Message in a bottle

The following message has been put in a bottle and the authors hope it will pass from hand to hand until it reaches Jonah Lomu. The message at the moment of writing this post is thought to be in Dublin.

Dear Jonah,

We are writing to you because we think you are the best rugby player in history and also because you are our model to imitate these hard days. We are player aged from 11 to 14 playing in the Vigo Rugby club. Vigo is an industrial city in the Atlantic Coast of Spain. There is not much passion for rugby here, but you know, when rugby is inside you, it does not really matter how many people might be attending the game.

You can figure out that not even in normal conditions it is easy to play rugby here. But with the economic crisis things are much worse. Unemployment increases all around, companies close and it's all looking so bad. We feel it both in our families and also inside our rugby club. We started the season with no sponsorship, as the ones we had last season couldn't stay any longer. In the end, we could kick the season off due to the help of the senior players who put money of their own to keep it going.

As you can see, we don't have many reasons to be happy, but we have got one reason to keep fighting for: rugby. We don't want to write a letter to make people cry. This is a letter of fighting, a letter of the ones who don't give up. We hail you, Jonah, aiming to maybe one day be as strong as you are. Mind and body. Cheers from all players from 11 to 14 years old and all players in the schools of the Vigo Rugby Club.

(thanks to Fermin de la Calle from http://blogs.as.com/patada_a_seguir for this very special story)

(and my best wishes to all young players of the Vigo Rugby Club)

English rugby and the Hundred Years War

The action is close to start and we are all waiting for the first games to see how the New Zealand franchises crush their rivals... Well, we would like it, would not we?

In the meantime, in the Northern Hemisphere they are all waiting for the Six Nations, which happens to start a week earlier than the Super 14. Thus, I have found myself engaged in a conversation about Jonny Wilkinson and what he has meant to rugby. Today, as the bus got me to my jobplace, I suddenly realised that I could compare Wilkinson's impact in present rugby to ellite bowmen in warfare during the Hundred Years War!!!!

Well, yes, I might be going crazy, but I might be right, too. Just don't call me crazy yet. I am passionate about History and the Hundred Years War happens to be a very interesting episode of human history, where a lot of things changed. In fact, it set the roots to abandon the Middle Age and to enter into the Renaissance. Politically, it kept England out of the continent and that meant something, but socially (and I think this is the least known consequence but the most important one) it changed how social classes mattered.

Although England lost almost all its lands in France once the war was over (and how could that not have happened?), England showed the value of a well defended stronghold, with no other aid than simple people with simple weapons like bows, but with a proper training, making them english bowmen. "Simple men" might not be the best word to frighten anyone but "English bowmen" sounds a bit more fearful, does not it? Well, that weapon defeated many times the so-called ultimate weapon, the French chivalry, and that was the cause for nobility to start losing part of its ascendancy (if the knight was no longer so decissive, knights were less important... and the only ones who afforded a horse and knight's weaponry were noblesmen, so it was a hard blow on nobility, after all). So the focus went to the simple men... and from this to Renassaince!!!!!

But coming back to teams of 15 men... What on the hell has it got to do with Jonny Wilkinson and England? Well, let me be simple: Jonny Wilkinson is the bowman (or perhaps the whole legion of bowmen) and then, the task of the remaining 14 is easy: they are the fortress.

We were discussing at RugbyCan about the impact that Jonny Wilkinson had in rugby. I totally agree with the author and I must add one thing: "Having him as the only striking weapon, the rest of the team has only one main goal: to build the stronghold".

Though not really appealing, this strategy has led England throughout the RWC to become runner-ups. Not so bad for a side who managed to score only 12 tries, is not it? (last time New Zealand met tonga, the All Blacks went to score the same amount of tries). They only lost when they found a forward pack as strong as theirs; In other words, the stronghold fell against another stronghold.

Here I don't pretend to open anybody's eyes. Long time ago New Zealand thinking heads realised that in order to preserve the immense power of the back-row alive and usable, a stronger forward pack was mandatory. I still think New Zealand has the strongest forward pack in the world (even without Hayman and Jack) but what I find genuine is this way of seeing England's contribution to the game in the early 21st century.

BTW, I have always compared rugby to war, and what I consider most beautiful is a "New Zealand tank" breaking the line, be it a McAlisterkampfwagen or a Lomu Mark II.