Failing to select a kicker is a major sin
BACK in the day, rugby had its own version of the Seven Deadly Sins: biting, gouging, bag-snatching, head-stamping, shaving on match day, running off with the beer kitty and losing a game in selection.
“Failing to pick a goal-kicker” was never on the list in specific terms. Why? Because it was thought no one could conceivably be daft enough to commit such a crime. Coaches may have loved their scrum-breaking props and Lomu-esque wings, but the main men were always the ones who sent the ball between the uprights.
Times have changed, it seems. South Africa's narrow defeat by Ireland last weekend, hooked and sliced into being by the laughably inept marksmanship of Damian Willemse and Cheslin Kolbe, was a new-age sin in a class of its own.
Jake White, who guided the Springboks to the second of their world titles in 2007 and knows a thing or two, could be heard making this argument in no uncertain terms a few days ago, stating that his countrymen “got what they deserved”.
Goal-kickers are at the heart of the fight for major prizes: more than one World Cup final has been tryless, while Jonny Wilkinson and Dan Carter made crucial contributions with the boot when the pressure ramped up in 2003 and 2015. As for White, he had both Percy Montgomery and Frans Steyn operating off the tee in ‘07.
When England picked Dan Hipkiss and Ayoola Erinle as their centres in the autumn of 2009 and the former was asked who would be putting boot to ball, Dan replied: “I've kicked once in my career, which I think is more than Ayoola, so I guess it'll be me.”
