A winner never whines
England coach Andy Robinson seems to have taken more than just a leaf out of the Clive Woodward book of coaching. He copied an entire chapter: 'How to whine when you lose.' Rugby365 editor Jan de Koning wonders why Robinson doesn't rather use all his pent-up energy to coach the team, instead of sounding off about other coaches' perceived ills.
It is that time of year again. Crisps, nail-biting, lies to the missus about the two hours injury time allowed at the game, belching in chapels, and swearing at U8 match referees all get the boot.
It was American football coach Paul Brown who once said: "A winner never whines."
The reason why I've dug up this pearl of wisdom is in reaction to England coach Andy Robinson's continued childish complaints and protests over past events.
In his latest bout of verbal jousting Robinson claimed that the All Blacks are the bullies of international rugby.
Among the more cynical claims made by Robinson were that the Kiwis bullied the opposition at every phase by "being streetwise and by being physical".
"The scrum was the one area where we were bullied in our Test match with them," he told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. (The All Blacks won 23-19 in a the game played at Twickenham in November)
He went on to claim that "New Zealand are very good at getting away with stuff" and also had quite a bit to say about the All Blacks' 3-0 whitewash of the British and Irish Lions. (Robinson was one of Clive Woodward's many assistant coaches on the ill-fated Lions tour).
It is worth noting that last year New Zealand won 11 of their 12 Tests, their only loss having been against the Springboks in Cape Town. It is a 91.7 percent success rate. Not surprising then to find that All Black coach Graham Henry is quietly getting on with preparing for the 2006 season.
England played eight Tests last year and won just four (50 percent). Their victories were against Italy, Scotland, Samoa and Australia … with the Wallabies the only top-tier team have fallen to England. And the Wallabies did lose eight out of their last nine Test.
If you look at England's overall record, since the 2003 World Cup victory, the picture looks even more bleak. They have played 19 Tests, won just nine (47.4 percent) and lost 10 – that gives them just five wins out of 11 matches in 2004.
What's even more telling is that in that period England have managed just two wins out of eight matches away from home – the victories being against Italy and Scotland, the losses being against France, New Zealand (twice), Australia, Wales and Ireland.
It is thus not surprising to find that Robinson would want to direct attention away from the problems in his team.
His excuses are as lame as those dished up by axed Wallaby coach Eddie Jones when his team was losing last year.
It is like Jones saying: "If you take the scrums out of the equation we did fine."
And if you don't bother looking at the scoreboard then nobody lost and rugby was the winner…
The game is all about winning and as long as you achieve your victory within the laws of the game (referees are there to police those) then the opposition should not look for any excuses.
It reminds me of another truism.
"Realise that if you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it."
Maybe it is time Robinson gets on with the job of coaching.
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