And the majority of English and Welsh clubs had the home advantage which is critical in the Heineken competition. I am sure that readers of this column are made of more durable stuff, so have no hesitation in pointing out that, in last weekend's Heineken Cup games, clubs from England and Wales won 67 per cent of the matches against French clubs; in the European Challenge Cup, the proportion was 75 per cent The Irish provinces were otherwise engaged. The average success rate for British against French clubs in both competitions was 70 per cent. Of course, it is early days yet I still think a French club will come out top in the end. An editor I once worked for used to prohibit the employment of statistics or, indeed, of figures of any kind in the first two paragraphs of any column "They put the reader off," he would say airily.
I'm sure Clive Woodward and his coaching team put in a lot of hard work on that particular aspect, but emotions are hard to manufacture. They have to be bone deep, as they are when a player takes the field for his country."Smith confirmed that Daniel Carter, the Canterbury outside-half who played such an eye-catching role in dismantling the Lions last June, had fully recovered from his broken leg and was considered match-fit.. There's a realisation here that this will be pretty bloody tough."The individual nations tend to play with a ferocity and a sense of patriotism that goes beyond the levels the Lions tend to achieve. "I played here in 1983, directly after a Lions series in our own country that we won fairly convincingly, and what happened? We drew with Scotland and lost to England. "I simply wanted to give the public an insight into how competitive they are on it."Meanwhile, the All Blacks' coaching staff were in serious mood as they looked ahead to their Grand Slam tour of the British Isles, which begins with a Test against Wales on Saturday week."We know how difficult it will be to achieve a Slam," acknowledged Wayne Smith, the back-line strategist. David Campese wasn't afraid of making the odd comment here and there, and he was good for rugby, wasn't he? The only thing that would disappoint me was if the supporters were upset by the book, because they're what I'm about at the end of the day.
All I try to do is excite them, offer them something different."Henson rejected the widespread assertion that he is not a "team player" - "I tend not to mix with work people after work because I prefer to spend time with my friends and I don't feel comfortable in team meetings, but I'm a good listener and I feel I contribute as much as anyone in training and during matches," he responded - and spurned the notion that those he accuses of various acts of skulduggery, from the Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll to his Wales colleague Martyn Williams, will find his lack of professional solidarity unforgivable."They're the nicest people off the field," he said. "The more negative things there are in these books, the harder it is to get people, including sponsors, interested in the game. It's difficult enough trying to pay the bills for professional rugby as it is."As far as Henson was concerned, it was water off a duck's back The New Zealander rarely picked him anyway. Having met senior figures in the Welsh hierarchy during the morning - the chief executive, David Moffett, was among those who quizzed him on the wisdom of his literary flirtation - the player appeared serenely indifferent to the criticism. "HarperCollins [the publishers] are loving it at the moment," he said with a grin. "Actually, David asked me to sign his copy of the book, which was nice."There was more Plenty more.
