When Richard Hill left England’s victorious press conference after Sunday night’s 24-7 semifinal win over fancied France, he said: ”What a waste of fucking time, let’s get out of here.”
Martin Johnson and Jonny Wilkinson, up on the stage next to him, appeared to nod in agreement. At one point England coach Clive Woodward muttered under his breath: ”What a lot of bullshit.”
I was in the front row, I saw it, though most England journalists will deny it.
Hill, back after a five-week hamstring injury, was barely questioned about his miracle comeback. Instead, the press conference was all about their supposed weaknesses.
When Jason Robinson’s break turned the game against Wales in the quarterfinal, he failed to merit a mention post-match.
Not quite like the press conference after Australia’s less convincing 22-10 semifinal win over New Zealand. After Saturday night’s semifinal, the not-so-wobbly Wallabies were treated to a warm round of applause for their triumph over their highly favoured arch-rivals.
England might have hoped for something similar. Instead they got nit-picking nastiness.
On the other side of the world, the nation awoke for Sunday-morning worship at the Clive Woodward altar but after a night of compelling rugby in monsoon conditions, there we were, with the English press asking about their weaknesses and their failure to ”get over the gain-line”.
What bollocks! I had a stand-up row — sorry, three of them — after midnight in Sydney’s Star Casino about this, following England’s epic win.
Even Ben Kimber, the Sydney Morning Herald‘s man with the England camp, was in my face.
I felt England deserved credit, if not a round of warm applause, for their performance.
But the English journalists felt Clive Woodward and Co needed to be asked tough questions after restricting the French to also-rans, starving them of the ball.
My theory is this. Most of the English rugby writers are, in fact, Celts. They learnt the rugby-writing trade in the hotbeds of Wales, Ireland and Scotland but have gravitated to English national newspapers, where soccer holds sway.
Andrew Baldock from the Press Association, Steve Bale of The Express, David Facey of The Sun and of course, The Observer‘s Eddie Butler are all Welsh. And proud of it.
The Irish? Tony Roche of The Sun and Peter Jackson of The Mail both claim green parentage. Jacko makes no secret of this.
Scotland is the home nation for The Mail‘s Alan Fraser and the News of the World’s David Norrie and ITN radio’s Neil Henderson.
I’m not saying they’re not great rugby experts. I’m just questioning their loyalty, and this from a man who spent 15 years living in South Africa.
It’s patriotism I’m looking for. It’s so bad that when Wales were ahead against England in the quarterfinal last week, the press box appeared to be filled with glee. They were glorying in England’s demise, gutted when they recovered in the second half.
Shocking.
What would the England fans think back home, waving their St George’s crosses?
I know what Clive Woodward, Richard Hill, Martin Johnson and Jonny Wilkinson thought after their superb semifinal performance. They felt the English press were a major let-down. They couldn’t understand the line of questioning, the lack of jubiliation.
And they’re right. I tried to get hold of the microphone to say to Hillie: ”Tonight you were brilliant, what do you say now to those who said Dad’s Army are past it?”
But I couldn’t get a word in edgeways. The great and good of rugby-writing were hard at it.
While the Aussie press back their men to the hilt with anti-Pom propaganda, our rugby writers like to ask those deep tactical questions that tabloid readers will never understand.
They can’t help it, it’s in their blood. They were brought up on a diet of Wales and the Barbarians circa 1973. I don’t dispute that. Lucky bastards. Great, never-to-be-repeated amateur rugby.
But it’s not right. Imagine if Australia’s rugby press were all New Zealanders. Or if South African’s newspapers were dominated by English ex-pats.
The nation’s rugby press should reflect its readership.
Paul Morgan, the Welshman who is editor of Rugby World magazine, admits: ”There are a lot of Celts in the English rugby media. But there’s are a lot of Welshmen in every area of the English press.”
True. But while its football and cricket teams are likely to self-destruct, England is now the proud owner of a highly professional rugby team, heading for Saturday’s World Cup final against Austraia.
While the press down under prepare for a week of Pom-bashing, I fear many of the so-called English rugby writers will fail to give Clive Woodward the credit he is due for getting his side this far.
They’ve been in the game too long. Too many tours. No gut-wrenching fear of English humiliation.
It’s not right.
We’ve praised Wales for losing against New Zealand and England, we said Ireland were brave when they went down to Australia by a point, we even said Scotland were great because they held the Wallabies 9-9 at half-time before falling away in the second half of their quarterfinal last week.
But we can barely raise a cheer for England on stuffing France, their oldest foes.
Come on guys, wave the flag. We may never get this far again.