A great year for Dupont but Marcus was not far behind
PAUL REES REFLECTS ON THE STAND-OUT EVENTS AND PLAYERS OF 2021
Ayear that started with a new Covid variant prompting restrictions and the disruption of tournaments is ending in the same way. Alpha affected the European Champions Cup last season, as has Omicron this, and came close to disrupting the Six Nations with the French government anxious about its citizens keeping clear of Britain, but the rugby itself was liberating.
Toulouse won the Champions Cup and the Top 14 with Harlequins making a strong run on the rails to make it over the Premiership's finishing line first, two clubs who have long cherished the running game and the belief that players should not be slaves to a gameplan but the masters of it, alert to opportunity.
The two clubs were inspired by two of the most talked about players in 2021, Antoine Dupont and Marcus Smith. They both reflected a change in the game from the autumn of 2021, when the rugby was as bleak as the weather with the ball spending considerable time in the air as teams feared the consequences of being caught in possession in their own half.
Dupont, as he showed for Toulouse in Cardiff this month, is a scrum-half unlike any other. His fundamentals, kicking, passing and tackling, are sound, but he is a catalyst in attack, detecting the smallest of gaps and blessed with the power and pace to take advantage.
Toulouse were generally average at the Arms Park against a side that had been cobbled together by necessity, desperate to play the fixtures despite the bulk of the squad being unavailable having had to quarantine, because of the pay day the fixture pro- vided – it was different for the Scarlets who, facing the same predica- ment, called off their match at Bristol.
The champions were elevated by Dupont who was this month voted World Rugby's Player of the Year, not surprisingly given the shortlist had left out his most serious rivals, Springboks Lukhanyo Am and Eben Etzebeth (and why did the team of the year include two openside flankers, surely not because Siya Kolisi wears 6 for the Springboks who designate that number, like Argentina, for their breakaway?).
Smith has a similar ability to turn a match, as he showed with his try against Cardiff last weekend. Like Dupont, he senses opportunity rather than tries to force things, watching and waiting. He was on the shortlist for World Rugby's Breakthrough Player of the Year, losing out to Will Jordan, the New Zealand wing who, although making his Test debut last year, made his first start in 2021 and scored nine tries in nine Tests.
Smith made his first appearance for England in the summer and was chosen last month ahead of George Ford, who has been in prime form for Leicester, the pacesetters in the Premiership this season. England have over the years gained a reputation for wearing teams down and rarely deviating from a gameplan, even when it is not working, but they defeated South Africa despite being overpowered at forward and living off scraps.
The Lions tour to South Africa may have been dour, a victim of Covid restrictions, but the Six Nations and the Autumn Internationals were, generally, breathless and breathtaking, pointing the way to the World Cup.
INTERNATIONALS
France did not win the Six Nations, contriving to extend their losing run at Twickenham despite England suffering a hangover after winning the 2020 title, but arguably they can take more from 2021 than any other country given they are hosting the next World Cup.
They finished the year on the highest of highs, overcoming New Zealand in Paris, finding strength at the point the momentum had turned after the All Blacks had rallied from 24-6 down at the interval to trail by two points, steadily progressing to the World Cup.
The last time France had the event, in 2007, they were hellbent on imitating England. Their then head coach, Bernard Laporte, was less interested in French flair than English phlegm, stressing the need for discipline and control. The result was defeat to the 2003 winners in a forgettable semifinal, adieu from Laporte and a gradual drift into mediocrity after, somehow, reaching the 2011 World Cup final.
Under Fabian Galthie, France have rediscovered their joy of playing, although they are still nodding towards England in the shape of defence coach Shaun Edwards whose force of personality has rubbed off on his charges. They may have lost a compelling summer series in Australia 2-1, but Les Bleus were some way below full strength, blooding ten uncapped players, and each match was decided at the end with the biggest winning margin being three points.
It showed France had strength in depth but also a shape to their play which made it more comfortable for players coming in. New Zealand's next visit to the Stade de France will be for the opening match of the World Cup, and if it was a year in which they too had a stocktake rather than pick their strongest 23 most weeks, it was a chastening year for the All Blacks with South Africa, Ireland and France all defeating them.
Ireland's Six Nations finished at the start, losing in Cardiff after Peter O'Mahoney's early dismissal and then slipping at home to France, but they finished it strongly, edging a confident Scotland at Murrayfield before hitting England for 32 points in Dublin.
By the autumn they were in top gear, crushing their World Cup conquerors Japan before stunning New Zealand with a sustained ferocity that left opponents normally so composed under pressure in a fumbling dither before burying Argentina under an avalanche of tries.
With England opening out and, like France and Ireland, enjoying an unbeaten autumn, it sets up the Six Nations. Unlike the other two, England are not so much coming to the boil as sampling new ingredients as Eddie Jones takes the Saracens stew off the menu and goes for something with a bit more spice.
Only 12 of the 23 who had featured against France in the final of the Autumn Nations Championship less than 12 months before were involved in the final match of the series against the Springboks, the side that had beaten England in the 2019 World Cup final.
Newcomers included Smith, Freddie Steward, the Leicester full-back who played with the assurance of someone who had accumulated 50 caps, Bevan Rodd, Jamie Blamire, Nic Dolly, Alex Dombrandt and Raffi Quirke. Owen Farrell missed the final match because of injury and while Jones will not discard his captain, a player who has been a central figure in the team for the last nine years, it is no longer a side moulded in his image and he will have to adapt.
Scotland look the stronger for having a healthy representation on the Lions tour, pipping Australia before overplaying their hand against South Africa. England and France have to come to Murrayfield next year and both can expect to be pushed to the limit.
Wales clambered off the ropes to win the Six Nations, only a few minutes away from the Grand Slam before France conjured a winning try in Paris. It was a feat which, considering the problems their head coach Wayne Pivac endured in his first year after taking over from the long-serving Warren Gatland, should have made him a contender for coach of the year.
Wales have to prepare for life without their captain Alun Wyn Jones, who is likely to miss all the Six Nations having had a shoulder operation. Depth is an issue for Pivac, together with a regional system that still has to fire public interest, and yet as South Africa found, grateful to leave Cardiff with a victory earned at the end, Gatland's departure has not killed Wales's capacity to transcend domestic problems.
Italy ended their losing run with victory over Uruguay, even if only just in Parma, and they kept New Zealand scoreless for the first 28 minutes in Rome, but they continue to look a rest weekend in the Six Nations, falling further behind their rivals.
It was a year when the southern hemisphere for once lost the Autumn Series. Australia, feted after a Rugby Championship campaign that saw them twice defeat South Africa, lost all three matches and New Zealand returned home with a 50 per cent record.
South Africa's chance of a 100 per cent record fell to the boot of Smith at the end of the Twickenham tussle.
There was a sense of karma given their lowest common denominator approach. It had been enough, just, against the Lions when they rallied after losing the first Test, and against Wales, but there is more to the World Cup holders than muscle and bomb squads.
They look as equipped as anyone, but the Lions tour was summed up by the graceless rant of Rassie Erasmus, the man who had pulled South Africa back from the brink after two years of dismal performances and results, when he took aim at the officiating in the first Test.
It was not of the highest standard, but he had less to complain about than England had in Cardiff a few months before when they kept their observations about Pascal Gauzere to themselves. Erasmus knew what he was doing at a time when the lack of crowds coincided with more refereeing decisions going in favour of the away side.
The tour is best forgotten and was shoved to the margins by the matches in the autumn. The south has provided at least one finalist every World Cup, but nothing can be assumed now.
Where there was once a gap, there is now not even a crack.
CLUBS
Bristol's match against Leicester at Ashton Gate this weekend pitches the side who topped the table last season against the runways leaders who have won their first 13 matches of the season in all competitions.
The Tigers have lost their last three league matches in Bristol, failing to sniff a bonus point in any of them with the combined score 98-16 to the Bears, but fortune's wheel turns and Leicester are back to where they expect to be.
Bristol have not recovered from blowing a 28-point lead against Harlequins in last season's play-off semi-final at Ashton Gate, just as Exeter have not looked themselves this season after losing the Twickenham final.
The success of Harlequins was based on their ability to react quickly to events, prepared to attack from anywhere, but Leicester's rise has been down to old-fashioned values long honed at Welford Road: forward supremacy and control, a cake with no icing.
Law changes brought in this season were designed to provide teams with an attacking gene, but the 50-22, which gives a team the lineout throw if they kick the ball from their own half indirectly into touch in the opposition 22, has not yielded much profit despite back three players having to drop deeper, while the rule giving the defending team a drop-out from under their own posts if they succeed in preventing the ball being grounded has not deterred close-range drives.
Leicester's rise is a rolling back of the years. When they won at Bordeaux-Begles, the Top 14 leaders, this month, the Tigers took few risks, kicking from their own half and competing hard over the ball to force turnovers and penalties. Their hosts failed to react to the way the ruck was refereed and ran out of ideas.
It was not quite the way Harlequins ran away with the Premiership trophy, but South Africa do not model themselves on New Zealand.
Only one of last season's top four is currently in a play-off position, and then only just in fourth, Harlequins.
Exeter are fifth, having played a match more than the teams above them, while Bristol and Sale are in the bottom three. The salary cap is a leveller.
The Bears and the Sharks have made some significant signings for next season with George Ford and Jonny Hill on their way to the AJ Bell Stadium and Ellis Genge and AJ MacGinty joining Bristol, but the lowering of the salary cap to £5m, together with the dispute between agents and the Premiership clubs, is tempering recruitment, leading to fears that clubs in other countries will benefit.
The Top 14 is reducing its salary cap to 10 million euros from 2024 by when the Premiership hopes to have raised its level to 7.3 millions euros before add-ons. English clubs made little impact in Europe last season having supplied the winners in four of the previous five seasons, although Saracens did so by interpreting the cap regulations in their own way.
France provided the finalists last season and the winners Toulouse again look the team to beat, followed by a Leinster side that supplied 12 of the starters in Ireland's line-up against the All Blacks.
Europe is again being disrupted by Covid so will the four South African teams in the United Rugby Championship be allowed to take part next season?
And with the Welsh government, without debating the issue in the Senedd never mind calling for a vote, forcing all sporting events to be played behind closed doors for an unspecified time from Boxing Day, the country's four hard-up regions will be further squeezed.
The URC remains a tournament in search of an identity, unlike the Premiership and the Top 14, but run by unions its aim is to make money to fund their games. Which is where the South Africans came in but as a league, with most matches having, at best, a smattering of away support, it could do with a stimulus, such as relegation. That will never happen.
Relegation is on pause in the Premiership, much to the relief of Bath, and the RFU still has to decide what to do with the Premiership.
It must envy the French system where government law dictates the Top 14 clubs must subsidise the second division; and as most grounds are municipal- ly owned, money goes into wages rather than infrastructure.
The first lockdown last year showed the weak state of the game financially, at both club and international level, with very few having cash reserves to draw on.
It was an opportunity for a reset and to drive down wage inflation. Everyone needed to act together but how often does that happen in sport?
WOMEN
THE women's game continues to grow with England leading the way. Simon Middleton was named World Rugby's coach of the year with the Red Roses on an 18- match winning run while second row Zoe Aldcroft picked up the player of the year award.
The success of the Premier 15s prompted the former England full-back Danielle Waterman to set up the Women's Rugby Association, an independent trade union.
England have taken the last three Six Nations titles and won all four of their matches in the autumn, including two Tests against New Zealand, to set themselves up for next year's World Cup which is in New Zealand. Middleton describes that tournament as the holy grail and as interest in the sport continues to rise last May's Premier 15s final between Harlequins and Saracens at Kingsholm was televised live by BT .
World Rugby has vowed to increase the pace of development of women's rugby and is drawing up plans for the launch of a new global competition.
