Loose Pass

Editor

This week we will be mostly concerning ourselves with Sam Warburton, Jacques Brunel and Super Rugby’s opening weekend.

Breakdown cover

Whilst we continue to while away the first of the two breaks which trisect the five rounds of the Six Nations, we thought we’d make an early stab at picking a team of the tournament. Here’s the XV we put together for delectation:

Leigh Halfpenny, Leonardo Sarto, Robbie Henshaw, Dan Biggar, Rhys Priestland, Matthieu Jalibert, Ben Youngs, Rhys Webb, Morgan Parra, Kévin Gourdon, Antoine Dupont, Christopher Tolofua, Kyle Sinckler, Scott Baldwin, Tadhg Furlong.

Tasty, right? Okay, we’ll concede that it’s not the world’s most balanced side (half-backs abound) but our boys share a very definite sense of togetherness.

Can you guess what it is that unites them all? No, they are not just injured: our lads all have fresh injuries, all picked up since being called up for Six Nations duty all those weeks ago. Well, four weeks ago to be exact.

We could have extended our remit to simply ‘injured’, but that would have been too easy in these bounteous times, so apologies to those we have snubbed, the likes of Sam Warburton, Billy Vunipola, Michele Campagnaro, Elliot Daly, Sean O’Brien, Dan Lydiate, Camile Lopez, Zander Ferguson, Jarde Payne, WP Nel and Jamie Heaslip … to name but a few.

Yes, yes. This constant talk of injuries is getting a bit boring, but not when it comes from the aforementioned Warburton. The Lions skipper, fresh from neck surgery, has revealed that his tour of New Zealand was marred by fears for his physical health.

He told the Sunday Times: “I lost quite a lot of confidence in contact. In the end I didn’t even want to tackle.”

We should point out that Warburton is not calling for the tackle/breakdown area to be reassessed. Indeed, he actually goes on to say he “can’t wait to get jackalling again and getting pummelled”!

But you don’t need a medical degree to know that you are likely to injury a stationary individual if you charge at them full pelt. And you don’t need a degree in statistics to appreciate that the number of rucks per game as climbed from 31 in the early 1970s to 191 in the latest edition of the World Cup.

World Rugby has acknowledged a recent “spike” in injuries but is reluctant to lay the blame on any one area, least of all the breakdown. According to the governing body, only 8% of all rugby injuries are sustained at the ruck. Unless they deem the clear-out as separate from the ruck, we simply can’t see how this can be true.

It’s unlikely we’ll ever have a conclusive answer to rugby’s injury epidemic, but we should at least attempt to root out a few of the main causes. Instead of simply listing injured body parts, let’s start to pay proper attention to the parts of the game in which they were actually sustained.

World Rugby, over to you.

French failings

Speculation grows in the absence of full disclosure. It’s a simple maxim completely lost to those in nominal charge of the French game.

Their reticence over exactly what happened in the aftermath of France’s implosion at Murrayfield has opened the door to a whole array of lurid theories, our favourite being that the team’s plane was held on the tarmac whilst Scottish police sprang Nessie from the hold.

The truth is likely to be much less amusing, and we sincerely hope it does not centred on anything lower than shattered curfews and a flagrant disrespect for team rules.

Until we find out, all we can do is join the dots, and the apparent punishment meted out to five of the six players questioned by Scottish authorities creates a really odd picture.

If they were dropped for gross misconduct whilst representing their country, how have they been allowed to return to their clubs to immediately resume Top 14 duties?

With France now zero wins from two, hopes of a first Six Nations title since 2010 are already over, and one wonder whether Jacques Brunel will be under pressure to ‘discipline’ a few more players as the Top 14 hots up over the next four weeks.

That’s gross speculation, of course, but it’s all we got – and, unfortunately, it fits a long-established trend.

Welcome to your new life, Jacques! Bonne chance.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Boom! We have ignition! The Super Rugby season is go, go, GO!

Oh, did you not notice? It did actually kick off on Saturday. Well, sort of.

With the Australian and New Zealand conferences not schedule to get going until Round Two, Round One consisted of just two games, both played in South Africa, both in front of very sparse crowds.

Sorry. We don’t mean to come across as snotty. It’s just rather depressing that this once mighty competition can no longer even put together an opening gambit that does not confuse and disappoint.

We’ll stick with it for now, not least because the rugby is electric and the organisers really are trying their damnedest to make it easier to follow. But on the evidence of Round One, more is needed from the organisers and marketers.

And it doesn’t end there. Waratahs captain Michael Hooper also needs a quiet word with himself after he turned by for the big Super Rugby launch minus his shorts, socks and boots.

What’s the going fine for that sort of behaviour? Your suggestions below, please!

Loose Pass is compiled by former Planet Rugby editor Andy Jackson