Oval Office August 2007

Monthly Maul

By Warwick George

Another Bahrain triumph

Bahrain RUFC continues to innovate. The club’s recent Midnight Xs vets Golden Oldies tournament went so well it’ll be an annual event. It’s another example of the club, which is believed to have first taken the field in 1966, coming up with fresh ideas for players and fans. That 1966 match was Bahrain Gymkhana XV v Kuwait in Kuwait.

Al Khobar won the recent vets tourney in Bahrain.

Michael Lynagh

Bahrain have always been great tourists, taking squads on the road whenever possible, particularly to the Hong Kong 7s, but the Warblers Week is the one that brings the big-name players to the island. Some of the elite names in rugby – Michael Lynagh, Peter Winterbottom, Graham Mourie, Clive Woodward, JPR Williams, Brian Moore, Murray Mexted just to name a few – have lobbed for this one.

Bahrain’s Hong Kong 7s efforts in the late ‘70s and early 80s were impressive and the club won the plate in horrendous conditions in 1978, beating Singapore.

At the end of the tournament the organisers selected a champion of champions team and Bahrain winger Richard Duck, who spent most of his life in Bahrain, was selected. OK, the teams might not have been as hot as later on but the captain of this team was Wallaby immortal Mark Loane. John Connolly would go to France with a lot more confidence if he had him now!

Capital players

Abu Dhabi might finish higher than last year’s fourth spot on the ladder. There’s a few whispers about new recruits with a bit of talent having turned up in the UAE capital including a provincial-level player.

Yellow peril

An ill-disciplined wind is blowing across the Springboks’ squad. What else is new? In the pressure cooker of a World Cup semi-final, this could mean the difference between winning and losing.

Bakkies Botha

South Africa amassed five yellow cards in the 2007 Philips Tri-Nations (a joke really considering the amount of off ball rubbish that has been going on unseen by the Boks), while New Zealand had one and Australia none.

In the opening game, it seemed every time Australia were on attack, Springbok loose forward Pierre Spies gave away a penalty. After Spies’ third such infringement of the first half, two for killing the ball at the tackle and one for offside, he was given his marching orders.

Likewise in the second game against New Zealand, many promising attacks were snuffed out by Springboks infringing at the tackle. After issuing a general warning to the team, referee Alain Rolland gave a yellow card to replacement Pedrie Wannenburg for yet another tackle infringement near the Boks’ line early in the second half.

There could have easily been another yellow card on the stroke of half-time. Springbok forward Schalk Burger scored a try, but immediately afterwards several players were involved in a shoving incident. This incident was sparked by Bok’s lock Bakkies Botha who decided to throw All Blacks captain Richie McCaw to the ground away from the ball, simply because he was playing for the opposition – good old Bakkies, the ‘grandmaster of putting in a bit of filth off the ball’.

After taking a report from his touch judge who had witnessed Botha’s transgression, Rolland issued a warning to the Springbok team about foul play. But shortly after the break, inexplicably issued a second warning after Bobby Skinstad was seen chasing Richie McCaw on the half-way line, attempting to send him into another stratosphere by laying a round house on him from behind.

In the Sydney clash between the Wallabies and Springboks, two South Africans saw yellow. First was hooker Gary Botha for a cynical ruck infringement after a general warning had been issued to the team, and then lock Johann Muller for punching an opponent after a scrum collapse in full view of the touch judge – smart boy that Johann!

Finally, in the Christchurch clash against the AB’s, Wannenburg was the culprit again, continually deemed to be diving in when the Springbok line was under threat. Incredulously, after the game, captain of the day Johann Muller whined about Richie McCaw getting away with illegalities at the breakdown – talk about people gobbing off in glass houses!

All of these incidents seem to indicate a pattern to the South Africans’ play. Firstly, when they are under pressure in their own half, they tend to give away cynical penalties. Not only can these penalties hurt them by giving away points, but in every Tri-Nations outing this year they have had a player sent to the sin-bin for persistent infringements.

Secondly, the Springboks appear to turn to foul play when frustrated. After their clash in Durban, All Blacks back Aaron Mauger said: “Fair’s fair if you’re fronting up to each other, but there were a lot of cheap shots out there when guys back were turned”. That’s an understatement!

Being one player short for a 10-minute period in international rugby can easily cost a side the game, and giving away numerous penalties can allow accurate goal kickers like Dan Carter or Stirling Mortlock to give their sides a handy lead. Either of these outcomes could leave South Africa’s World Cup dream in tatters.

Coach Jake White must focus on his team’s discipline and get his players to give away fewer penalties. In the pressure cooker of a World Cup semi-final, these obvious flaws could easily cause a meltdown and cost South Africa their chance of winning rugby’s ultimate prize.

England need to act

England are leaving it late to build a credible defense of their World Cup title and now is the time for Ashton to put together his starting team.

Hope is not a management tool, and England coach Brian Ashton is running out of time as his side prepares to defend the trophy they won four years ago. With just about every Englishman I know heading to Europe for the Cup let’s hope he gets it right.

England are leaving it late to build a credible defense of their World Cup title and now is the time for Ashton to put together his starting team and give them match practice.

Having recently released six players (Olly Morgan, Fraser Waters, Magnus Lund, Shane Geraghty, Louis Deacon and Andy Hazell), the England head coach must trim the squad from 40 to 30 by August 15. Between now and then, England will play two warm-up matches – against Wales on August 4 and against France the following Saturday. There is a third on August 18, but by then the final World Cup party will have been declared.

It was expected that another cut would have been made by now, but Ashton appears to be hedging his bets.

Dwyer, Moore for Dubai lunch date

I know where I’ll be on September 6. Former Australian coach Bob Dwyer and England international Brian Moore will front up to the Long Lunch in Dubai which also kick-starts the countdown to the award-winning Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens.

With the World Cup kicking off next day with France and Argentina, this will be a corker. Dwyer has coached a final-winning team, Moore has played in one and been runner-up.

Adding extra spark to the event is the fact that Dwyer and Moore squared off for their respective countries in the final of the 1991 Rugby World Cup as coach and player. A capacity crowd at the Twickenham final saw Australia triumph 12-6. Moore was part of a mighty England pack but the team took the Wallabies on at their own game by swinging the ball early, some said because of goading by David Campese who accused the home side of being boring.

Awarded a Centenary Medal by the Australian Government in 2003 for his services to rugby union, Dwyer coached Australia in 74 tests and in 144 matches overall, winning 99 of them. His strike rate (70 per cent) makes him the most successful coach in Australian Rugby history. He was in charge of the Wallabies for 10 years – from 1982-83 and 1988-95.

Moore, meanwhile, achieved 64 international caps with England and won three Grand Slams in 1991, 1992 and 1995. Nicknamed ‘Pitbull’ for his tenacious attitude to the game, Moore played in three Rugby World Cup tournaments and toured twice with the British Lions.

Coach casts wide net

With Dubai hosting the 7s World Cup next year, there’ll be huge focus on the big name men’s teams such as Fiji, Samoa, England and New Zealand as they and others battle it out for the coveted Melrose Cup and the World Cup title.

But the competition, held every four years, will also showcase the best of this region’s rugby players. As hosts the Arabian Gulf will have both their men’s and women’s teams pitting themselves against the leading exponents of the modified game. It certainly won’t be easy.

Run alongside the men’s event is the Women’s Rugby 7’s World Crown, which will historically feature the AGRFU women’s side in their debut at a World Cup. The competition will give Gulf women rugby players a rare chance to compete at the absolute top level on home soil, and a concerted three-year plan has been put in place in a bid to ensure that the AGRFU team can cope when the opening whistle is blown come March 2008.

Last year the women’s program made massive strides with successful showings in Hong Kong and Tunisia as well as taking out the Plate Final of the International Women’s section at the Dubai 7’s and recording fourth place at the Asian Championships played in Doha

Head coach Wayne Marsters is hoping to build on those results this season and is not averse to taking some unusual steps to boost the skills of his side.

“The women had a fantastic season and we really want to build on that success this year and into the World Cup in 2008. The standard of the game is really on the up out here and there is some very good talent coming through, but I’d like to cast our rugby net a bit further and look at what untapped rugby talent is in the region”.

To this end Marsters has made a habit of taking an interest in other codes in a bid to look for possible ‘converts’.

“I check out the various touch rugby leagues and tournaments on a regular basis and have been a spectator at some school athletic days. I’ve also quizzed some contacts in the PT departments of some schools for any real ‘flyers’ they may have”.

A few years ago China (then stragglers in the Asian Women’s rugby rankings) took to recruiting track and field athletes with no background in rugby and ‘manufacturing’ them into a rugby team. China is now one of the top ranked teams in Asia winning the Asian Champs in 2006.

Women’s rugby in the Gulf is played on a league system. Seven teams (from Kuwait, Doha, Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi) each host a tournament each season with a finals tournament rounding off the club calendar. These teams act as feeder clubs from which the AGRFU rep side is selected.

The AGRFU is a fully sanctioned IRB listed Union and as such players must meet residency and other criteria to be eligible to play in the World Cup.

Marsters put out an open invitation for potential World Cup stars to come forward and get involved in rugby

“It’s quite an exclusive group of people who can say they played in a Rugby World Cup. If you meet the three-year residency criteria or are eligible through birth or can claim patriality, then there’s the potential simply to join a club and get involved.”