Sam Burgess wordcloud - is the League convert referred to excessively in match reports?

Is Rugby League convert Sam Burgess over-hyped in match reports following his switch to Union? Here's a wordcloud I've done following his full Premiership debut against Leicester Tigers on Sunday. It is based on online reports by the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Independent, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Leicester Mercury, Bath Chronicle, BBC. Click on the cloud below, draw your own conclusions and let me know your thoughts.

Jamie Gibson on his mentors at Leicester Tigers

Poached mid-degree from Oxford University by Leicester, flanker Jamie Gibson tells me about what makes the Tigers such a distinctive place for a youngster to learn his trade.

Friday thoughts on Freddie Burns, Dean Richards & Richard Cockerill

Gloucester’s Freddie Burns will make his 100th appearance for the Cherry and Whites this weekend when they travel to Sarries. One hundredth appearance? Incredible, really, given that it seems just a jiffy ago that I was asking Burns' lanky, teenage frame what it was like playing his first pre-season friendly against his home-town club, Bath.
So the hundred’s up for Freddie, aged just 23. And for all his Bath roots, he is perfectly happy to now describe himself as a Gloucester boy. I wouldn’t bet against him chalking up 300 appearances for Gloucester during his career.
Burns was, and remains, the one who got away for Bath.

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Last season, Bath collectively psyched themselves up for their home encounter with Leicester by watching the video of the 2008 game in which Butch James scored one of the most implausible match-winning tries ever. That last-gasp score was inspiring enough, but even more inspiring was the physical tenacity that Bath brought to their play that November day.



Butch James's modest celebration at The Rec, 2008
 

As a preparation tactic for last season’s game, it worked a treat. Bath won another pulsating game with another late try by another swan-diving South African – this time it was Francois Louw.
So, how have Bath prepared for Saturday’s 100th anniversary match with Leicester? By watching DVDs of those two fixtures, you'd expect. And with Louw away on Rugby Championship duty, it might be handy for the West Country side to bus in an additional South African or two for the occasion.

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Nilling a team when you are away from home is never a bad way to start a season. Bath’s performance against Newcastle last Friday was controlled, controlling and perfectly adapted to the conditions.
From beginning to end, it was a consummately professional showing. And I haven’t been able to write that too many times in recent seasons.
Newcastle were thoroughly beaten up. All of which made the post-match remark by Falcons boss Dean Richards that “Against bigger sides, Bath will become unstuck” distinctly perplexing.
Well, Dean, if Bath will become unstuck, then the outlook doesn’t look great for your nilled Falcons, does it?

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Talking of motormouthed coaches, it just won’t be the same on Saturday without Leicester boss Richard Cockerill in the stands. No more shouts of “That’s embarrassing, referee!” and the like.
Cockers is currently banned from being involved with Leicester on match-days following his outburst during the Premiership final, the transcript of which would no doubt be deserving of a Tarantino script. Still, it will be quieter in the West Stand on Saturday. And referee Greg Garner will be able to leave his earplugs at home.
For all his hollering and desk-thumping, I’d still rather have Cockerill there for a ding-dong Bath-Leicester scrap. He brings passion and unpredictability – two ingredients for any compelling spectacle. But then it’s not me who gets bawled at by him. Not yet, anyway.

Summer musings: Part II

Some recent columns of mine: Why the RFU was right not to reduce Richard Cockerill's ban (this was written before the Leicester DoR's appeal hearing, but you'll catch my drift) and what 7s can do to lift the English professional game.

If Tom Croft raced Bryan Habana...

Few flankers know their art more thoroughly than Leicester Tigers' Julian Salvi.  And the Aussie is backing his rangy, rapid backrow colleague Tom Croft to cause mayhem among the Wallabies when the British & Irish Lions head Down Under.
“Tom Croft is a supreme athlete," Salvi told me. "He is a freak of nature who is tough in all areas.
“He will hold the edges really well and if you give him space he can act as another back.
“That style of rugby is great in the Southern Hemisphere because it’s about chucking the ball around.
“With Tom Croft in the team you have a guy who can expose the Australians. The hard tracks are going to be really great for him."
The following clip suggests there is more than a semblance of wisdom in Salvi's words. In fact, geek that I am, I used a stopwatch to time how long it takes Croft to get from the halfway line to dot the ball down against Quins: 5.30 seconds. Welford Road is not the longest pitch in the world, but that is very, very rapid. And Croft doesn't run straight because of the covering defence, and the ground is pretty sludgy too. Which makes his run all the more staggering. On an athletics track on a dry day, he'd surely get close to 10.5 seconds over 100m. Brisk or what?:

It's enough to remind you of that ludicrous moment in rugby PR when Springbok winger Bryan Habana raced a cheetah:

Anyway, enough of cheetahs, what of the Lions?
Salvi, who previously played for the Brumbies in Canberra as well as Australia 'A', says of the Home Nations' prospects: “The Lions have a great opportunity to win the breakdown. The likes of Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric are all capable of disrupting ball. As long as the Lions get the selection right, they will be able to put the pressure on the Aussies."
It's just a shame that Salvi won't be there to compete against the Lions. The Wallabies are missing a trick by not having him in their national set up. Both at Bath and Leicester he's proved himself a superb fetcher and a fine link player; a consistent stand-out player in the Premiership. And wouldn't his inside knowledge of northern hemisphere rugby help the Aussies once Croft and the rest of the Lions roll into town?

The Mad Dog keeps smiling - Lewis Moody on retirement and his "ridiculous" career

Lewis Moody talks to me about his career, retirement and that creaking trophy cabinet

In his autobiography published after last year’s World Cup, Lewis Moody paid tribute to the cast of medics who had patched him up during his 16-year career.
And one day, the tale of his injuries, operations and comebacks will doubtless form a textbook for first-year medical students.

Ultimately, though, the years of attrition took their toll, resulting in his enforced retirement this week.

But, typically, Moody (pictured) was still smiling and looking to the future when I caught up with him on Tuesday. It was such a demeanour that saw him through many long injury lay-offs, injuries caused more often that not by the way he put himself about on the pitch.

Full-on, devil-may-care, kamikaze, scant regard for his own safety, body on the line... There are many ways in which Lewis Moody’s style of play have been described. Suffice it to say that the first person who nicknamed him Mad Dog wasn’t barking up the wrong tree.

Like a veteran of many a campaign in far-flung war zones, it takes more than one breath to get through Moody’s roll of honours.

The most capped England flanker, 71 caps for his country, seven Premiership titles, three for the British and Irish Lions, two Heineken Cup winner’s medals, one Anglo-Welsh Cup winner’s medal, two Six Nations Championship winner’s medals and one World Cup winners medal. It is some haul, and one that enables Moody to be at peace with his decision to hang up his boots.

“There’s no self-pity at all,” he says of the shoulder injury that has caused his retirement. “That’s not my style.

“I’ve had a phenomenal career - far greater than anyone could have imagined, certainly me. Some players don’t win a single trophy in their career, I think I’ve won 14 or something ridiculous.”

Many of Moody’s achievements were accomplished despite him being diagnosed with colitis in 2004-05. Over-exposure to anti-inflammatories, antibiotics and painkillers contributed to the onset of the condition, and a few seasons ago Moody even stopped taking protein shakes - ubiquitous in every professional club - to help his intestinal problems.

Moody made his international debut in 2001 and went on to feature in all seven of England’s games in their triumphant 2003 World Cup campaign.

He represented the Lions in 2005, helped England reach the 2007 World Cup and then captained his country into last year’s tournament.

Ultimately it proved a disappointing experience as England bowed out in the quarter-finals after a campaign dogged by controversy. Moody blamed himself for some of it.

He announced his retirement from the international game after the World Cup and was looking forward to channelling all his energies into Bath Rugby. Then, in his first Premiership game after returning from New Zealand, Moody took to the field at Sixways in what was to be his last game. A shoulder injury ended his game early, and it was to prove to be the final curtain on his career.

“It was gutting because when I retired from international rugby, all I wanted to do was focus my time on playing for Bath and playing out the two years left on my contract and then maybe having another year with the club,” explains Moody.

“I came back to training and was getting through everything great and then I suddenly couldn’t get through anything.

“You realise in your own head that something’s fundamentally not right and I realised that the injury I’d picked up against Worcester wasn’t something I was going to be able to come back from.

“It was an easy decision in that the body just wouldn’t recover.

“Of course I took professional advice. I wasn’t prepared to give up on my career until I’d explored every avenue.”

On Sunday, Moody decided he had played his final game.

“Over the weekend I had to bite the bullet and be realistic. I had to admit that I’d tried to come back but that unfortunately it wasn’t going to happen.”

And what of the future?

“There are many avenues for me to look at. Coaching is one of them, media stuff, team-building, after-dinner speaking and getting involved with the charities and sponsors that you can never give enough time to when you are playing due to training and games.

“There are so many options open to you it’s almost daunting thinking that you’ve got to go down one of them.

“Would I be a good coach? Who knows, I’d need to do some to find out. Would I be a good presenter? Who knows, I’d need to do some first. There are some interesting months ahead.”

English clubs go (salary) cap in hand as Euro campaigns falter

Bath Rugby have one last chance this weekend to ensure their European campaign ends with a bang rather than a kitten-like whimper. But whether or not they manage to beat Glasgow on Saturday, this season's campaign has seen Bath's value among the continent's big boys fall faster than the Euro.

If Bath were a European economy, they would have endured a triple dip recession in recent years. A new Heineken Cup campaign always heralds fresh positivity, but Bath have nosedived in each of the last three seasons.

Bath have won four Heineken Cup matches during those three campaigns, an embarrassing stat for former champs however you dress it up.

Two of those wins were against Italian whipping boys, with the other two coming at home against Edinburgh in 2009-10 and Montpellier this season. Neither of those last two victories was convincing.

Put another way, very few scalps have been claimed by a side with the self-professed goal of rubbing shoulders with the likes of Toulouse, Munster and Leinster.

But Bath are not the only side whose stock has plummeted on the European bourse. Investors in that traditionally defensive stock, Leicester Tigers, also have cause to feel jittery.

Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill partly blamed the salary cap for his side's woes after they were on the end of a beating in Ulster last Friday.

In Cockers' book, the cap prevents English sides from having sufficient depth to compete with those French and Irish sides which have greater wherewithal.

There is certainly something that separates Irish clubs and English clubs at the moment. For proof of that, just cast your eye over the tables.

Three Irish provinces sit at the top of their pools. And the only province that isn't, Connacht, came within a gnat's crotchet of beating Gloucester at Kingsholm, a location not exactly known for its warm welcome.

The cap will lose some of its potency as an excuse next season when it rises. A more compelling explanation for the Anglo-Irish divide, I think, is that the provinces don't have to worry about demotion from the relegation-free Pro12.

If English sides want a level playing field, the Premiership needs a fixed composition. Until then, the dice are unfairly loaded against them.

The malaise afflicting Bath Rugby

"Thank goodness Leicester won.”

As utterances go, those four words pass a Bath Rugby supporter’s lips about as often as Halley’s Comet comes into view.

But it’s got to the point where Bath fans – for their own sanity – are having to rely on what other sides are doing. Heaven knows they receive no peace of mind from watching their own team.

Had Worcester Warriors (the team that first revealed the extent of Bath’s travails - remember that wretchedly inglorious November night at Sixways?) beaten Leicster on Tuesday, Bath would have dropped to 11th in the ladder, just eight points above bottom-placed Newcastle.

Perennial optimists will caution against such gloomy glances at the Aviva Premiership table. Maybe everything will come good as core players return. Maybe Newcastle can be relied upon to finish bottom. Maybe the current blunt strategy pursued by Bath will be whittled into a piercing dart...

On the first point, I have little doubt that the likes of Carl Fearns and Lee Mears will bring about an upswing in Bath’s fortunes once they are fit again. But the strength of that upswing will be nigh on negligible if Bath continue to play with the lack of cohesion and lateral direction that they have displayed in the past two months.

Pundits like Dean Ryan can see it and Bath’s own supporters can see it – there is less gel in Bath than there is on Lawrence Dallaglio’s scalp.

And let’s not be foolish enough to make any assumptions about Newcastle. Bath have lost seven of their last eight matches in all competitions, the Falcons three.

That is not quite comparing like with like, as Newcastle have been competing in the Amlin Cup rather than the Heineken, but the Tynesiders have still defeated the likes of Toulon and Gloucester.

With a sharper looking backline than last season, and with key players already being re-signed, only a fool would brand the Falcons as destined for the drop.

Indeed, while Newcastle sign pivotal players, Bath’s contract negotiations seem to have stalled.

Towards the end of November, chief executive Nick Blofeld was confident that a handful of new deals with out-of-contract players would be concluded and announced before Christmas. That hasn’t happened. Either the club wants to see an improvement in personal performance before deals are done or players are having second thoughts.

But once we are into the new year, players will be fair game to other clubs – and then assembling a squad gets a whole lot trickier.

It is now four weeks since club chairman Bruce Craig used a matchday programme to publicly describe his side’s performance against Worcester as “unacceptable”. Since then, Bath have lost four on the spin, conceding 108 points in the process.

The question is, if things were unacceptable to Craig then, what are they now?

Before the start of this season, the chairman declared that Bath wouldn’t be “chucking the ball around in the rain”, as they had done at times under previous head coach Steve Meehan. Instead, a more pragmatic approach would prevail.

I accept that, at times, the club’s heads-up-and-have-a-go strategy under Meehan displayed a bravado verging on the witless but what supporters are being served now appears just as witless and is far less entertaining – the worst of both worlds.

In the season of goodwill, even a hack like me has been surprised – through emails, through social media and through online forums – at the relish with which supporters have been whetting knives.

And I think the clash with London Irish at The Rec on New Year’s Day will go a long way to determining which way the bird gets carved.

Win and there will be a lot of talk about a new year and a new dawn. Lose badly with another under-par performance and the call for change will rise to a clamour.

The Southern Hemisphere loose forwards with their eyes on Bath

Bath Rugby saw off a bid from arch rivals Leicester Tigers to secure the services of Springbok flanker Francois Louw, I can reveal.

But the South African flanker, pictured, says a "captivating" visit to Bath early this year made the choice between The Rec and Welford Road a straightforward one.

I exclusively revealed in January that Bath were interested in seven-cap Louw and we reported in April that a deal had been signed.

This week, following the conclusion of the Super 15 competition in the southern hemisphere, both Bath and Louw's hometown side, Cape Town-based Stormers/Western Province, confirmed the 6ft 4in blindside specialist would be moving to The Rec.

I can also reveal that another southern hemisphere loose forward, Julian Salvi, approached Bath with a view to returning to the West Country next season.

Brumbies openside Salvi enjoyed a spectacularly successful year at Bath in 2009-10 when he was named the club's best forward, and recently asked his agent to contact the Bath management to discuss the possibility of another spell at The Rec.

However, Bath's loose forward division was already full to capacity, with Louw and young openside Carl Fearns the new additions to a back row that already boasts Lewis Moody, Simon Taylor, Ben Skirving, Andy Beattie and exciting prospect Guy Mercer.

"Julian instructed me to get in touch with Bath first but unfortunately Bath were full," said Salvi's agent.

This week, it was announced Salvi would instead join Leicester on a two-year deal.

One man who is delighted to be heading to The Rec rather than Welford Road, however, is Louw.

"Playing overseas is always something I've wanted to do and Bath were the first club to approach me," he explained.

"When Bath flew me over for a visit, I was blown away by the ethos among the team and the whole set-up. It was all first class. And it was all in such a beautiful city. I was instantly captivated. What's not to like?

"It was a tough decision to leave Western Province, but easy in the sense that Bath had created such a great impression.

"There were a couple of other interested clubs. Leicester were top of the Premiership and that created a pull, but Bath was always the club for me.

"It's important to be at a club that's going forward, and I could see that was the case at Bath straight away."

The 26-year-old, who has penned a three-year deal with the club, says he is in for the long haul.

"When I sat down with Bath, I explained that I was fully committed and not just doing a little stint overseas," he said.

"I want to shape myself into a team and be part of a growing team going forward."

Louw, however, won't give up on his international ambitions while at Bath. He has been named in South Africa's provisional World Cup squad and is likely to join the club following the conclusion of the competition.

"If the opportunity comes up to play for my country [while I am at Bath] then I would play in a heartbeat," he said.

"Bath know about my commitment to South Africa and my willingness to represent them."