Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?
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The Six Nations has given me bit of head space to reflect about rugby and its direction of travel. It’s funny, I remember Frik du Preez, the great Springbok captain was once asked, ‘Would your team of the 1960s beat the current South Africa team? And he quipped, ‘Only by 20 points’. When they asked him why, he said, ‘Well, because we’re all in our Eighties’.
Frik loves a laugh, but the question all sports fans would love to know the answer to is this; would the legends of yesteryear beat the modern players of today?
In the last year we’ve seen a thrilling World Cup in France, a high-quality Six Nations, and the debate has never been more relevant. Where is rugby today? Is it better off or worse? It’s a pertinent question because in the last few months, two icons of the game have been laid to rest: JPR Williams and Barry John.
Now I started coaching in 1982. I was a young Varsity scholar studying teaching. One of the things I had access to was VHS tapes of the greats. It gave me a body of work to study. You know, the triple Grand Slam-winning Welsh team of the Seventies, the glorious 1971 and 1974 British & Irish Lions tours and who could forget the iconic All Blacks teams that would travel to the British Isles and beat every home nation convincingly? Individually, we could regale at the Phil Bennett sidestep, the JPR Williams thunderbolt tackle. Sitting there, late into the night, watching this massive box of a TV, I could gain insight into the early years of marksmen like Grant Fox or once-in-a-generation athletes like Zinzan Brooke. It always seemed like there was a massive gap between these icons and the rest.
![Zinzan Brooke All Blacks](https://eu-cdn.rugbypass.com/webp-images/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/1-27.jpg.webp?maxw=766&comp=95)
So, I would like to ask myself and maybe the public; has rugby got better? Kids now are full-time. They have training apps, S&C coaches, they have access to YouTube to analyse other players – in fact they’ve never had so many learning tools. But look at the legends, those runners Gareth Edwards, JJ Williams and Andy Irvine, or bruisers Willie John McBride, Fergus Slattery and Fran Cotton. They were incredible players. Are those adamantine Lions as gifted as those we see today?
I understand cycles come and go. Take this Championship winning Ireland side. People are hyping them up, and mark my words, they are special, they play a great brand of rugby, but they haven’t won a World Cup. I’d even ask, would they have beaten an Ireland side comprising of Brian O’Driscoll, Keith Wood, Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell? Now I don’t know the answer. My opinion doesn’t count. It is a question for rugby union fans. Look at some of the other celebrated sides. The double World Cup-winning Australian sides from the nineties with players like Matt Burke, George Gregan, Stephen Larkham, Joe Roff and Wendell Sailor. Then there’s Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Jerome Kaino, Ma’a Nonu, Keven Mealamu. That 2015 All Blacks vintage was pretty extraordinary.
At the 2023 World Cup, Fiji beat Australia, and went ever so close to beating Wales and England. Does that mean the Tier 1 nations have actually regressed or the emerging nations have moved forward? To be fair to Tier 2 nations, what they do is say, ‘judge us on the World Cups’ because they get access to plentiful support to face the world’s best players.
Why? Because World Rugby do pump a lot of money in, to the tune of tens of millions through the high-performance department. It’s all to level the playing field. They will coach and condition these less well-resourced players to compete. You don’t want only one or two sides being able to win a global competition. Look at football. The World Cup would be boring if Brazil or Germany won it every four years. In fact, eight teams have won it since 1930, compared to four nations in rugby since 1987.
Progress hasn’t been absolute. At old World Cups, you used to have Western Samoa skittling Wales at the World Cup, but Samoa has fallen away. Or look at Romania. They used to be a force but have withered. There are success stories since we went professional. Look at what Italy has achieved in the last few weeks with two professional teams, drawing with France who have 14 clubs, and then beating Scotland and Wales on consecutive weekends. What joy it brought to the faces of the Azzurri.
In September 1995, rugby went professional. That meant that players were tracked from an early age. They’d go to academies, get paid and the very best would go on to play professional rugby. If they were special, they’d represent their country. Professionalism didn’t benefit all. In Wales all their club teams got subsumed by the regional structure, Scotland’s clubs went the same way. In South Africa we went from 22 unions to 14 unions.
Why do I mention this? Well, the irony is I’m not sure if we’ve improved more by having less players, more money and more time to hone skills. The bank clerks, doctors, farmers and lawyers of days gone by had more demands placed upon them. They would train early in the morning, or late into the night, just to fit in their day jobs and that takes real dedication, a passion for the sport and an unbelievably competitive nature. Then they would play on pitches that resembled bogs or dustbowls. Nowadays, the elite train on perfect pitches, with indoor facilities, artificial turf, and at traffic-friendly times. Has complacency crept in? You tell me.
One thing I think we can all agree is that players are fitter, bigger, faster and stronger than ever before, and the pitch dimensions haven’t changed. It’s a bit like in golf, players hit longer, have better equipment with graphite shafts, not wooden clubs and the golf course stays the same length. It’s the same in tennis, so coaches have to adapt.
![rugby player](https://eu-cdn.rugbypass.com/webp-images/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/01HS17AQFJFSHND8KKHT386PKM.jpg.webp?maxw=766&comp=95)
If you look at individual moments, look at that magnificent Barbarians try from 1973. It would stand up today for its visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon. Indeed, how would it compare to that wonderful French try at the weekend finished off by Nolann le Garrec. Talking of Les Bleus. Are you telling me Serge Blanco, Jean Pierre-Rives, Philippe Sella, Franck Mesnel wouldn’t thrive in today’s game. They were players from the Gods! Over the channel, you can’t forget the English side I was privileged to coach against. Tindall, Greenwood, Grewcock, Johnson, Dallaglio, Thompson, Wilkinson. How many of them would have made the side that faced France last weekend? They were playing at a rarefied level less than 10 years after professionalism of the game and hats off to them.
Right now, I can’t see any team that is as dominant as those great teams were in those days. At the 2023 World Cup, there was one point between France and South Africa. Three points between Ireland and New Zealand. No one side standing on the shoulders of giants.
Sports fans will always ask questions and compare generations. I was at a fundraiser recently, and all these little kids were asking me and some of the Bulls players the same questions. Who were the best players you played against? Who were the toughest players you faced? What’s the toughest stadium to win in? In other sports, you’d argue with your father over who is the better boxer, Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson? Racing drivers, Ayrton Senna or Lewis Hamilton? Tennis player Bjorn Borg or Novak Djokovic? Footballer, Pele or Messi. American footballer, Joe Montana or Tom Brady. I watch all those sports and wonder if they’ve developed at a faster pace than rugby.
Debates are fun and can often improve the product which is why I love sport. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.
Comments on RugbyPass
I bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
19 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
7 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
19 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
19 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
19 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
90 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
4 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
9 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
19 Go to comments