White Gold

by Peter Burns

  The second is the theory of natural genetic advantage. It is arguable that there is nowhere on the planet where a people are more naturally suited to the game of rugby (particularly the modern game and the physicality of its collisions) than the Pacific islands. Underfunded and under-resourced and with a comparatively tiny pool of talent to draw from, the players who represent Samoa, Tonga and Fiji are among the most talented athletes in the game. While wielding a broad brush is obviously dangerous for any study, it is probably fair to state that the players representing these teams at the 2003 World Cup were big, strong and fast. They could also, to a man, display incredible dexterity with the ball in hand, were possessed of balance and poise when running at full tilt, and they could – and would – throw their bodies into contact with frightening intensity.

  In 2003, in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport, Yemima Berman and Kathryn N. North conducted a variety of studies that examined skeletal muscle α-actinins, the results of which they published in their article ‘A Gene for Speed: The Emerging Role of α-Actinin-3 in Muscle Metabolism’ in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Their studies, conducted across a wide spectrum of ethnic groups, examined the presence of the non-mutated version of the alpha actinin skeletal muscle isoform 3 gene in elite athletes. In layman’s terms, the ACTN3 genotype is associated with high-level sprint/power performance. ‘The large number of human studies that have been performed to date show that the ACTN3 R577X polymorphism represents an important genetic factor associated with variations in muscle performance in humans,’ they wrote, ‘with the presence of α-actinin-3 associated with improved sprint and power performance.’

  The presence of skeletal muscle α-actinin proteins is encoded in the human gene sequence. The α-actinins bind to a glycolytic enzyme to affect the efficiency of skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscles are composed of muscle fibres and there are two types: slow twitch and fast twitch. Fast twitch fibres trigger more rapidly and generate more force than slow twitch and are responsible for human speed and power.

  While no study was made of the Polynesian players taking part in the 2003 World Cup, it is not unrealistic to suggest that the majority of them, if not all of them, carried the ACTN3 genotype. In the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games a study examining the fastest sprinters in the world revealed that they all possessed the ACTN3 genotype.

  ‘There is a bloodline there,’ said John Boe, the Samoa coach. ‘These guys are born to play rugby. They develop physically earlier than Europeans and enjoy the smash element of the game. They have a natural instinct for the ball and are athletic on the move. Remember that rugby is not just a game in Samoa. It is a central part of their culture. It is one thing they have contributed to the world.’

  And so England’s third Pool C clash, against Samoa, threw up an interesting case study. Could the natural athleticism of the islanders and their broad range of skills compete with the more finely tuned and specifically developed talents of the England players? While the England team contained some outstanding athletes and the Samoan team contained some highly dedicated professionals, the match nevertheless pitched the theory of nature versus nurture on the rugby field. It would be fascinating to see which would prevail.

  *

  There were several changes to the England team that had defeated South Africa. Jason Robinson was moved to full-back to accommodate Iain Balshaw on the wing, Stuart Abbott filled Greenwood’s position in the centre, Matt Dawson came in at scrum-half, the whole front-row changed with Jason Leonard, Mark Regan and Julian White winning the starting shirts, and while Richard Hill continued to recover from his hamstring injury, Joe Worsley replaced Lewis Moody on the blindside flank.

  Even in the face of their limited resources, the loss of their front-line players and the widely-held belief that they would be unable to live with the fitness and efficiency of the England players, Samoa began the game by ripping up the pre-match script. At the end of the first quarter they had enjoyed 90 per cent of possession and were quickly on the scoreboard thanks to an Earl Va’a penalty before a sweeping move from deep in their own half saw the ball pass back and forth between forwards and backs and possession retained deftly through eleven phases and for more than forty passes before the captain Semo Sititi burst through the last line of English defence to score a truly glorious try.

  And the brilliance of the Samoans did not stop there. As was their wont, they brought a thundering brutality to the tackle area. Brian Lima, the veteran centre who was playing in his fourth World Cup, showed that Father Time had still not caught up with him and that he was still thoroughly deserving of the nickname of ‘the Chiropractor’ (thanks to his penchant for rearranging bones on a rugby field) with two thumping hits on Jason Robinson and Jonny Wilkinson. The thud of each collision could be heard all around the feverish stadium.

  Amid the storm of Samoa’s early play, Wilkinson had an opportunity to get England on the board with a penalty – but missed. White-shirted fans in the Docklands Stadium and all around the world shifted uncomfortably in their seats. A few minutes later he tried again and the ball ricocheted off an upright. For any other kicker in the world this would have been a disappointment but not necessarily an anomaly. For those who had watched even a handful of Wilkinson’s career performances, the two misses from relatively simple kicks felt like the world was shifting on its axis.

  Samoa were treating the spectators to an exhibition of powerful running rugby, with even their huge props and second-rows dancing and spinning and accelerating through gaps like centres. In the end the great leveller was fitness. England had built up deep reserves of energy thanks to years of work with Dave Reddin, while Samoa’s beleaguered troops eventually ran their tanks dry of gas. As the game wore on and the islanders’ legs grew weary, England surged back into the game.

  From a well-controlled rolling maul following a line-out, Neil Back burrowed over to score and Wilkinson finally found his kicking boots. He and Va’a exchanged penalties and Samoa managed to just keep their noses in front at half-time, 16–13.

  Woodward made some key personnel changes during the break, with Steve Thompson, Phil Vickery and Lewis Moody replacing Mark Regan, Julian White and Joe Worsley respectively. The replacements made an almost immediate impact as England set a scrum on Samoa’s line and turned the screw. The white-shirted pack shunted mercilessly forward with a destructive power akin to an advancing steamroller. The Samoans tried to resist but were ultimately powerless to do so. As they collapsed under the pressure, referee Jonathan Kaplan signalled a penalty try. Wilkinson added the conversion and England were at last ahead.

  But still the Samoans battled. Va’a added two further penalties and as the game moved into the final quarter, they were back in the lead, 22–20.

  ‘There was no real panic,’ said Martin Johnson. ‘We just knew that we had to cut out the penalties, dominate territory and possession and we’d get there. It was simple but we knew it was an effective route out of trouble.’ It was time for the real England to turn up. After his early wobbles, Wilkinson took the game by the scruff of the neck. England worked themselves into Samoan territory, the fly-half scuttled forward to retrieve the ball from a ruck and quickly snapped a drop-goal over to regain the lead. Then a few minutes later, in an appreciation of the open spaces available on the periphery of the field that would have Sherylle Calder grinning from ear to ear, he sent a deft cross-field chip off to the far wing. Iain Balshaw streaked after it like a cheetah, leapt gracefully to gather the ball and touched down without a Samoan defender laying a finger on him.

  Mike Catt joined the fray and England’s attack picked up fresh speed just as the Samoans began to fade from the game. England moved the ball around with precision and then Catt’s fizzing pass found Vickery and the big tight-head barrelled over the line to score. The final score stood at 35–22, but England had been well and truly tested. It had been a magnificent encounter.

  England’s victory had been achieved with the team once again not firi
ng on all cylinders. ‘It’s the sign of a good team: not panicking,’ said Mike Tindall. ‘That’s what we’ve learnt over the years. We had a phrase that developed over time called the “win ethic” – it’s just a ruthlessness to try and win no matter what we face.’

  While their lack of accuracy and the concession of a number of costly penalties would have irritated Woodward and his team, they also knew that they had room to improve significantly – a comfortable position to be in while still notching up victories. Of more concern was an incident that occurred just before the final whistle that posed a greater threat to England’s campaign than anything they had faced on the field. Mike Tindall had gone down injured and was receiving treatment just off the pitch. Dave Reddin was in charge of the England replacements and, with Woodward barking at him down his radio to make a swift substitution, he sent on Dan Luger to cover for Tindall. But Tindall, aware that England were short defensively but unaware that Luger had come off the bench, returned to the field. For thirty-four seconds (until the mistake was realised) England had sixteen players on the field. Referee Jonathan Kaplan was alerted to the incident and Luger was ordered from the field. In the aftermath England faced the very serious threat of a points deduction and even expulsion from the tournament. To make matters worse, Reddin had got into a heated argument with touch-judge Steve Walsh about the substitution. Things were spiralling out of control.

  Fortunately, Woodward had, once again, thought of everything. Among the back-room staff that he had brought to Australia was Richard Smith, Q.C. During the Test match in Wellington four months previously, Ali Williams, the All Blacks lock, had stamped on Josh Lewsey’s head, causing an injury that had required stiches but could have been much more serious; Lewsey had been lucky to get away with just a cut. The England camp were convinced that Williams would receive a lengthy ban – but the domestic citing officer reviewed the incident and felt that Williams had no case to answer. The matter was dropped. The team – and the media at home – felt that this decision represented a gross miscarriage of justice and Woodward had decided there and then to always travel with a legal adviser so that his team could be represented fairly should any such disciplinary matters arise again.

  So it was that while the team moved on to the Gold Coast to prepare for their final pool match, against Uruguay at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Woodward, Reddin and Smith flew to Sydney for the disciplinary hearing.

  ‘In court, Richard Smith was brilliant,’ recalled Woodward in Winning! ‘Even to my non-legal brain it was obvious he was simply destroying their argument... he was worth his weight in gold. The disciplinary hearing showed him at his best and he never thought about charging the RFU for his services. He was just delighted to have seven weeks as part of the England rugby team.’

  In the end England were fined £10,000 and Reddin was banned from the touchline for two weeks – but no points were deducted and the threat of expulsion from the tournament was dismissed.

  With Uruguay among the weakest sides at the World Cup, the management ordered the players to have a night out and the following day’s training consisted of a game of football. It was in direct contrast to the intensity that had surrounded every move in the camp during the 1999 tournament – but the expectations were also markedly different. The management had complete faith that they would be in Australia for the full seven weeks, so they knew how important it was for the players to have some downtime when they could.

  England’s second-ever century of points was delivered against the South Americans, with seventeen tries scored, five of which came from Josh Lewsey, making him only the third Englishman to achieve the feat in more than a hundred years of Test rugby. Albeit against severely limited opposition, the true glory of England’s attacking ability was finally unleashed. With Wilkinson being rested, Paul Grayson stepped into the No.10 position and played with aplomb, converting eleven tries along the way, but it was Mike Catt outside him who really pulled the strings, orchestrating the irresistible running lines of the outside backs and forward runners with pinpoint, clever passing. He made a splendid partnership in the centre with Wasps’ Stuart Abbott, while out wide Lewsey’s electric performance had almost been matched by Iain Balshaw and, in the second half, by Jason Robinson when the Sale man appeared off the bench. Lawrence Dallaglio, who had been singled out by Woodward in the build-up to the game as having performed quietly at the World Cup up to that point, was back to his prowling, rumbustious best.

  On the negative side of the ledger, Woodward was concerned to see that both Balshaw and Danny Grewcock had been injured in the demolition of Los Teros and Dan Luger had still to show any real form despite his best efforts to involve himself in the game. And while there was no question of England’s dominance or the chance of the result going any other way, Phil Larder was still furious that Uruguay had managed to breach his defensive line to score a try – such were the standards expected of his charges.

  But with Balshaw and Grewcock’s injuries considered minor and Luger’s career bedecked with stardust, there was very little to be disappointed with in the result. England had topped the group and would now face their old rivals Wales in the quarter-finals, while South Africa had the much more challenging route to the final ahead of them, with a match against New Zealand awaiting them in the next round. For Georgia, Samoa and Uruguay, the journey was over.

  *

  While there had been some cracking encounters thus far in the World Cup, none came close to the searing excitement and brilliance of the final Pool D match between New Zealand and Wales. With both sides having secured qualification for the quarter-finals the fixture was seen as something of a dead rubber, even if the winner would seal the top spot in the group. With Wales having endured several long seasons of disappointment and New Zealand being many pundits’ favourites for the tournament, the result seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Steve Hansen, the Kiwi head coach of Wales, certainly seemed to think so as he fielded an under-strength side against a powerful All Blacks line-up. But his reserves made a mockery of the facts and played with huge skill, bravery and a refreshing freedom that had not been seen from the men in red for many, many years. Shane Williams, who would go on to be named World Player of the Year in 2009, break try-scoring records, play an instrumental part in three Welsh Grand Slams over the following decade and establish himself as one of the game’s greatest wingers, had been selected by Hansen as the third-choice scrum-half in his 2003 World Cup squad. This match, which saw Williams pressed into action on the wing, signalled a sea change in the direction of his career. Alongside back-rowers Jonathan Thomas and Colin Charvis, centres Mark Taylor and Sonny Parker, and Gareth Thomas, who came off the bench, Williams and Wales took the game to New Zealand and cut their defence to ribbons. The All Blacks, in turn, showed their attacking genius and the world just had to sit back and watch running rugby at its finest.

  When Shane Williams skipped over for his try in the final quarter, following Taylor, Parker and Charvis over the whitewash, and Stephen Jones kicked the conversion it moved Wales into a 34–28 lead and an upset as great as France’s defeat of New Zealand in the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup appeared to be on the cards.

  But New Zealand ultimately showed their finishing qualities and greater stamina. First Carlos Spencer slipped through for a try before Doug Howlett crossed for his second of the match; Leon MacDonald kicked a penalty and then Aaron Mauger broke through the exhausted Welsh defence for his side’s eighth try. The final score stood at 53–37 and it revealed much. For those that would face New Zealand it showed that the All Blacks could be placed under severe pressure by an impassioned defence and by a side willing to attack from any quarter. For England, it showed that the Welsh Dragon was roaring again and that all their recent encounters against them counted for naught. Forget the recent hammerings and remember Wembley 1999. That was the kind of Welsh performance that England had to prepare for.

  But there was further bad news in the England camp. Not only was Ric
hard Hill still unavailable, but Danny Grewcock had had an X-ray on his injured hand and discovered that it had been broken. His World Cup was over and an S.O.S. was sent back to England to summon Simon Shaw as his replacement. Then, on the eve of the match, Josh Lewsey and Iain Balshaw had to withdraw from the squad with hamstring and knee injuries. Dan Luger, who had not even been in the originally selected match-day twenty-two, was handed a wing berth and Jason Robinson was moved to full-back. ‘For all the rugby league Test matches I’ve played for Great Britain,’ said Robinson before the game, ‘for all the internationals for England’s union Test team, this is the biggest thing I’ve been involved in... Wales stand between us and a semi-final. We’re well aware that if we underperform we’re on the plane home. The truth is, we haven’t hit our best. That’s still to come, but it is at this stage that the big performers start to perform. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, as they say. I know this is the biggest game of my life.’

  For the first forty minutes of the game, England looked like a different side to the one that had been playing with such width and speed for the previous four years. They were tight around the ball, the backs standing bunched together with no wide options for Wilkinson to exploit. Wales, meanwhile, played a superb tactical game, pinning England deep in their half just as England had been doing to opposition teams for years. Because England were always so compacted as an attacking unit, Wales could afford to drop their wings and stand-off back to cover Wilkinson’s territorial punts. This gave Wilkinson very few kicking options whenever he stepped outside his 22 and as he probed for space he would invariably find one of the Welsh sweepers, who would either fire the ball back into England’s territory, or would look to counter-attack – which they did with the same devastating effect as they had shown against New Zealand. The World Cup would signal a renaissance in Welsh rugby that would grow with increasing momentum over the next decade, reestablishing their place as one of the top sides in the world. The performance they were putting in during the first half of that quarter-final was not one that England had expected or prepared for, even after studying the video of the New Zealand game a week earlier. There was no way Wales could do it two weeks in a row, they thought. But Wales were doing just that and they were putting England to the sword in the process.