Browse content similar to Extra Time: Rob Andrew - Former director of professional rugby, RFU. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Now on BBC News, Extra Time. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:10 | |
Welcome to Extra Time. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
Rugby union has never
been so popular. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
The World Cup is touted
as the third-biggest sporting event | 0:00:17 | 0:00:20 | |
in the world. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:21 | |
Player salaries get ever larger,
and the game expands | 0:00:21 | 0:00:25 | |
into new territories,
from Georgia to China. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:33 | |
And yet my guest today
says the sport could be | 0:00:33 | 0:00:35 | |
brought to its knees if ongoing
tensions between the game's major | 0:00:35 | 0:00:38 | |
stakeholders turn sour. | 0:00:38 | 0:00:44 | |
Rob Andrew is a former
England international, | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
and last year, he ended ten years
as a top administrator | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
at the Rugby Football Union. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:54 | |
What is his game plan
for securing rugby's future? | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
Rob Andrew, welcome to Extra Time. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:14 | |
Thank you. One of the most
eye-catching phrases in your book is | 0:01:14 | 0:01:20 | |
particularly doom laden. You write
interests and conflict at the height | 0:01:20 | 0:01:27 | |
of rugby on this planet to be easily
bring the entire sport to its knees. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
Why do you say that? Well, it is an
interesting point, and actually just | 0:01:31 | 0:01:37 | |
this last few days, with the
southern hemisphere teams coming up | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
to the north, and Barbarians playing
the All Blacks, the southern | 0:01:40 | 0:01:45 | |
hemisphere unions themselves, and
all three chief executives, have | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
come out and said there are real
threat to the southern hemisphere | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
game. Lots of players leaving the
southern hemisphere for the riches | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
of the north, in England and in
France, and there is a sort of | 0:01:55 | 0:01:59 | |
danger that, over time, the rich
clubs of France and England will | 0:01:59 | 0:02:05 | |
hoover up all of the best players,
put real pressure is on the southern | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
hemisphere. Not only will they lose
test players, but they will lose | 0:02:09 | 0:02:13 | |
players from the level below, which
means their own domestic games are | 0:02:13 | 0:02:17 | |
damaged, and I think there is a real
risk. Let me quote an example. 25 | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
euros charge Childs has a £1 billion
deal to play. You can't blame the | 0:02:21 | 0:02:28 | |
player for wanting to earn money,
you can't blame the owners warning | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
to attract the best talent. So how
do you resolve this? And it goes to | 0:02:31 | 0:02:36 | |
the very heart of what has happened
in the last 20 years. And look, I | 0:02:36 | 0:02:40 | |
was at the beginning of that in
1995, when I went to Newcastle with | 0:02:40 | 0:02:44 | |
Sir John Hall, and we were
criticised for paying exorbitant | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
salaries then of £50,000 per year.
Now, you have this issue in rugby | 0:02:47 | 0:02:53 | |
where the game is split between
union control and private ownership, | 0:02:53 | 0:03:00 | |
which is a bit of a football model.
And it just creates loads and loads | 0:03:00 | 0:03:05 | |
of tensions. On the model in
football is that the club owners get | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
more and more powerful. Do you see
the same happening in rugby union? | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
Undoubtedly, there is no question of
that. It is probably only in England | 0:03:13 | 0:03:17 | |
and France that this happens, so we
almost have a two tier system in | 0:03:17 | 0:03:21 | |
rugby. We have private club
ownership in England and France, | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
with significant amounts of money,
significant wealth in owners who are | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
not just millionaires now but
billionaires. There were | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
millionaires when they came into the
game, Sir John Hall and Nigel Ray, | 0:03:31 | 0:03:35 | |
Nigel and those guys are still
there. And it just creates pressure. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:40 | |
And when the athlete in the middle
is wanted by two owners, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:46 | |
effectively, then you have tension.
And rugby has always had this | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
tension. And a big part of my role,
the reason I went to the RFU, was to | 0:03:50 | 0:03:54 | |
try and control that tension, if you
like, and create a working | 0:03:54 | 0:04:00 | |
environment. At its very difficult,
and the more money that gets | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
involved, the bigger those tensions
become. How much to the club owners | 0:04:03 | 0:04:08 | |
care about international rugby?
Well, I think deep down they still | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
do. And I think deep down... They
don't act as if they do. It is a | 0:04:12 | 0:04:18 | |
really difficult challenge, and one
of the big debates that is happening | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
at the moment is around season
structure and length of season, and | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
what the owners don't like... And to
be honest I didn't like very much | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
when I was at Newcastle with Sir
John Hall, where your best player, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
we had Jonny Wilkinson, went missing
the big parts of the season. And it | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
is a bit like club football. Man
United and Chelsea and Spurs | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
allowing, say, Harry Kane to go
missing for three months of the | 0:04:39 | 0:04:47 | |
season. And that is a challenge that
rugby has to deal with the next few | 0:04:47 | 0:04:51 | |
years. But you take someone like
S-bend, he says I could have stayed | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
to be an All Black great that rugby
is not forever. So he is choosing | 0:04:55 | 0:04:59 | |
big money, quick money, for what
could be quite a short career. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
Whether he stays in northern England
or not. You can't blame players, I | 0:05:02 | 0:05:07 | |
mean, who would have thought... For
all the of the All Black jersey, | 0:05:07 | 0:05:12 | |
which in our four goes. And this is
the issue. I'm not saying anybody is | 0:05:12 | 0:05:17 | |
right or wrong, but what I am saying
the market will dictate, the market | 0:05:17 | 0:05:22 | |
forces, whether it is football,
cricket now, with T20, rugby, the | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
market will determine where the
asset ends up. And not the pride of | 0:05:26 | 0:05:31 | |
the jersey. Well, not if you are
talking about millions of pounds, | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
which are life changing. And this
would clearly... In the amateur era, | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
none of this ever happened. But I
suppose it is one of the | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
consequences of going professional.
And did we all have a crystal ball | 0:05:44 | 0:05:52 | |
1995, when it went professional? You
couldn't see this coming? Well, | 0:05:52 | 0:05:56 | |
maybe we should have done. But even
then, in 1995, remember, the Premier | 0:05:56 | 0:06:01 | |
League soccer had only been running
since 1982. So the Premier League | 0:06:01 | 0:06:05 | |
soccer is only 25 years old and
could any of us have imagined the in | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
English foot or? £1 million rugby
player, or IPL cricket getting | 0:06:09 | 0:06:14 | |
millions of pounds for six weeks'
work. Part of this is about | 0:06:14 | 0:06:19 | |
eligibility, isn't it? Let's talk
about Nathan Hughes, a Fijian | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
eligible for New Zealand, but
switching to England and is in Eddie | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
Jones's squad after three years
here. So the question is whether | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
three years is long enough for
residency. Why not make it five, why | 0:06:29 | 0:06:34 | |
not make it never? Yes, well, I
think that is another debate. That | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
is one for the lawyers? It is one
for the administrators. World rugby | 0:06:38 | 0:06:44 | |
are looking at that at the moment.
Everyone accepts three years is too | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
short. What do you think? Three
years is definitely too short, could | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
be five, could be seven. Seven, as
many as seven years? I think Tom if | 0:06:52 | 0:06:58 | |
you don't do something, it means
that the islanders, in particular, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:04 | |
who leave Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, to go
to Fiji or Australia, it is not just | 0:07:04 | 0:07:11 | |
England, they are going to do it if
the rules allow a -- New Zealand or | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
Australia. You can't blame the
player, can you? So you might say | 0:07:15 | 0:07:19 | |
seven years' residency is the
minimum. Does that have a cat's | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
chance of coming through? I think
maybe five years, but even his five | 0:07:23 | 0:07:28 | |
years enough? But again, the whole
point here is that the game is | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
turning on its axis, and actually,
there are real financial and | 0:07:32 | 0:07:37 | |
planning challenges that will have a
longer term impact, as we move | 0:07:37 | 0:07:44 | |
through. And who is to say that, in
time, the impact on the England | 0:07:44 | 0:07:49 | |
national team won't be affected as
well. Because, a bit like soccer, if | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
all of the best players come to play
in England or France, because we | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
have got the biggest league... Then
they won't have the playing | 0:07:57 | 0:08:01 | |
experience. So you are back into
this Catch-22 situation, and the | 0:08:01 | 0:08:06 | |
debate in English soccer, winning
the World Cup or the under 16 or the | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
under 20, will those talented
players get the opportunity. You | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
write in your book, without
compromises, the World Cup model | 0:08:12 | 0:08:16 | |
will be under threat. Can you
outlined to me how this Komla most | 0:08:16 | 0:08:20 | |
will be reached? Maybe it is the
five-year residency limit? Other are | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
the rules you would like to bring
in? Well, I think it is about the | 0:08:24 | 0:08:28 | |
residency, but it is about how do
you ensure that there is enough | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
money going around the key players
in the southern hemisphere. And that | 0:08:31 | 0:08:35 | |
is one of the biggest challenges for
South Africa, Australia and New | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
Zealand, is how do they keep enough
talent at home to keep their game is | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
vibrant. So is it a fairer
distribution of wealth amongst the | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
nation 's? Well, we have had those
discussions, and those are down | 0:08:46 | 0:08:50 | |
difficult discussions to have, to
say Will the big give to the poorer? | 0:08:50 | 0:08:55 | |
The RFU is reporting that the new
international laws are failing to | 0:08:55 | 0:08:59 | |
reduce the number of so-called
involvements, or collisions. On the | 0:08:59 | 0:09:03 | |
contrary, these episodes are on the
increase. What is to be done about | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
player safety in rugby union? Has
become a desperately brutal game. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:11 | |
Yes, but I think it has. I think
there is a genuine belief amongst | 0:09:11 | 0:09:15 | |
world rugby, and all the unions, to
try and find a solution to something | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
that, once you go professional and
you create these phenomenal | 0:09:19 | 0:09:24 | |
athletes, and you turn the dial up
as far as we have, the difficulty is | 0:09:24 | 0:09:29 | |
turning it back down again. Do you
think it could even get hotter, as | 0:09:29 | 0:09:34 | |
it were? Well, I am not sure how
much hotter it could get, to be | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
honest, but it is a challenge. And
one of the biggest challenges is, as | 0:09:38 | 0:09:42 | |
you say, the number of involvements.
We talk about collisions in rugby. I | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
mean, we never talked about
collisions when I played. You talked | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
about getting out of the way of
collisions, not sort of having | 0:09:49 | 0:09:53 | |
collisions. Now, we talk about lots
of hits and collisions, and it has | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
sort of change the way people think
about the game. There is now talk of | 0:09:57 | 0:10:02 | |
strike action by the players, in
order to preserve, effectively, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
their careers, and maybe even the
health and later life. Is that | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
something you would support? Is that
something that you might even engage | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
in, if you were still playing? I
think if I was a player I would be | 0:10:14 | 0:10:19 | |
certainly engaging in it, in terms
of protecting... Would you go on | 0:10:19 | 0:10:22 | |
strike if you were? Well, you would
certainly question what is being | 0:10:22 | 0:10:27 | |
proposed at the moment, in terms of
the welfare of the individual. It is | 0:10:27 | 0:10:33 | |
a very tough, long season. And this
goes to the heart of the conflict | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
between the union and the club.
Because the club owners want to | 0:10:37 | 0:10:41 | |
stretch the season out, so that
their players are playing for them | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
more than they are for the union.
And, if you are a player, you have | 0:10:44 | 0:10:51 | |
only one course of action, which is
actually to say, look, I am not | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
prepared to go on the field. And
that is one of the biggest | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
challenges. Well, long-term
consequences, of course, are in the | 0:10:59 | 0:11:02 | |
Mexia. Brain damage. But there could
one day at the elite level be a | 0:11:02 | 0:11:07 | |
death on the pitch. I mean, I don't
want to be scaremongering about this | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
but we know that at levels below the
professional game there have been | 0:11:11 | 0:11:14 | |
incidents like that. A 19-year-old
early the this year in New Zealand | 0:11:14 | 0:11:19 | |
died as a result of injuries he
sustained on the pitch. Is that what | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
it will take for rugby to come to
its senses? For goodness's sake, we | 0:11:23 | 0:11:26 | |
will pray and hope that that does
not a occur, and there has always | 0:11:26 | 0:11:32 | |
been an element of risk in rugby,
and sadly I was involved at school | 0:11:32 | 0:11:36 | |
with one of my best mates who has
been a paraplegic for nearly 40 | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
years, who dedicate the book too, a
called Kris McKeon, and Rory and I | 0:11:40 | 0:11:46 | |
were on the school field when he was
injured in a tackle in the late 70s. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
And it is always the one thing that
I sort of hate most about the game, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:55 | |
if you like, that... It has
obviously had a profound affect on | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
you. It has, and Chris is still
alive, he is a remarkable human | 0:11:59 | 0:12:05 | |
being, who has not got any malice
towards the game. But, in, he was 15 | 0:12:05 | 0:12:10 | |
years when this happened. And... So
injury in rugby is something that is | 0:12:10 | 0:12:21 | |
very close to my heart. And I think
it is a real issue for the game that | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
cannot be taken too lightly. And
there is a danger, if things | 0:12:25 | 0:12:32 | |
aren't... If something doesn't
happen to turn down this dial, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
people will get put off playing
rugby. And I don't want that, I | 0:12:35 | 0:12:39 | |
don't want that at all. What you
already here on touchlines, with | 0:12:39 | 0:12:44 | |
parents, mums in particular, and
just sort of do they really want | 0:12:44 | 0:12:47 | |
their children to be playing rugby?
And those things snowballed. And | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
what I have seen in sport, very
quickly, over the last sort of | 0:12:51 | 0:12:56 | |
decade, maybe slightly longer, is
the pace of change in modern life, | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
particularly when it is associated
with sport, can happen like that. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:05 | |
And if you are not careful, you
could be two, three, four, five | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
years down the line, and there are
bigger issues at play there. A | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
curious thing here, Rob, is that the
players want to play, of course they | 0:13:12 | 0:13:19 | |
want to play, because they love the
game, but also that they are | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
reckless about the damage to their
bodies, and some even relish the | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
pain. A quote from one prop, the
pain bonds you as a team. From that | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
you get a deeper learning of each
other, a deeper trust each other. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:34 | |
How do you react to that? Yes, and I
understand that. I understand that | 0:13:34 | 0:13:39 | |
from Dan. He was a front row
forward, I understood it when I | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
played. There was a bond around the
physical nature of the sport. I | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
think there comes a point when the
administrators of the game have a | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
much wider responsibility to protect
the players from themselves, and to | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
protect the long-term interests of
the game, so that in 50 years' time, | 0:13:55 | 0:14:00 | |
the game is still being played, and
is still a sport of choice for young | 0:14:00 | 0:14:07 | |
people. Because it has so many
qualities. But, as I say, there is | 0:14:07 | 0:14:12 | |
an alarm going off here, and I think
people are hearing it, and it is | 0:14:12 | 0:14:17 | |
finding the answer that is always
the damned difficult thing to do. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:29 | |
Let's talk about your thymic
clicking them. You spoke about the | 0:14:29 | 0:14:34 | |
2012 World Cup as a pet. --
Twickenham. What you are talking | 0:14:34 | 0:14:39 | |
about is that you failed to employ
any meaningful programme to ensure | 0:14:39 | 0:14:44 | |
consistency in progress. That is one
way of interpreting it. Some people | 0:14:44 | 0:14:53 | |
would agree with you, and some
people would say that, but I would | 0:14:53 | 0:14:58 | |
disagree with that, and say... On
what basis? I would say that when | 0:14:58 | 0:15:03 | |
you look at sporting systems, and
there was not a great deal of system | 0:15:03 | 0:15:08 | |
work back in English rugby in 2006,
which is what I mean by that... In | 0:15:08 | 0:15:15 | |
2003 was that once every ten years
England team. The 2011 and 2015 | 0:15:15 | 0:15:26 | |
World Cups were clearly very
difficult. Systems take years to | 0:15:26 | 0:15:31 | |
build. When you talk to UK sport or
any sporting organisation, there is | 0:15:31 | 0:15:36 | |
a timeline to these things. The
proof will be in the pudding over | 0:15:36 | 0:15:40 | |
the next ten years. So talking about
the World Cup in 2019, if you win | 0:15:40 | 0:15:49 | |
that, you are saying that it would
be to your credit, because you put | 0:15:49 | 0:15:54 | |
the systems... No, I am not saying
that. But if you understand sport | 0:15:54 | 0:15:59 | |
systems, you understand how long it
takes to put these things into | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
place. From 2008, you do need that
time. That is not to say that in | 0:16:03 | 0:16:09 | |
2015 the team should not have done
better, but over the next decade, | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
given the quality of talent in the
system that is in place in England, | 0:16:12 | 0:16:17 | |
and the depth of talent, then
England should do well, that is my | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
view. And I said that before the
2015 World Cup and I stick with it. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:25 | |
That doesn't mean to say that things
will not go wrong with team | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
selection and all the rest of us to
make it. -- or the rest of it. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:36 | |
Somebody wrote about your time at
Twickenham and said it was | 0:16:36 | 0:16:40 | |
disastrous. He pointed to previous
appointments, and of course, you | 0:16:40 | 0:16:49 | |
have a ready referred to 2015, which
was a disaster. If there was a car | 0:16:49 | 0:16:57 | |
crash, then it was Andrew that were
sitting behind the wheel, that was | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
what was written. He is gone. It is
a well-respected writer. He is a | 0:17:01 | 0:17:08 | |
well respected writer. By some, but
not all. I think he has had an | 0:17:08 | 0:17:13 | |
agenda for most of his career, as
far as I can see. An anti-Andrew a | 0:17:13 | 0:17:27 | |
gender? Yes, I think so. I think it
is about understanding what people's | 0:17:27 | 0:17:40 | |
roles are. -- agenda. My role at
times at the RFU, and I said this | 0:17:40 | 0:17:48 | |
many times, I made mistakes. And I
think most respected rugby | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
journalists understand what was
going on. Stephen has his view and | 0:17:52 | 0:17:56 | |
has headed for 30. When I respect
that view or not is up to me. Some | 0:17:56 | 0:18:02 | |
of the difficulties were obviously
beyond your control, the moment in | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
2011 Dean, when a tragedy attention
of the Auckland Blues. -- 2011, | 0:18:06 | 0:18:20 | |
when. -- police. Things happened
under Martin's rain. Players let him | 0:18:20 | 0:18:25 | |
down. There is no question. Senior
players let him down. They have got | 0:18:25 | 0:18:31 | |
to look in the mirror and work out
whether they did or they didn't. I | 0:18:31 | 0:18:36 | |
nor the position was and I think
mine does. And then obviously with | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
the end of the World Cup, going out
to France in the quarter-final, we | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
sat around having dinner in
Auckland, and the whole of the | 0:18:44 | 0:18:49 | |
management team - and they are
pretty big management teams now, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
with rugby, possibly as many as
players - and that is the modern | 0:18:52 | 0:18:58 | |
way, isn't it? And a phone rang, and
I was sat virtually opposite John, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:08 | |
and you could hear him go, yes, he
is what? He's? And he's been | 0:19:08 | 0:19:17 | |
arrested? Issey OK? And it was sort
of - poor old Tom, and the farmers | 0:19:17 | 0:19:31 | |
were done, and we said what on
earth. And it was Toby Flood who | 0:19:31 | 0:19:38 | |
basically said we are on a ferry on
the way back to Auckland Harbour. -- | 0:19:38 | 0:19:43 | |
is he OK. One minute he was there,
the next minute he was in the | 0:19:43 | 0:19:49 | |
harbour. Eventually, he was fished
out, was in the? But the fact is | 0:19:49 | 0:19:54 | |
that he has been in trouble here in
the UK, once with the police, and | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
once with Eddie Jones, the head
coach. Is he a liability? Is he | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
worth it? How many chances to
coaches give players? I think that | 0:20:02 | 0:20:08 | |
is one of the issues. We have
mentioned three incidents, three and | 0:20:08 | 0:20:15 | |
you are out, is that? I think is one
of those examples of the modern | 0:20:15 | 0:20:20 | |
game, modern characters, the amount
of money, the level of | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
responsibility that you would expect
place to take not just in rugby but | 0:20:24 | 0:20:30 | |
other sports as well. We are in the
modern world and the modern media, | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
and players to need to take more
responsibility, or coaches are | 0:20:34 | 0:20:43 | |
effectively forced to lock people in
their rooms. And wouldn't that be a | 0:20:43 | 0:20:47 | |
crazy position? Let's talk about
Eddie Jones. You are nearly at the | 0:20:47 | 0:20:52 | |
end of your time at Twickenham when
he was a appointed coach. Could you | 0:20:52 | 0:20:57 | |
take credit for what appears to have
been a successful decision? That is | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
the other thing I mentioned. Have
your point President Almazbek | 0:21:01 | 0:21:04 | |
Atambayev you have a recruitment
process with really experienced | 0:21:04 | 0:21:13 | |
people? And one of those on the
current panel was an Englishman, was | 0:21:13 | 0:21:20 | |
in the? At the time, it was felt
that it was the right thing at the | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
right time for English rugby. And
again Stephen Jones, get your facts | 0:21:25 | 0:21:30 | |
right, I didn't our point Lancaster,
not that it means much to him, but | 0:21:30 | 0:21:39 | |
it is one of those things where, you
look at the Eddie Jones appointment, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:45 | |
and the decision was taken that we
have two have a coach with | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
international experience. -- didn't
appoint. They will not be English. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
Because you have just sacked one
with international experience. The | 0:21:52 | 0:21:59 | |
decision there which can talk with
the backing of the board, and he and | 0:21:59 | 0:22:05 | |
I spoke about it, was who was
available at the moment. -- Ian. Who | 0:22:05 | 0:22:11 | |
can come in and take a good group of
players, and yes, it has talent | 0:22:11 | 0:22:19 | |
there, but some do with
international experience. I will | 0:22:19 | 0:22:26 | |
move you on, because running out of
time. But any information on the | 0:22:26 | 0:22:31 | |
2023 World Cup? In so could be South
Africa. I learned the Irish are | 0:22:31 | 0:22:40 | |
disappointed. These processes are
very robust in terms of what you | 0:22:40 | 0:22:48 | |
have to go through. Ireland, France,
and South Africa have, I suspect, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:53 | |
put in strong bids. Had they come to
the final decision is down to the | 0:22:53 | 0:23:00 | |
board. Of course Ireland will be
hugely disappointed if they don't | 0:23:00 | 0:23:03 | |
get it. But equally, South Africa
was a wonderful World Cup in 1985. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:11 | |
France was wonderful in 2007. They
would all do great jobs. A final | 0:23:11 | 0:23:17 | |
question and a brief and said he
will. England for 2019 of the World | 0:23:17 | 0:23:22 | |
Cup, had you read their chances 1-
ten, with sending winners? It is up | 0:23:22 | 0:23:28 | |
there. The top end of that scale.
There is no cushion about that. This | 0:23:28 | 0:23:33 | |
is already a strong English group of
players. Two years ago. They will | 0:23:33 | 0:23:39 | |
get better. And then it will be down
to in those eight weeks, have they | 0:23:39 | 0:23:44 | |
got their preparation right, and
they got selection right, can they | 0:23:44 | 0:23:49 | |
handled it pressure, which is what
marks out the World Cup winning | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
teams. 2003 do that. But in only one
we didn't in the World Cup final. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:58 | |
This team is probably the nearest he
would have had in two years time | 0:23:58 | 0:24:05 | |
that will have a real chance when
they go to Japan. Thank you very a | 0:24:05 | 0:24:09 | |
much indeed. -- Thank you very much
indeed. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:28 |