‘You would compare him with Finn Russell’ – The ‘unbelievable’ fly-half who never achieved international honours
'You would compare him with Finn Russell' - The 'unbelievable' Ryan Lamb who never achieved international honours
Former Gloucester and England Saxons fly-half Ryan Lamb has opened up on the struggles he faced during his playing days, and the lack of “regrets” over his England exile.
The 39-year-old had a largely successful professional playing career that spanned over 15 years, taking him from England to France and ending in Wales.
Despite his extensive travels with the club game, he never quite made the leap to the international ecosystem, but not due to a lack of talent.
“I think I wasn’t really made for international rugby,” said the now Plymouth Albion backs coach on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast.
“I was in the era where you had some outstanding tens,” he continued, naming Jonny Wilkinson, Charlie Hodgson, Andy Goode, Toby Flood and Shane Geraghty as his challengers for the shirt, admitting, however, that he believed he should have been capped, claiming that his “face didn’t fit” the selection policy.
Lamb arguably had his chances at England camps under Brian Ashton, Martin Johnson and Stuart Lancaster, but had issues with all three.
Driving away from Brian Ashton
His first England coach was the former Bath man, Ashton. His philosophy was always to play with the ball in hand, to take risks and not pre-plan moves. Watching an Ashton side play was always great for a neutral, but it didn’t necessarily translate to the international stage.
During Lamb’s time with the national academy, he recounted a meeting when he called out Ashton for training the players too hard, which spectacularly backfired.
“I put my hand up,” he explained. “It’s like, ‘listen, I think we’re doing too much, like, blah blah, I’m 18 at a time. I kind of went a bit hard, saying, ‘This is silly. There’s no need to do this. Blah, blah, blah’. And then he went, ‘Does anyone else feel like that? Anyone?’
The response was not what Lamb had expected. The room was silent, and Lamb had irked the boss.
“Is it boys? Like, f*cking great,” Lamb recalled feeling disappointed. “And I just sat back down like that. And then he said, ‘you stay in after ‘. Then I didn’t want to be around the boys; I was angry.”
Ashton then allegedly called Lamb an “energy sapper”, accusing him of bringing those around him down, which led to his first big exit from an England camp.
“I walked out the door, went straight to my dorm and packed all my kit, and I just got in the car, my Peugeot 206, and started driving down the M5.”
It wasn’t the first time he had fallen out with Ashton. In fact, during his time under Ashton’s stewardship, he had an issue with the way Ashton allegedly treated Danny Cipriani as his “golden child”.
Recounting a time when Cipriani and Lamb were expected to play off the cuff and not pre-plan a move during training, he told the panel of the “injustice” that would fall his way.
Cipriani, in Lamb’s opinion, had pre-planned a move and was rewarded for it, whilst Lamb was berated for playing off the cuff. This was the turning point for Lamb, deciding there and then that he no longer wished to play for Ashton.
Snapping at Martin Johnson
His next time in the England camp would come under the leadership of 2003 World Cup winner, Johnson. His time as head coach was notoriously short, but Lamb still felt his impact.
During one training session, in which Lamb had wanted to sit out due to injury, Johnson had challenged his reasoning, which led to a very feisty response.
“Johno [Martin Johnson] come up to me and went, said something about, ‘are you injured?’ I was like, ‘yeah’. He said, ‘Is it because it’s contact?’ And I went, ‘you what?’ I was like, ‘course not, what you on about contact, I play rugby for a living!’
“And then he never spoke to me again after that, never even looked at me again. Never got picked for another camp.”
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Getting Stuart Lancaster’s name wrong
His final coach at the international level was the then-relatively unknown boss, Lancaster. His initial introduction didn’t go well.
Lamb explained that he was running late for a half-back’s meeting after initially being missed out of the WhatsApp group.
“I’ve walked up, I said, ‘I’m so sorry I’m late. So great to be here, great to meet you, Steve’. He went, ‘My name’s not Steve, it’s Stuart’. And I went, ‘Yeah, course it is, course it is.’
Andy Goode jokingly told him that he would be out the door after that initial faux pas, but the reality was that he was right.
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“It doesn’t take away from how good a player he was”
Mike Tindall reflected on his former teammate, saying: “If I look back now on Lamby, how unbelievable he was, if you put him in today, you would compare him with Finn Russell in terms of how to make a read at the line and change it if needs be, and place it accordingly.
“But you know, some of it then lies on that means, like picking those fights, he didn’t really need to pick those fights, which he definitely did do, and if he got told to do something, he would sometimes purposely do the other thing just to prove a point. But still, it doesn’t take away from how good a player he was.”