“What’s the biggest difference between our Rugby Union and Rugby League teams?” asked one self-styled comic after the numbing defeat by Australia. “Answer: there’s more chance of finding an openside flanker in the League side.”
This was a little unfair on Chris Robshaw, the poor sod in the No.7 shirt. Like Tom Wood of Northampton and James Haskell of Wasps, the other full-time flankers in Stuart Lancaster’s party, he was not a pure breakaway of the Richie McCaw/Michael Hooper/Sam Warburton school. He was a “six and a half”, with the emphasis heavily on the “six”.
Robshaw had his moments in the openside role, for sure: his Premiership grand final performance for Harlequins against Leicester in 2012 was something to savour; his Last Man Standing efforts in adversity – most notably against Wales on a gruesome night in Cardiff a decade ago – were object lessons in raw courage and commitment. But if no one could conceivably have tried harder in impersonating a round peg in a round hole, he was simply not one of life’s natural “Dead Ringers”. Which explains why he never toured with the Lions.
This story is from the April 30, 2023 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the April 30, 2023 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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