Rugby’s Roots- How Colonialism Shaped Rugby

Have you ever wondered why the Rugby World Cup and the IRB World Rankings are occupied by tiny Pacific Island nations and world sporting minnows such as Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Namibia and yet world superpowers and sporting powerhouses such as Spain, Germany, Brazil and China are completely absent? Everyone knows the story of Rugby schoolboy William Webb-Ellis picking up the football and running with it in 1823 but what fascinates me is what happened afterwards, how did rugby go from Rugby to Buenos Aires, to Toronto, to Tokyo and to Tbilisi and become the cultural presence and geographical mismatch that we see today.

The most common way rugby was spread was through colonialism. Simply put, British ex-pats introduced the game to members of the British Empire while living there. This can be seen transparently today as 12 of the 20 top teams in the rugby world rankings were part of the British empire including dominant nations such as Australia, New Zealand and the USA. However, the most interesting example is Fiji, one of the most miscellaneous and arbitrary nations to the untrained eye but familiar to the common rugby fan and a dominant force in world rugby. Fiji are not only one of the few countries in the world to not have a national football team, they also only have one Olympic medal in their history, a gold one, in Rugby Sevens. So is it that Fijian’s don’t like other sports? No, it is simply that they weren’t exposed to other sports. Rugby was first played in Fiji in 1884 by British soldiers stationed on Viti Levu Island at the Native Constabulary at Ba when they noticed how genetically perfect the Fijian soldiers were for the physicality and pace of the new game. After that rugby took off on the pacific island, initially it was just played by Fijian soldiers and British ex-pats but soon a Fijian Rugby National Governing Body was formed and they played their first international vs Samoa in 1925 which kicked off at 7am so that the players had enough time to shower and change and be in work on time and the field also had a giant tree on the halfway line. Today Fiji are 11th in the rugby world rankings with recent competitive victories over Wales, Scotland, France and Italy and they dominate the Sevens circuit with 3 series wins in its 20-year existence. A similar story occurred in Namibia where rugby was introduced due to British and allied victory in World War One when the British commonwealth nation South Africa took control of Namibia which had been a German colony.

However, rugby wasn’t just spread through colonialism, Uruguay recently broke into the top 20 of the rugby world rankings and competed in the last two Rugby World Cups and they were introduced to the game by Christian missionaries from the UK who came to enforce religion. Furthermore, the Eastern European country of Georgia adopted rugby because it was so similar to the traditional Georgian game of ‘Lelo’ in which men of rival towns competed to carry a ball over a large field into the opposing team’s creek, hence why the nickname of the Georgian rugby team today is the ‘Lelos’.   

To conclude, if you asked an average person, say a football fan, to find Fiji or Namibia on a map they would undoubtedly fail, they probably wouldn’t even know that Samoa and Tonga even exist, however a common rugby fan could find Fiji on a map, tell you it’s capital city and tell you the names of 20 famous Fijian’s. There is a native Fijian in almost every major tier one rugby nation with England’s recent examples including Joe Cokanasiga, Nathan Hughes and Semesa Rokodunguni while Fijian’s litter every major rugby league with around 34 in France’s Top 14 in 2017 and over 20 in the English Premiership including this summer’s big money signings of Semi Radrada and Nemani Nadolo. How many Fijian’s play football in the English Premiership? I don’t think you need me to tell you it’s 0. In summary Fijian’s are core blocks that hold together the world of rugby, not just Fijian’s but also Samoan’s, Tongan’s and New Zealander’s and none of this would have happened if a British colonist hadn’t one day passed them a rugby ball (and yet the Kiwi’s, Aussies and Saffa’s still have the cheek to beat us at every World Cup). Rugby today is defined by those early Victorian colonies and without them maybe rugby might have never left the shores of England.

Who is England’s Next Fly Half?

Rob Andrew, Paul Grayson, Jonny Wilkinson, Charlie Hodgson, Toby Flood, Owen Farrell. England have been blessed with many great fly half’s in their history and currently there is a plethora of young talent primed to usurp the incumbents and become the next great legend as standoff is quickly becoming England’s deepest and most competitive position. In this article I will go through the list of potentials and give my opinion on their chances of wearing the white and red.

Marcus Smith:

Age: 21, Premiership Appearances: 79, Predicted Caps: 50-80

My favourite player to watch in the premiership today, Smith combines speed, flair and footwork with meticulous vision and distribution. Smith has the advantage of being personally scouted and touted by Eddie Jones when he played for Brighton College as a schoolboy so has a good chance of breaking into the national team while Jones remains the head coach. Furthermore, Smith played in the 2018 U20 World Championships taking England to the final before turning down a second appearance in the youth championship to play in the senior England non cap game against the Barbarians with a man of the match performance. He has also cemented himself as the starting fly half at Quins and as one of the best 10’s in the league which has earned him numerous call ups to England training squads as an “apprentice player” and the accolade of top Premiership points scorer in the 2019-2020 season. In my opinion, Smith has a long England career ahead of him as he has the finesse and skill of a Quade Cooper type player but has also already developed his passing and kicking game to become an extremely well rounded and reliable player that can hold his own against any 10 in the world.

Joe Simmonds:

Age: 23, Premiership Appearances: 45, Predicted Caps: 20-40                             

Simmonds is easily the calmest and most composed 23-year-old I have ever seen play, he barely even smiles or even flinches so he definitely has test rugby DNA. He has solidified himself as Chiefs starting 10 ahead of club legend Gareth Steenson and has become one of the league’s best goal kickers with an 84% conversion rate this year. However, he also has a taste for the try line with 4 tries in his short Exeter career including one in a Man of the Match performance in last year’s Semi Final win vs Northampton. As of yet Simmonds has no England training squad call ups or age grade honours but I expect this to change quickly as he keeps getting better and more of a leader with every game and I expect he would have been blooded in this summer’s tour to Japan had it not been cancelled by COVID-19. Furthermore, Simmonds plays for the Chiefs who have many more years of Premiership dominance and championships ahead of them which will play into Simmonds favour and performances.

Jacob Umaga:

Age: 21, Premiership Appearances: 10, Predicted Caps: 0-15

The dark horse of the bunch, Umaga has bags of potential, regardless of the fact he is related to All Blacks legend Tana Umaga the fact is that Jacob has ran the Wasps attack this year in his debut season scoring 4 tries in just 8 starts and forcing All Black star Lima Sopoaga to be dropped and then moved to fullback to make room for him. Furthermore, Umaga was included in England’s most recent training squad in this year’s Six Nations as an “apprentice player” ahead of the more experienced Simmonds and Smith. If Umaga can develop his kicking game and stay fit, I can easily see him playing for England in the next 3 years however he could just as easily be on the fringe his whole career without that extra step up.

James Grayson:

Age: 21, Premiership Appearances: 25, Predicted Caps: 1-5

The long shot of the group Grayson has capitalised on 9 starts in the 10 shirt for Saints this year after Dan Biggar’s injury and has been in fine form. In addition, he has also been to the final of an U20 World Championships with England and is the son of England standoff legend Paul Grayson. Apart from this I don’t see Grayson as anything more than a fine goal kicker and distributer, far from the mercurial talents of Smith and Umaga, and he will have to fight for the 10 shirt with Biggar at Saints for the next few seasons so will struggle for development and game time however he may prove to make a few caps off the bench if selection is stretched.

In conclusion, as you can see Smith is my top pick for England’s next great fly half. Although Ford and Farrell have many years of caps ahead of them expect Smith to make his debut as early as the Lions tour next summer and he will keep on improving in the Quins shirt next year. Also I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 10-12 axis of Simmonds and Smith in 5 years time as Smith would be a more than capable inside centre due to his speed, sound defence and distribution.                                                      

The Stuart Hogg Paradox

Stuart Hogg is the current Scotland captain with 20 tries in 76 international caps as well as two British and Irish Lions tours and two Six Nations player of the tournament awards. However, he has never been the unarguable best player in the world in his position and unless things change in the closing years of his career he will not go down in history as one of the world’s greatest fullbacks; in this article I will underline the reasons why.

The first main reason that Stuart Hogg’s legacy will forever be mired is down to his country of heritage, in other words, the fact he plays for Scotland. Throughout Stuart Hogg’s career Scotland have been an average to disappointing Six Nations side with a wooden spoon title, two 5th place finishes and having never finished above 3rd. Furthermore, during Hogg’s tenure Scotland have never broken into the top 5 in the IRB world rankings and haven’t advanced further than the World Cup quarter finals with a group stage exit to boot. This mediocrity has served to continually dampen and undermine the stunning individual performances of Hogg who seems to nearly always score great tries or have man of the match performances in losing efforts, in the two years he won Six Nations player of the tournament Scotland finished 4th. This raises the question, can a player truly be great, a legend, on a poor team? The question has been raised in relation to Italian Sergio Parisse for years and doesn’t seem to have a clear answer however off the top of your head think of the most well-known and obvious rugby legends in history; Jonny Wilkinson, Dan Carter, Richie Mccaw, Martin Johnson, George Gregan, John Smit, what do all these players have in common? They are all World Cup winners of course. After all, personal accolades create respect but team accolades create legacy. It can be argued that Hogg will never be recognised as a true great of the game because of the fact he played for a mostly poor Scotland side however i believe that Hogg performs far better when he is the leader and the shining light of a poor team when the system and the game plan is tailored to his style of play and he has the freedom to play as such. Furthermore, there is evidence that Hogg does not perform in teams full of stars when he is not the leader or the main offensive outlet and thus has less freedom. This is the Stuart Hogg paradox; he will never be recognised as a true legend just playing for average teams but when he plays in good teams full of stars he can’t perform as well. Which brings us to the tragedy that is his British and Irish Lions career. The 2013 tour to Australia came too early for a young 20-year-old Hogg well before his peak and he played 5 warm up games failing to make a test team but when the 2017 tour came around Hogg was in his peak and the nailed on starting fullback for the majority of fans and pundits alike. In a cruel twist of fate Hogg had an underwhelming first game and a half before being injured by an accidental stray elbow from team mate Connor Murray instantly ending his tour and his chance to prove himself on the big stage in a star studded team. Hogg himself must have realised this strain on his legacy as after 9 years at an average Glasgow Warriors team that he led and was the shining light for for many years (granted he won one Pro 12 title) he moved to English champions Exeter this past summer to play with other stars such as Henry Slade, Nic White and Sam Simmonds and to compete for titles in England and Europe. However, he has struggled to reciprocate his Glasgow and Scotland form for the Chiefs this season only showing glimpses of his class and in another cruel twist of the fate the season was postponed/ cancelled with Exeter in the top spot poised to go to the final and probably win another premiership. It is possible that Hogg could have gone on to have a man of the match performance in the final which probably would have put to bed the doubts of his quality but sadly not yet, we will have to wait.

If you are still sceptical simply think back to all of Scotland’s best performances and biggest wins in recent years; the narrow loss to Australia in the 2015 World Cup quarter final, the 2017 summer and autumn tour wins over Australia, the destruction of England in the 2018 Six Nations and the following 38-38 comeback draw with England, Hogg was quiet by his standards in all of these games. What else do all of these games have in common? Finn Russell was immense and ran all of the games. When Scotland run their game through Russell Scotland win, or at least play very well, and Hogg steps to the background. Russell is someone known for performing under pressure, it seemingly doesn’t affect him, look at his recent performances under the bright lights of Racing Metro’s ‘Paris La Defense Arena’, is it possible that Hogg can’t perform under pressure, even wilts underneath it? And he only plays well when the pressure is off and his team is losing hence giving him more freedom? History would tell us so. Need any more evidence? Simply look to this year’s incomplete Six Nations with Russell banned and out the team and Hogg first handed the captains armband it was his chance to lead one of the better Scotland teams and they were poor, losing to England and Ireland with Hogg even dropping the ball over the line for a game winning try vs Ireland, of course this was a mere lapse of concentration, an anomaly, but the point is valid. The 2019 World Cup is another good example as Scotland had decent expectations for the first time in years with a solid squad going to Japan but they crashed out losing with bad performances to beatable Ireland and Japan teams and Hogg was metaphorically absent in both games.

There is no doubt that Stuart Hogg is a world class player but it remains to be seen whether he is a world class individual or world class team player, he still has many years left in his career at a powerhouse Exeter team and with a Lions tour to South Africa next year and i hope he proves me wrong.