracens merit the most praise. George Smith's signing has been superb. Another weakness of England's at the World Cup, the breakdown, is being addressed with Wasps at the forefront and Smith's expertise to the fore. It's been a while since Coventry was at the heart of the English game but the Wasps move has breathed life into a grand old rugby city.
7. Whereas England have rebounded well, Ireland are stuttering. Leinster are already on the brink of elimination while Ulster's home loss to Saracens in a pool that also includes Toulouse looks close to fatal. Much rests on Munster in Europe and Connacht in the other one. They have weathered the evident Irish disappointment at not making the semi-finals largely because of their paucity of internationals. It was as rough a weekend for the PRO12 as it was smooth for their English counterparts with not a single winner at Champions Cup level.
8. Unfortunately Irish woes didn't finish with the players. Referee George Clancy had a quite terrible game in what was an otherwise exciting game between Clermont and a brave Ospreys team. He missed the most blatant penalty try award you can imagine despite sin-binning the guilty Clermont player for tugging an Osprey back, mere metres from the try line; he missed a cynical trip by Fritz Lee. It doesn't matter that the try was awarded. Had Lee punched Justin Tipuric he would have been shown a card, he forgot about the most cynical of offences. Yet he awarded a yellow card for the slightest contact between Sam Davies and David Strettle and decided a mesmerising slipped pass from Wesley Fofana deserved nothing but an obstruction call. Let's just put it down to a bad weekend for Irish rugby...
9. The homme du match in Clermont was David Strettle. Dumped by England, here is another Englishman thriving in France. Eddie Jones doesn't have a problem with the RFU overseas ban at the moment but he might think again if the former international keeps playing like a current one.
10. A word for Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe. While his Toulon team mates wilted in the face of this wonderful Wasps performance, the Argentine delivered a monstrously good effort that was completely lost in the appreciation of the home team's efforts. He has been some player for some time.
