Follow Eddie’s advice and get on the All Blacks

EJ: New Zealand.

(For the record, the referee is Wayne Barnes.)

Eddie, Michael Hooper is the ultimate role model

I have never had a reaction to an interview like the one I did with Eddie, where we both vented our frustrations with the World Cup, and each other. But it was his approach to Michael Hooper that I disagreed with at the time, and vehemently disagree with now that I reflect upon it.

Eddie left the long-time Wallaby captain out of the World Cup squad, and in the interview said that Hooper, Bernard Foley and Quade Cooper, were “not the right role models for the team going forward”.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “They’re not bad guys. But you need guys – particularly when you’ve got a team like Australia has at the moment – you need guys who are obsessed with winning, obsessed with being good, and those three are past those stages.”

Harsh on Foley and Cooper, I reckon, but outrageous on Hooper! When I challenged him on Hooper, Eddie didn’t back down.

“I stand by it, 100 per cent,” he insisted. “He is a great guy but the timing is not right for him.”

Hooper played 118 Tests, and in the last 10 years has been our answer to what Allan Border was to Australian cricket in the 1980s. Hooper was the youngest Wallaby captain since Ken Catchpole, won the John Eales Medal four times, and had a career unblemished with any controversy.

He’s an Australian rugby great – and as a role model on how to play and comport yourself, they don’t come better. He deserved a much better finish to his rugby career.

The real thing left the movie Invictus for dead

Inevitably, the fact that the Boks and the Blacks are meeting in the World Cup final has prompted comparisons with the film Invictus, which attempted to document the famous 1995 World Cup Final at Ellis Park, which is the only other time the two teams have met in a World Cup final, even though between them they have won six World Cups.

For the record, and as one who was privileged to be at that cup and attend that final, I hated that film. Yes, its heart was in the right place, and everyone found it moving. But I compare what was portrayed, to the way it actually was. Part of the problem was that neither director Clint Eastwood nor lead – Matt Damon playing Springbok captain Francois Pienaar – had ever seen a game of rugby before arriving in South Africa to shoot the film.

One of the early scenes shows a Springbok forward, after a losing Test, tearing off his Bok jersey and throwing it on the muddy dressing room floor. I dinkum daresay that in the history of Springbok rugby, that has never happened.

The point of Test rugby is that you are effectively wearing your national flag. It is put in your kit to be reverentially washed and preserved. It is not thrown in the mud. Later, the script has it that it was the great Nelson Mandela was the one who put it to Pienaar that he wanted the Boks to win it.

Ummm, no. Every Bok captain, ever, came into the world with the belief that it was their birthright to win every match they played.

And then there is the final, electric scene, where Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, comes out just before the final is to begin, wearing the Bok No.6 jersey, which was Pienaar’s number. But friends? In real life it was . . . ELECTRIC!

It was like nothing we had ever seen, or experienced. Here was the first black South African president, after 27 years of imprisonment on Robben Island, reaching out and publicly embracing the most beloved institution of white South Africans, the Springboks. The roar of the stadium in acclaim was simply stunning, as hardened Boers around me with cauliflower ears and grizzled melons wept, even as they chanted “Mandela! Mandela! Mandela!”

There have been many quiet predictions over the years that the complete abolition of apartheid, the introduction of South Africa’s quota system to have a certain number of black players in each team, would see them fade as a rugby power.

Well, look at them now.

Bobby Charlton, a gentleman ’til the last

TFF was sent a cracker of a Bobby Charlton reminiscence this week, originating from a Linkedin post by Steve Dettre, a former journalistic veteran of AAP.

Dettre recounted how, as a 10-year-old in 1967, his own sports journalist father took him on his first plane trip to see the touring Manchester United team as they played their opening match against Queensland.

In the second half, wee Dettre watched wide-eyed as the great George Best bamboozled the defence. He went from side-to-side down the field, only to be brought down by what looked like a gutsy and legitimate tackle near the penalty area. Uproar! The crowd rises, the Queensland players protest, and even the Man U players look a little sheepish about it, but the ref persists. Penalty to the visitors!

“But Charlton calmly picked up the ball and placed it on the spot,” Dettre recounts. “The referee waved the protesting players away, cleared the area, and blew the whistle. Charlton then put the ball well over the bar into Row Z, earning a long round of applause from the crowd. Matter settled!”

Nudging four decades later, Dettre was working with Infostrada Sports crew at the FIFA World Cup 2002 in Japan, where he was asked to play a social match for the Japan Organising Committee against a FIFA team in the old stadium of the 1964 Olympics. Dettre is thrilled to be furnished with a full kit and is getting ready for the big game when, just before kick-off, an older fellow walks in.

“When he sat down and started to get changed,” Dettre recounts, “we noticed he was a little older than the rest of us.”

“It’s Bobby Charlton!” Dettre tells his mate. And now they join the huddle as the English legend gives them the plan in the pre-match team talk.

“Lay the ball into my path,” says he, “and I’ll do my best.”

Needless to say, Charlton’s best, even at the age of 65, was stupendous.

“He scored three crackers that day,” Dettre finishes, “all long-range beauties. Post game we chatted for ages, enjoying his stories and observations.

“He was exactly how I hoped he would be. A true gentleman. Vale Bobby Charlton.”

What They Said

English fullback Freddie Steward echoing the thoughts of the Irish at the Rugby World Cup: “To go that close against such a great outfit and to not get there in the end is a tough one to take. Sport is cruel sometimes.”

Actor Javier Bardem – who won the Oscar as the psychopath in No Country For Old Men – on playing rugby for Spain when he was younger: “I’m always saying that playing rugby in Spain is like being a bullfighter in Japan.”

Jockey Mark Zahra on winning the Caulfield Cup on Without A Fight: “I had to give myself an uppercut I reckon about Thursday because I didn’t sleep Wednesday night just thinking about . . . it was like someone stealing your missus, someone else getting the ride on Gold Trip, I was a bit shattered.”

Des Hasler: “The hair is still there. The part that pisses off a lot of people is that it’s not grey.”

Eric Cantona on his singing: “These 20 tracks were built to be on stage. It’s why I wanted to do a live album first. It will be finished like the last touch on a painting. I am a headliner . . . maybe The [Rolling] Stones can support me.”

Trent Cotchin on what his then Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said to his team, after his last game, mid-season, just before resigning: “He pointed to the Essendon team that was displayed on the whiteboard and said, ‘To be honest with you, I reckon this team is a bunch of spuds, and you aren’t even as good as they are’.”

Argentine World Cup-winning midfielder Papu Gomez on the reason he tested positive for a banned drug, no, really, (cough, cough).: “The alleged offence originates from the presence of Terbutaline in my system, after I accidentally ingested it in a spoonful of my little son’s cough syrup.”

Peter V’landys on trying to crack the US market: “We worked out that if all this goes to plan, it has the potential to generate hundreds of millions for rugby league. Not tens of millions – hundreds of millions.” But seriously, folks.

Dutch cricketer Logan van Beek ahead of the Australia match in comments that didn’t age well: “And the South African win just gave us that extra belief that you know the way they’re playing at the moment on our day we can still beat a good team.”

American tennis player Jenson Brooksby after being slapped with an 18-month ban after missing three drug tests in a 12-month window, the middle one of which he contests: “On that date, I was in my hotel room for the entirety of my 1-hour testing window. The hotel room had been booked for the first part of my stay in the name of my physio (who was staying with me), because the ATP did not provide me with a room until June 4.”

Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson: “Look at what we’ve done, and I’ve said that what we did in the World Cup was not the end of something, it was the start of something.”

Chloe Molloy ahead of the Swans/Magpies match after moving from Collingwood to Sydney: “I’m like, that’s going to be an incredible game to watch. You’re watching Chloe Molloy take on her old side.” You tell her. I don’t have the courage.

Team of the Week

Matildas. Started the Olympic qualifying campaign with a 2-0 win against Iran. Take on the Philippines tomorrow. We’ve missed them.

Kelpies. Australian men’s netball team won Trans-Tasman Cup. I know. I feel the same. There has to be a better name than Kelpies, yes?

Ange Postecoglou. 23 points in his first nine Premier League games is a record for any manager.

Greg Chappell. The Australian cricketing great has hit straitened financial times, which has seen the cricketing community come together to help out. A huge fund-raising lunch was held by the cricketing community for him last Monday at the MCG, and between it and a GoFundMe page a good chunk of cash has been raised.

Rugby World Cup. For the fifth consecutive time, South Africa or New Zealand is going to win the World Cup – which is a pity, in a tournament with more genuine contenders than ever before.

Swans. AFLW Team won four games and might pinch a finals spot. Rah!

RIP Sir Bobby Charlton. The Manchester United and England legend – he starred for England in their World Cup victory in 1966 – died this week aged 86. Sadly, like many of that generation who played with those heavy soccer balls, he died with dementia and his last years were grim.

Watch all the action from Rugby World Cup 2023 on the Home of Rugby, Stan Sport. Every match streaming ad-free, live and in 4K UHD with replays, mini matches and highlights available on demand.

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