No one likes us and we don' care Sir Clive Woodward
We used to keep a “teamship” book that had a whole heap of derogatory comments from other nations about what they really think of England. Every player that I worked with will know what I am referring to. The “teamship” covered all of our agreed operational procedures and set the standards we wanted to be measured by, especially compared to other sports teams. We collected many quotes from players, coaches and administrators just to keep everyone focused on what we were up against at the World Cup in Australia and how difficult it was going to be.
Background
Here is just a sample of the quotes, which were accompanied by a picture of the person who made the comment. “We don’t care who wins the rugby World Cup, as long as it’s not England,” George Gregan, Australia player, September 2003. “I despise them as much as they despise everybody else. As long as we beat England I wouldn’t mind if we lost every other game in the Six Nations,” Imanol Harinordoquy, France player, June 2003. “England gets a decent win about once every four years at Twickenham. They are p***** to lose to,” Andrew Mehrtens, New Zealand player, November 2002. “England are a fantastic side but they do tend to let themselves down. They do make it easy for people not to like them,” Donal Lenihan, former Ireland player and Lions manager, September 2003.
You can just add O’Neill’s remarks to the hundreds of others.
At the start of the last World Cup, we had only just arrived in Perth when there was a radio phone-in asking who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with; Douglas Jardine, Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan or Clive Woodward? I won comfortably, beating Jardine into second place. While not exactly proud of the result – and it took a bit of explaining to my kids! - it told me that we had them very worried. In a bizarre way, it is the Australian way of showing sporting respect – at least I was actually in the lift!
So all you bitters, keep it coming, we thrive on it.
We used to keep a “teamship” book that had a whole heap of derogatory comments from other nations about what they really think of England. Every player that I worked with will know what I am referring to. The “teamship” covered all of our agreed operational procedures and set the standards we wanted to be measured by, especially compared to other sports teams. We collected many quotes from players, coaches and administrators just to keep everyone focused on what we were up against at the World Cup in Australia and how difficult it was going to be.
Background
Here is just a sample of the quotes, which were accompanied by a picture of the person who made the comment. “We don’t care who wins the rugby World Cup, as long as it’s not England,” George Gregan, Australia player, September 2003. “I despise them as much as they despise everybody else. As long as we beat England I wouldn’t mind if we lost every other game in the Six Nations,” Imanol Harinordoquy, France player, June 2003. “England gets a decent win about once every four years at Twickenham. They are p***** to lose to,” Andrew Mehrtens, New Zealand player, November 2002. “England are a fantastic side but they do tend to let themselves down. They do make it easy for people not to like them,” Donal Lenihan, former Ireland player and Lions manager, September 2003.
You can just add O’Neill’s remarks to the hundreds of others.
At the start of the last World Cup, we had only just arrived in Perth when there was a radio phone-in asking who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with; Douglas Jardine, Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan or Clive Woodward? I won comfortably, beating Jardine into second place. While not exactly proud of the result – and it took a bit of explaining to my kids! - it told me that we had them very worried. In a bizarre way, it is the Australian way of showing sporting respect – at least I was actually in the lift!
So all you bitters, keep it coming, we thrive on it.
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