Loose Pass: Unpredictability, departures & anticipation

David Skippers
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This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with unpredictability, untimely departures and a rare moment of genuine anticipation…

Any gauge of form?

The Six Nations looms large. Normally there’d be a decent barometer of form to go on, but while we could sit back and hypothesise that little has changed over Christmas, there is a feeling that what will happen the next two months is a complete mystery.

Every one of the protagonists will have been affected by the pandemic somehow. England are currently short of a coaching team, and of one coach completely. Wales head coach Wayne Pivac recently explained how his mental skills coach had been the most in-demand of all of his staff over the past six months.

Players will have had to miss games, training, seen games cancelled, been isolated from family members. No matter how good their condition, preparation under the current conditions will have been deeply mentally taxing and some will respond better than others.

So while England and France remain the favourites, who knows what might really happen? Can Ireland bounce back from a disappointing November? Can Wales build on the flashes of promise shown towards the end of the Autumn – and can Scotland do likewise? What sort of state are Italy in, both mentally and physically? What will the lack of crowds from start to finish mean for the tournament and the teams’ spirits? Freed from the pressure of onlookers, will teams look to run and chase spaces wide, or will they maintain November’s stodgy win-at-all-costs gameplan? What will injuries, in combination with protocols, do to the squads?

It’ll be a tournament like no other. Our principal hope is simply that it concludes with no interruptions and cancellations, and ends up being something to enjoy in this dark era.

Now?

Mutual and calm it may have been, but the departure of Paul Gustard from Harlequins really doesn’t sit well – especially the reports of player unrest that have begun to emerge.

Quins have not been in great form of late and have been dogged by inconsistency for more than a year. The rumour mill is awash with clashes between Gustard’s disciplined and organised approach rubbing up senior members of the squad, who had earned a reputation for playing more adventurous rugby, the wrong way.

Yet it seems very harsh to judge anybody on current results, harsher still on current management policies. The game has been in full disrupt mode for a year now, that’s close to 40% of Gustard’s time at the club. While top-four finishes never materialised, there’s also little doubt he made an impact early on.

Sitting where it does in London, you can imagine the disruption from the pandemic hitting Quins harder than it might do other clubs, making consistency and good organisation even harder to achieve than normal.

If a coach loses the dressing room, yes, it may be time to go. But those at the club who think the dressing room should have that much clout during such an extraordinary time need to consider just how much the external pressures may have contributed to the situation, and whether they, too, could have managed it better.

A game to anticipate

As mentioned a couple of times in this column, it has been a unique year. But come this Saturday, especially for South Africa but really all over the rugby world, we have a final match which should have appetites whetted.

The Bulls will host the Sharks in this weekend’s Currie Cup final, three months later than planned and in what is likely to be stifling heat. But they’ve made it, both teams slogging it through the African summer, quarantining here, having games cancelled there, facing uncertainties everywhere.

The teams are more or less at full strength, both coming through typically rugged encounters at the weekend. You can claim that winning it might be devalued because of the sticky-taped together nature of the tournament, but from our point of view, managing to make it through the minefield that has been the pandemic in South Africa is a pretty impressive achievement already. The winners will have something truly to savour on Saturday.

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan

 

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