Former Lion O'Reilly roars for big changes

Rugby World Cup

World Cup was nothing more than a slugathon

Saturday, October 27, 2007

By Peter Bills

He spent a week, not to mention a small fortune, entertaining his old friends from the British & Irish Lions class of the 1950s.

The greats of that era: Cliff Morgan, Jack Kyle, Ronnie Dawson, Dickie Jeeps, Bleddyn Williams, Terry Davies and so many more, lived amid elegance and comfort at a top Paris hotel.

They had tickets to see the climax to the 2007 Rugby World Cup. With Sir Anthony O'Reilly as your host, you want for nothing.

But when 1959 Lions prop Syd Millar, now Chairman of the International Rugby Board, joined the throng late on Saturday night after the final, there was a shock in store.

"We have made £100 million from this World Cup" he told O'Reilly, his old Irish team-mate.

"£100 million for what" is O'Reilly's response?

"The £100 million should be spent on changing the game."

O'Reilly, 'Tony' to his closest friends, 'Sir Anto' to his loyal and faithful chauffeur Arthur and 'Sir Anthony' in official circles, might be 70 years of age.

But he has looks the envy of men 20 years younger, the confidence brought by lifelong success and the sharp brain to continue working in business circles around the world.

Nor does the Irishman forget one of his two great sporting loves, rugby football (horse racing is the other).

He remains a fascinated, passionate observer of rugby, the game in which he made his name. And without attempting to draw subtle veils or place masks over his true feelings, he addresses the issue of the modern game with typical candour.

As ever, O'Reilly goes straight to the point.

These are the facts on the charge sheet.

A World Cup final decided solely on penalty kicks. Not a single try scored. The second time South Africa have won a World Cup final without scoring a try.

These facts add up to an undeniable scenario, O'Reilly insists. "Change is essential" he says.

"Some have said we should widen the pitch five yards so it is 80 yards wide. But that might start mechanical problems.

"A better thing would be to tie the forwards in to the forward areas."

But there are other aspects that rugby should put into place to solve this problem of penalty kicks winning matches, and games being dominated just by kicking. To kick the ball away is now an accepted trend, surely an absurdity in the sport.

As O'Reilly says "William Webb Ellis was lauded not for picking the ball up, placing it on the ground, stopping the whole game and taking 60 seconds to kick it through a set of posts. Nor was he acclaimed for dropping a series of goals.

"He picked the ball up and ran with it. We need to remember that fundamental point. Therefore, it seems to me, the points scoring needs to be changed.

"The game today is a victim of the need for success at the expense of beauty and poetry within the sport. The World Cup final said it all. It was a sluggathon. To have a final with no tries clearly points to the need to increase the value of a try.

"You should be given six points if you score a try whilst the value of the penalty goal and drop goal should be reduced to 2 points. People are playing for penalties now."

O'Reilly's gripe is not with individual players. Indeed, he went out of his way to praise the performance of South African full-back Percy Montgomery, saying "He was one of the real heroes. He kicked his goals and never dropped a single kick.

"But the fact is, this final was like going back to primitive football: kick the ball up in the air, run after it and hope it bounces your way or the opposition makes a mistake with it. That is no way to win rugby matches.

"Now, because the penalty goal is so valuable, it is worth a team's while to make their way into the opposition half and try to cause the other team to offend.

"And there are so many obscure penalties, that you have every chance of getting a kick at goal. You are penalised if you don't roll clear at a ruck but you can't roll away with ten huge men on top of you."

He wouldn't change the line-out, but believes the authorities must study the increasing use of decoy runners currently allowed to run angles in front of the ball carrier.

"It creates a screening effect which is qualified obstruction," he says.

But it is the way that last Saturday night's World Cup final almost completely sidelined Bryan Habana that most concerns O'Reilly.

"Habana is one of the most exciting players in world rugby but did you see him run once with the ball in hand?

"These wonderful runners never had a chance. Mathew Tait of England made one run, Francois Steyn of South Africa likewise.

"But it was no game to watch. Significant changes have to be made to take rugby football back to what it was originally designed for; running and passing the ball."