Loose Pass: Ireland’s ‘funny old month’ a cause for concern ahead of Six Nations which suffers ‘aberration’ of a rebrand
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will soon pass the reins to Simon Easterby.
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with Ireland, the ebbing of Saracens, Australia’s player turnover and rugby’s branding problem…
The year before the tour
It’s been a funny old month for Ireland. A poor performance in defeat to New Zealand and squeaky, error-ridden wins over Argentina and Australia. A comfortable dispatching of Fiji did not mask ongoing problems regarding penalty count and nervy-looking handling errors.
The W column stands up to scrutiny, which is the bottom line. It’s hardly a team in crisis. But after Andy Farrell‘s clumsy handling of the media duties – and especially Jack Crowley – in the week before the Australia match, as well as the uncharacteristically blunt and undisciplined performances, it’s worth asking if the burden of the forthcoming Lions tour has interfered with Ireland’s progress from a coaching perspective. The team looked as though it also had its mind elsewhere at times.
The Six Nations will be interesting. Simon Easterby, now on Ireland’s coaching ticket for a decade, ought to know his squad through and through. With the exception of the trio currently vying to fill Johnny Sexton’s boots, there’s not an awful lot of new pieces to the jigsaw.
Wales also had a rough 2017 Six Nations and were not over-impressive in the November 2016 internationals, the period during which Warren Gatland was bracing for a tilt at New Zealand with the Lions. 2021 saw Gatland as Lions coach only, having passed on the Wales reins to Wayne Pivac, but it’s worth noting that Gatland’s 2021 season with the Chiefs was awful. In 2012, Wales, fresh off a Grand Slam, lost all four November internationals under a mix of Lions coach-to-be Gatland (who had been recovering from major surgery on his heels) and Rob Howley.
So the big question in the room: Ireland beginning to go a little stale? The looming Lions tour commitments interfering with the coaching ticket? Or was it simply a team struggling for rhythm? Either way, unions should recognise what appears to be a pattern when national team coaches are put in charge of the Lions.
Problems in north London?
Back came the Premiership with a bang, with Bristol’s impressive performance at the Stoop taking the Bears (briefly) top of the table and Sale Sharks leaving the Tigers looking clawless.
In those contexts, Newcastle’s defeat of Saracens somehow slipped under the radar, but where Ireland had a funny old month, Saracens had a peculiar week too.
Losing to – it should be added, what is a clearly resurgent – Newcastle is a surprise enough, but the abrupt departure of CEO Mark Thompson also was a red flag. Having started the season strongly, Saracens are now with one win from the last four games, disrupted internally and have the Bulls looming at the weekend in the European Cup, a team you’d never want to face if things are running less than smoothly. How the team performs there will be instructive.
Australia’s unique challenge
Rassie Erasmus has succession planning at South Africa. Gatland needs to turn over a generation in Wales. Steve Borthwick needs to settle England. Farrell – when not on Lions duty – has succession planning to do in Ireland as well.
But none of them, or any other international coaches, faces the same as Joe Schmidt, whose union shelled out a pot of cash a year ago to bring over Joseph Suaalii from rugby league only to find on Tuesday that another star has headed off to a different sport.
Rugby union enjoyed a boost in Australia over the past few months on the basis of the excellent work Schmidt has done with the Wallabies, evidently not enough to keep Jordan Petaia from joining Louis Rees-Zammit in the NFL. But it’s a stark reminder that when it comes to competition for eyes on screens and bums on seats, Australia faces far more jostling among the pack than the usual.
Why, why, why?
So the Six Nations has had a rebrand. Not that it needed it particularly, but sometimes it helps with the promotion to keep things fresh. A new lick of paint or some polish on a fine shoe can go a long way.
What on earth anybody thought the new logo would achieve however, is beyond comprehension.
Inspired by “the vital spark of connection” created by the Six Nations is how they put it, along with “(signifying) the optimism fans feel when they come together at the end of winter to experience the Six Nations.”
The first weekend in February is categorically NOT the end of winter, for openers, and while, as a citizen of one of the participating nations, there is absolutely the feeling of a connection, it is hardly a ‘vital spark of connection’, more a refreshing, warm, feeling of familiarity and tradition in an age where so much that is not broken is thrown out and trashed.
Such, for example, as has happened to the Six Nations logo, which used to ooze the class surrounding the tournament but now resembles something used to inaugurate the newest episodes of Spaceman Spiff on his journeys through time on Nickelodeon.
It may grow on people – it may be more eye-catchy on the kit than the current logo. It may stand the test of time, not least because once the up-front irritation at meddling with tradition dies away, it’s actually only a logo. By the time France are halfway through the opener against Wales on January 31 it’ll be the last thing on people’s minds.
But with games disappearing further behind imperceptible and expensive paywalls and the founding traditions of the game in increasing danger from the dudebro private equity bunch and their phalanxes of tight-suited, well-manicured lackeys, this aberration of a logo should serve to remind us that no area of the traditional game is safe.
READ MORE: Six Nations: Fans react angrily to ‘worst rebrand’ and ‘ugliest thing ever seen’
