Gary Gold's Rugby Stuff

“Each of us is an artist of our days; the greater our integrity and awareness, the more original and creative our time will become.”
― John O'Donohue

RT : The work of & Academy coaches has been nothing short of phenomenal in this environm…

RT : Not much that I can add to what’s been alread said R.I.P Cecil may your joyous smile and legacy live on in the City . Both S…

'I just drink regular drip but I'm kind of a coffee baby.'
- Samin Nosrat

“Awareness requires living in the here and now, and not in the elsewhere, the past or the future.”
― Eric Berne

RT : Seems former Japan ho**er Takeshi Kizu is following in the footsteps of and going into the nail salon b…

RT : Proud to partner with

"My dream is to have a house on the beach, even just a little shack somewhere so I can wake up, have coffee, look at dolphins, be quiet and breathe the air."
- Christina Applegate

RT : So sad to hear of the passing of Cecil Duckworth. A wonderful man who poured his heart and soul into . I got…

RT : So many stories of a true gentleman that will be repeated throughout rugby bars whenever the plague departs.

RT : The most generous, kind and intelligent rugby man. So very sad and sending out love to the Duckworth family and the Worce…

RT : 😔😔❤️

RT : Desperately sad news, our deepest condolences to his family. Without Cecil Duckworth, there would not have been third ⁦…

So heartbroken to hear of the passing of the incredible Cecil Duckworth. A thorough gentleman & enjoyed my time working with him.The legacy he has left for the family & is unique in world rugby. Thank you for your guidance and friendship. RIP Sir. 🙏

RT : Just catching up watching NZ v Argentina game ... Lots of small errors by NZ but fair play👏🏻...what they been feeding tha…

RT : Another big announcement for

“The Universe contains three things that cannot be destroyed; Being, Awareness and LOVE”
― Deepak Chopra

Some performance by Los Pumas.

Villagers 1XV Super League Champions 2000. Where it all began... quality individuals all working towards the same direction!

This incredible piece done by the inimitable during lockdown. She is my absolute inspiration, especially during these trying times. Brilliant that Jem took this project on to keep herself developing as an Artist and keep her fine skills fresh!! Whilst Jem been doing her masterpiece on Madiba, the irony has not been lost on us that he had to spend 27 years in isolation for crimes he didn’t commit. Surely we can spend 5 weeks in isolation to save a nation from devastation.

The Hoff is in the house!! new fan with the inimitable

Had a fun time in NYC at the Rugby Wrap up studio.
https://youtu.be/yxK3cIen3o4

USA Rugby Head Coach Gary Gold re RWC 2019, Major League Rugby, Moving ARC | RUGBY WRAP UP Gary Gold of USA Rugby NEW YORK, NY - USA Rugby skipper Gary Gold joins Steve Lewis and Matt McCarthy re: -USA Rugby's path to RWC 2019 -The America's Rugby ...

www.linkedin.com

AB'S TO DOMINATE RUGBY CHAMPS< BUT WATCH OUT FOR RESURGENT BOKS!

The fact that the All Blacks drew the three-match series with the British and Irish Lions would have been of concern to them. Hence they would have gone back to the drawing board in a big way with the Rugby Championship kicking off next month. Without a shadow of a doubt, the All Blacks will be chasing retribution in the Rugby Championship, and I foresee them proving to be a formidable force in the four-team tournament.

The All Blacks were already going to be a tough nut to crack but, having been held by the British and Irish Lions, they will be out to set the record straight. The All Blacks still have a wonderful aura about them. I don’t go along with Clive Woodward, who suggested that the mystique of the All Blacks is gone and they are “clearly not as good as they thought they were.” I think those comments are highly exaggerated and I would almost wonder if that isn’t a little bit of bitterness owing to what happened to him with the British and Irish Lions when they toured New Zealand in 2005 and were whitewashed during the Test series. At the end of the day, New Zealand is still the top-ranked team in world rugby. England won an impressive 18 matches in a row, but they still didn’t earn enough ranking points to topple the All Blacks. That highlights how big the divide still is between the All Blacks and everybody else. However, the Lions showed that the All Blacks are not unbeatable.

Depending on who New Zealand pick on the wings, the kicking game is an area in which they can be exposed. Historically, Kiwis are not outstanding at managing contestable kicks. It was evidenced when the Lions played against the Crusaders. When you play against New Zealand you need to execute a really efficient kicking game and good kick-chase to put the All Blacks under pressure and maximise the number of entries to the All Blacks’ 22. The Lions managed to do that over the course of the series and Australia, Argentina and South Africa should look to target the likes of Julian Savea and Waisake Naholo, if the All Blacks opt to select burly wingers who don’t enjoy being turned around. However, when the All Blacks pick smaller and more mobile players such as Ben Smith and Israel Dagg in their back three, as a coach, you have to think a bit smarter. Nevertheless, owing to the pair’s lesser bulk, opposing teams can probably get more momentum on the edges.

Moreover, a really well-organised defence is the way to go against the All Blacks. Opponents can put pressure on New Zealand in said area because they are in a precarious position at the moment. Steve Hansen’s men want to come out and play and go back to their free-flowing, try-scoring style of rugby. The All Blacks will get to do that owing to their start in the competition against Australia and Argentina. However, I believe the Springboks are set to ask the most questions of the New Zealanders during the Rugby Championship. In order for South Africa to prosper against New Zealand, they need to stick to their strengths. South Africa have traditionally built their success around a very strong defence and they have to stop apologising for that. Consultant Brendan Venter has, over the last few months, assisted Allister Coetzee in getting the Boks back to being an abrasive team and playing to their strengths. The Springboks are strong men, enjoy the collisions and have stepped up on defence. It’s an area which they prided themselves on against France over the June series.

By and large, I was impressed the British and Irish Lions’ defence against the All Blacks. The Lions managed to keep the All Blacks tryless in the second Test for the first time since 2014. The tourists scrambled particularly well on defence and also gave the All Blacks a tough time at the break down, which New Zealand’s Rugby Championship rivals would have taken notice of. I don’t want to go as far as saying that there is a glaring c***k in the All Blacks’ armour because I don’t know that there is one. However, they are human and the Lions showed us that. If your game management is very good against the men in black, the contest tends to be much closer. And, if there’s one thing the Lions series showed us it’s that Warren Gatland was able to instil a belief within his side that they could beat the All Blacks. It was no mean feat beating the All Blacks in the second Test in Wellington and I feel the Springboks need to draw on the spirit of the Lions during the Rugby Championship.

End of year tour to answer questions about NH V SH apparent divide

The 2015 Rugby World Cup for the first time in the competition’s history. It was regarded by many pundits as evidence that the chasm between the north and south had widened. However, just over a year on from the showpiece, while the gulf between the record-breaking All Blacks and the chasing pack has widened, I maintain that the divide between northern and southern hemisphere rugby nations is not as broad as it once was. England and Ireland are on the rise, while Australia and South Africa are going through a cycle of transition and struggling to find continuity post-World Cup owing to injury and changes in playing and coaching personnel.
As a consequence, we have seen the world order change. As a case in point, Ireland travelled down to South Africa at the tail-end of their season and beat the Springboks in Cape Town and ran the men in green and gold extremely close over the three-match series. Meanwhile, England visited Australia and handed them a three-nil hiding in their own backyard. Those set of results were almost unheard of a few years back and underline that the balance of power between north and south is shifting. Furthermore, there are astute coaches plying their trade in Europe and the fact that the IRFU have retained the services of Joe Schmidt until the end of the 2019 World Cup, after he was linked with a return to his native New Zealand, is a massive coup for Ireland, who have arguably been the most cohesive team in the world of rugby over the last eight years.
While I’m an eternal optimist, in the same breath, I’m also a realist. I’m predicting a challenging tour for South Africa owing to fact that their confidence is reasonably low at the moment and they have been beset by injuries. The same can be said for England, who have a long list of high-profile players unavailable for the autumn internationals and, as a consequence, are thin in terms of strength in depth. Nevertheless, for all intents and purposes, England are peaking under the guidance of Eddie Jones post the Stuart Lancaster era. England, much like Ireland before them, have proved progressive in terms of the changes they have made to their coaching staff. And, even though Jones has placed a strong accent on defence and has enlisted the services of Melbourne Storm defence coach Jason Ryles on a short-term basis, England are intent on embracing a ball-in-hand approach that asks more questions of the opposition, something which the Boks also desire to do.
From a South African point of view, beating England at Twickenham will prove a significant hurdle to overcome. However, in 2008, when I served as assistant coach of the Springboks, we experienced a dismal Tri-Nations campaign and there was a similar sense of doom and gloom when we headed to the northern hemisphere. Against all the odds, we returned with three wins and record-beating 42-6 victory over England. The enormity of the autumn Tests to renew on and off-field confidence cannot be overstated. On the balance of probability and current form, England should register their first win over South Africa since 2006, but I have confidence in Coetzee to get this group of players up for the occasion. I would like to see South Africa throw caution to the wind and really go at England with unadulterated sense of passion and purpose. The young bucks could hold the key in infusing a renewed energy within the Springbok camp. In my view, the autumn tour represents an opportunity for young players such as Jean-Luc du Preez, Jesse Kriel, Jamba Ulengo, Sergeal Petersen and Rohan Janse van Rensburg to stake a claim at senior national level. The aforementioned players are in-form and exciting to watch. As far as 21-year-old Du Preez is concerned, whom I worked with at the Sharks, he offers strong physicality in the tackle, is a ball-carrying threat and provides a further option at blindside flank, a position in which the Springboks are relatively short in terms of playing depth. Du Preez impressed against the England Saxons when they toured South Africa in June and he could well force Coetzee’s hand. The coach could find himself saying: “I’ve stumbled upon a rough diamond.”
The Springboks are a dangerous beast when their backs are against the wall and when they have been put under pressure in the past they have shown some amazing resolve. However, the bottom line is that the national game in the Republic is not functioning as well as it could and should be and the reality is that it impinges on on-field performance. It would be fair to say that most of the problems within SA rugby stem from a lack of effective structures. In South Africa, there has been a tendency to stand still in this regard. However, the current South African rugby administrators deserve a huge amount of credit for putting together the recent coaching conference (see sidebar). It was the first step taken in an attempt to improve a system as opposed to rectify something that is broken. To ensure long-term sustainability, I feel the top-brass at SA Rugby should look to the RFU’s academy system which is now really starting to bear fruits. The current crop of England internationals are the first generation of players to have emerged from the academy’s post-teething phase with distinction.