RUGBY: Andy Capostagno
IT has been well documented that Ireland is a place where the unusual happens on a regular basis. And so when the greatest rugby player of all time walked into the Springbok hotel, ignored the tourists and invited their baggage master to dinner it should really have come as no surprise.
When he stayed long enough to share a drink with the press and speak to an adoring fan it was out of a sense of politeness rather than any wish to rekindle lost youth. And when I taught the Springboks a few lessons on the snooker table later that night they did not even know that a god had visited their hotel.
After all these years Mike Gibson is still eluding rugby players.
Gibson was my hero because he could do everything and yet he avoided the limelight as assiduously as an actor with stage fright. He never held any point or try scoring records, only those for longevity (an international from 1964 to 1979) and caps for Ireland (69). And yet ask anyone among his great contemporaries on the field who was the best and they all say Mike Gibson.
So here he was, looking impossibly young and fit, talking barely above a whisper for fear of offending anyone, effortlessly exuding the kind of grace and dignity that the Pope must lie awake at night dreaming of. In the circumstances it seemed almost crude to talk rugby, but I’m glad we did.
“I think the Springboks should extend their tour,” he said, “because they’re doing so much for British rugby. I fondly hope that British coaches have a look at the methods which South Africa are applying successfully and see that there really is much more to the game of rugby than is being seen in Britain at the moment.
“Wales will come away from Saturday’s match quite content because they’ll feel they’ll be able to compete in the World Cup in a negative sense of moving the ball forward slowly until they get within range of Neil Jenkins’ boot. By contrast South Africa with mere crumbs of possession produced three superb tries.
“Those, together with the performance against Scotland, will I hope make British coaches start to think about their methods.”
When all is said and done, however, the greatest coach cannot do his job without the compliance of the players. The flare ups in New Zealand between disaffected Springboks and Ian McIntosh showed one thing clearly: that Mac was trying to fit too many round pegs into the square hole of his grand design. From afar Gibson had seen the change under Kith Christie on this tour.
“The thing that impresses me most about this team is that the attitude is there. The players want to inject pace into the game, they see that as their strength. That is something missing from the British sides who are playing a very solid, structured game which I feel will not be appropriate for next year’s World Cup.
“The whole game there will be faster. It will be more difficult to hold onto the ball, or to keep it tight so there is going to be a need for pace, quick thinking, good hands and good support play. Those aspects are not being developed by the British coaches.”
When Gibson played it didn’t seem to need developing. He and Barry John, Phil Bennett, David Duckham, Gareth Edwards et al were such talents that they could turn the boring old tune of international rugby int a symphony of movement. Never more so tha at Cardiff Arms Park in 1973 when legendarily the Barbarians beat the All Blacks.
“Gareth’s try at the outset was outstanding because of the involvement of so many players, but it was significant in that you suddenly realised that the success of that try brought with it responsibility. I was conscious of the support the crowd were giving us and I got this surge of responsibility and almost a duty to play as well as I could.”
The Barbarians team selected to play South Africa on Saturday is not of the quality of 1973, but it is heartening to see that Kitch Christie has entered into the spirit of the great invitation side’s philosophy. Asked whether he had deliberately mixed the A and B team to bring the squad together for the penultmate game in Belfast on Tuesday he said, “Oh no. I just picked all the runners for the Barbarians game”.
It means that Christie is not taking the match too seriously, which after a hard year for South African rugby is just about the most uplifiting attitude it is possible to have. Gibson was of like mind.
“Saturday is an ideal setting for the Springboks to show one more time what they have achieved on this tour. But the point to be made is that they have achieved it in the responsible international arena where there’s a lot more in the game. If they go out and run the ball on Saturday and lose to the Barbarians it won’t be significant.
“What they}ve managed to do is is to get freedom into their game and to show that it can work at international level. that is the message that I hope is picked up from this tour.”
Gibson speaks like an evangelist. significance, messages, reponsibility. All these from a game of rugby? Well yes, when it is played as it was at the Arms Park in 1973, and at the the St Helens ground in Swansea in 1994. Those who played in 1973 have all earned their “Get out of Hell free” cards as far as I’m concerned.
Those who played for the Springboks in Swansea this year may have some way to go, but it would be nice to think that 20 years from now ne of them might brighten the life of a starry eyed journalist by proving himself to be as good and ecent a man as Mike Gibson.