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Ending the worst year ever on the best possible note - Andy Goode
By Andy Goode
It may have been the worst year for rugby in living memory but it’s ended on the most positive note possible that should give us all hope for 2021.
It has been an awfully long time coming and is massively overdue but we can now add OBE to the end of Matt Hampson’s name after he was finally recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours list.
I was joking with him yesterday that he’s so big time that he’s skipped the MBE and gone straight to an OBE but you couldn’t find a more deserving recipient in any sphere, not just rugby.
The word ‘legend’ gets banded about a lot nowadays but when you look at the difference he’s made to people’s lives, there’s no doubt it’s one that can be used to describe him.
If you haven’t read or seen his full story, then do so and it’ll fill you with positivity ahead of 2021. It’s been amazing to watch the progress he’s made over the past 15 years and the work he’s done with the Get Busy Living centre in particular recently.
He’s an absolute inspiration and his story is the complete antidote to a lot of the other negativity we’ve seen throughout the past 12 months.
If you’d told us what was going to unfold in the rest of the year in the relatively run of the mill months of January and February 2020, nobody would have believed it and the drama in rugby this year has been more than enough to fill a decade.
It kicked off with Joe Marler grabbing Alun Wyn Jones by the balls in March and it hasn’t got any less bizarre ever since really.
A host of people from chefs and kit men to chief executives and administrators deserve a lot of credit for adapting to the circumstances thrown up by Covid-19 and getting the Premiership and European seasons finished for 2019/20.
In truth, we should all be thankful that we’re heading into 2021 with the sport relatively intact and all of the English top flight clubs still in existence because the financial situation has been dire.
There was the saga of the pay cuts, how they were handled and how some players reacted to them and we obviously had five months with no rugby at all this year and fans have been absent from stadiums for most of the year.
On the field, Owen Farrell’s tackle on Charlie Atkinson in September was another lowlight and one of the worst tackles I’ve ever seen and then we’ve ended the year by discussing the issue of concussion and early onset dementia.
It was horrible to hear what some of my former team-mates in Steve Thompson, Alix Popham and Michael Lipman are going through and you hope that the support will be there for them and others in future even if there are question marks over whether litigation is the right route to go down.
It’s an obvious line being used by many to say good riddance to 2020, and it does have to be the worst year in living memory for rugby, but we’re ending it on a positive note by raising a glass to Hambo.
It might look unlikely right now but here’s hoping to a Lions tour in 2021 to look forward to and the ability to share a pint of Guinness or two together in full stadiums again.
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Latest Comments
And Scott Robertson not going so well is he.
Not a bad effort but a correction. McKenzie was not born in NSW so is not a Tah. He was born in Victoria. Played for the Brumbies and coached Qld and also played and then later coached NSW, until the self entitled Tah players decided to stab him in the back. And who was the captain of the Tahs at the time leading the back stabbing. Well, well it was none other than Phil Waugh, current Rugby Australia CEO. Who recently tried to deny he had met Suallii at Hamish McLennan's house pre signing, until McLennan outed him recently as a bald faced liar as he was in fact there.
I doubt very much if McKenzie, who was also assistant coach to Eddie Jones in Jones first stint coaching Australia, would appreciate being labelled a Tah, given it was the Tahs Hooper and Beale and Cheika who stabbed him in the back again when he walked away thru lack of support from Hooper and Rugby Australia.
Schmidt might have theoretically better credentials, even tho he dumped Ireland in the brink but he had to start somewhere. You can't argue if you think he is great that Schmidt should never have been given an opportunity.
Schmidt lacks a crucial ingredient. He's not Australian. It does matter, which as a Bokke you would well know.
Go to commentsBecause the two guys primarily in charge of hiring a new coach for Rugby Australia Peter Horne and Phil Waugh, are Tahs. The Chairman of Rugby Australia Daaniel Herbert is from Qld but he's not that bright and weak.
Horne was good friends with Schmidt and they knew if they hired him on a million dollars a year they would own him and he would select Tah players who shouldn't be there . Like Jake Gordon (4th or 5th best halfback in Australia) and similarly for Donaldson). The Tahs are all about being able to brag how many Wallabies they have, even if the Wallabies keep losing because of it. Michael Hooper, the worst Wallaby captain in decades a prime example. He made Taine Randall look great.
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