Time Up For Declan Kidney?

Ireland’s loss to Scotland at Murrayfield has heaped yet more pressure on Ireland head coach Declan Kidney. The knives were being sharpened long before the 12-8 reversal in the Scottish capital, but calls for his head will be louder now than ever.

Losing a game with 80% possession is, of course, criminal. The blame however rests firmly at the players’ doorstep, not the coach’s. Poor execution, insipid leadership, blinkered decision making and inaccurate goal kicking were the architects of Ireland’s demise, not the guy sitting in the stand.

Many have called for the ‘ultra-conservative’ Kidney to ditch his so-called ‘favourites’ and to give the youngsters a chance. It seems an oddly held opinion of Kidney in the first place. If Peter Stringer and Shaun Payne ever viewed their former coach in such light one would imagine they felt differently sitting on the bench in Kingsholm in 2008.

Tomás O’ Leary (ironically the beneficiary of Stringer’s demotion) and Luke Fitzgerald too might testify to Kidney’s ability to abandon high-profile players in favour of less illustrious replacements.

Either way the mud stuck. When the Irish coach announced his selection last week it was greeted with disbelief. Big calls at 1, 10 and 12 defied the perceived wisdom. He had given the naysayers their wish and when it backfired they used it as a stick to beat him with.

Firstly the out-half situation always had a ‘no-win’ feel about it. Had O’ Gara not performed poorly in the England game and then abysmally for Munster against Scarlets last week there would have been no call to be made; an away Six Nations game, against a team on a high and with confidence ebbing from your own camp the experience of O’ Gara was a no-brainer. As it turned out O’ Gara played himself out of the team to the extent that he simply couldn’t be picked.

Paddy Jackson, despite the comfort of Ruan Pienaar and a largely dominant pack in Ulster, has still managed to underwhelm in recent months. He does however offer the next most experienced alternative at Heineken Cup level. Ultimately this earned Jackson the starting berth at the expense of an inexperienced Ian Keatley and Ian Madigan who, although undoubtedly talented, is not a regular out-half in the big games for his province. Keatley and Madigan’s inability to oust their respective province’s number one out-half and make a strong case for inclusion in the national squad is their own fault, not Kidney's.

Tom Court has been one of the outstanding loose-heads in Europe this year; formidable at scrum time and impressive in the loose. Dave Kilcoyne’s progression has been a joy to watch this season but Court deserved his chance. Unfortunately like his Ulster teammate at number ten Court struggled to grasp that opportunity on the pitch. Luke Marshall, the third of the Ulster trio, was the most impressive in this regard. Positive in attack and solid in defence his performance underlined his growing stature in the game.

It was a match Ireland should have won, but endeavoured to leave behind them. Court and Ross were both shown up in the scrum at times. Rory Best’s missed line-out throws did little for the cause. O’ Driscoll and Earls were both guilty of not giving a pass when required and Rob Kearney continued his frustrating preference to go through rather than over or around opposition players when counter-attacking. All have to shoulder some of the blame. So too do Seán O Brien, Dave Kilcoyne and Jamie Heaslip for giving away the penalties that ultimately handed the Scots the initiative and the victory.

If there’s one decision Kidney must be held to account for it’s his decision to install Heaslip as captain. So far it has proven to be a very poor call. Heaslip has not only continued to produce below par performances in a green jersey, he has appeared a reluctant leader and a suspect decision-maker. Had Jackson been allowed to take the relatively easy opportunity to kick three points early in the contest perhaps confidence would have gone some way to easing the kicking woes that have been evident in his game. The call to go to the corner was brave and at times, as in the final minutes, is absolutely correct. Early on in an away Six Nations game with a debutant out-half and the score-line level is, however, not the time. Jackson’s captain did him no favours. If O’ Driscoll was to be removed from the post  Rory Best was the obvious choice to lead the side. The decision has to count as a mark against the Irish coach.

The responsibility for this loss however does not rest on Declan Kidney’s shoulders, rather stems from his player’s inability to reach the levels of execution required at international level. His players failed him, not the other way around. 

Match-Fixing and Doping in Football

All too often we hear people bemoan the dwindling moral standards of professional footballers and the ever-decreasing standing of the game in comparison to other sports.

Those who fear so greatly for the reputation of the game, while well-meaning, often ignore the players whose behaviour is the antithesis to that of the troublemakers.

Additionally, this overly sensationalistic approach ignores the fact that professional athletes of all codes step out of line from time to time and instead portrays football as the sole destroyer of moral standards in sport.

Whether it’s Liam Ridgewell baring his backside while brandishing a £20 note, or Joey Barton’s latest outburst; these are footballer’s worst ambassadors and barely deserve our attention let alone the power to influence our perception of a game in which they’re on-field contributions garner little attention.

There is however two pertinent issues that threaten to leave an indelible scar on the image of the Beautiful Game.

The first is the endemic of match-fixing that Europol’s investigation has this week positioned centre-stage. 680 matches spanning five continents and including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers are implicated in the alleged match-fixing conspiracy.

“A total of 425 match officials, club officials, players and serious criminals from more than 15 countries, are suspected of being involved in attempts to fix…professional football matches,” according to Europol’s 

director Rob Wainwright.

These revelations, allied with the Italian match-fixing troubles of the last number of years, indicate a widespread cancer in the game- from the lower leagues of club football to the upper echelons of elite international competition- that is scantly believable. Worryingly, who knows how many other matches might be involved that we don't yet know about?

It is this sort of tarnishing of reputation that football, and indeed sport in general, can ill-afford. The minimum required for people to maintain an interest in sport is the authenticity of the competition they witness.  Without this fans will become disillusioned and fall away from the game.

We are fortunate in that such a situation still remains unlikely, but should football’s top authorities fail to heed this warning and act accordingly people will eventually grow tired of being cheated and deceived in such routine fashion.

The second great challenge that football faces is one that it has so far failed to acknowledge; preferring instead to adopt a holier-than-thou approach and bury its head in the sand. Doping exists in all sports and football, as the trial of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes seems likely to prove, is no different.

Dr Fuentes is the doctor at the centre of a global sports doping scandal who has stated that his clients included not only cyclists, boxers, tennis players but footballers too.

Fuentes has admitted to aiding his clients in carrying out blood transfusions, although he claims this was to protect the player’s health rather than to facilitate cheating. Self-confessed drug cheat and American cyclist Tyler Hamilton has, however, agreed to appear as a witness in the trial- and in doing so would appear to cast serious doubts over Fuentes’ claims.

Jesús Manazno, the former professional cyclist who was the whistleblower on Dr Fuentes, has claimed that he personally saw well-known footballers attending the medic’s clinic.

Real Sociedad are rumoured to be one club that are alleged to have been involved with Dr Fuentes.  In light of comments made by the club’s former president Inaki Badiola it seemingly matters little whether any such involvement did occur in establishing that doping took place at the club however. Mr Badiola said: “What is certain is that in 2008 our board publicly denounced doctors Eduardo Escobar and Antxon Gorrotxategi because, in the six seasons before [we arrived at the club], at least, the directors paid for medicines or products which in that moment were categorised as used in doping.”

It’s difficult to discern which aspect of the situation is more troubling; the apparent doping at a top level of the sport or the general inertia with which it has been greeted. Either way it is an issue that is likely to gain many more column inches in the coming months. It may well prove to be a painful and prolonged exercise but the truth regarding doping in football must be established and dealt with.

While the misdemeanours of some of football’s more immature professionals are as undesirable as they are unsavoury, their importance is also often overstated. Should football not deal forcefully with the twin scourges of match-fixing and doping there will be no overstating the cost to the game however.

First Appeared on theblend.ie on February 7, 2013

The Gospel According to Ray

Tonight Ray Lewis, possibly the greatest middle-linebacker ever to play the game, will don the number 52 jersey of the Baltimore Ravens for one last time.

Seventeen years at the forefront of one of the NFL's most fearsome defences, a Superbowl winner and MVP in 2001, preacher of God's message and pillar of the community; anybody else's reputation would be assured, but not Ray Lewis'.

The problem with Lewis is his inability to answer a straight question. That, above all else, allows doubt to linger as to the virtue of the man.

Perhaps the virtue of the man does not matter. Perhaps the impact of Lewis the player is all that should concern us. As much as we may like this to be true the questions that linger over the man inevitably take some of the enjoyment from his accomplishments as a player.

There are two questions people most want an answer to; one has persisted since Superbowl night 2000, the other has gained traction only this week. Tragically neither focuses on Lewis' undoubted and largely unparalleled ability and influence on the field.

On January 31, 2000 Lewis found himself embroiled in an incident in which two men were stabbed to death outside an Atlanta nightclub following Superbowl XXXIV. Lewis and two companions were charged with murder and aggravated assault.

Ultimately a plea agreement was struck whereby Lewis' testimony against his two companions was enough to ensure the murder charges against him were dropped. He was sentenced to 12 months’ probation for obstruction of justice and fined $250,000 by the NFL.

Of course it is important to remember that Lewis has never been found guilty of the murder of two young men. Yet his unwillingness, or inability, to answer questions surrounding that night will always lead people to question his involvement in the incident.

Perhaps he has nobody to answer to only, as he oft reminds us, God himself. Perhaps he's comfortable with large sections of the populace doubting his credibility. Perhaps a tainted reputation sits easily on his colossal shoulders. Who knows?

“Nobody here is really qualified to ask those questions,” he said when quizzed on the subject this week. “I just truly feel that this is God’s time, and whatever his time is, let it be his will. Don’t try to please everybody with your words, try to make everybody’s story sound right.”

Regardless of whether anyone is qualified to ask the questions, people, and his fans especially, deserve to know the answers.

The other question surrounding Ray Lewis is the accusation made against him by Sports Illustrated that in attempting to repair a torn tricep he used products that contained a banned substance connected to human growth hormone. Deer antler spray, in fact.

The accusations stem from an article in Sports Illustrated where co-owner of Sports with Alternatives to Steroids (SWATS) is reported to have said that upon the request of the Ravens linebacker he provided Lewis with products to speed his recovery.

The co-owner, Mitch Ross, has since sought to distance himself from the remarks by claiming that Sports Illustrated "catfished" him. That, in everyday parlance, means they stitched him up.

Where the rights and wrongs of this story lie remains to be seen. The accusation is no more than that right now; an accusation.

Again though Ray Lewis has done himself few favours in refuting the claims against him, instead he invokes biblical references as his protection.

“That’s the trick of the devil,” he said. “The trick of the devil is to kill, steal and destroy. That’s what he comes to do. He comes to distract you from everything you’re trying to do.”

Scary stuff, maybe we shouldn’t ask any more questions for fear of being seen to dance with the devil rather than accompanying Ray in his pre-game shuffle?

One feels a simple ‘no’ would have sufficed. Instead his meandering monologue of truly biblical proportions gives the impression of a man attempting to obscure the issue rather than clarify it.

Maybe it’s just Lewis’ way. Maybe he is indeed innocent on all counts. Football fans, sports fans and the city of Baltimore will certainly hope so.

The great shame is that in the lead up to the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ and what could be the crowning triumph of one of the League’s all-time greats, these questions linger and impinge on the legacy of one of the greatest linebacker’s in history.

The teachings of the Gospel were intended to enlighten. The Gospel according to Ray, however, serves only to confound and obscure.

First Appeared on February 3, 2013 on theblend.ie