You never feel being dropped is justified and the hardest one of all
“You never feel being dropped is justified and the hardest one of all was when I was left out after the Romania match last autumn.”I knew then that if the team played well against Canada it would be very difficult to change it for the Five Nations and also, if that went well, for the World Cup. But I’m one of those people who train even harder when they take a knock and try to correct the things that caused me to be dropped in the first place.”Proving his detractors, not least in the media, wrong was Morris’s stated motivation when he became a Lion during the 1993 series in New Zealand and two years later it was as good a reason as any for temporarily giving up his job.This was a dramatic gamble that Morris said he would not regret even if Bracken were to displace him “If it doesn’t work out, it won’t matter. The main thing was that I had to give myself the best chance – quite apart from which, I’d always fancied the idea of having some time off work.”All the same, it would have ended badly if Morris had gone through the same miserable experience as he did in 1991 when Richard Hill was England’s scrum-half in all six of their World Cup matches and Morris and David Pears were the only members of the squad of 26 who did not play at all.”The only good thing about it was the players, including Richard, coming up to me and saying it was wrong, that I should play,” Morris said.”The down part was the incredible emptiness and feeling of not really being part of it. I was on the bench for every game but I felt as if all I’d done for six weeks was hold tackle-bags.”Rowell has warned that someone may be equally unlucky this time but at least it will not be Morris. “All I would say to anyone who doesn’t get a game in South Africa is that the worst thing you could do is go off and throw your teddy in the corner, to use an Orrell expression. Because that way you wouldn’t do yourself – and certainly not the team – any good.”This may be easier to say than do but Dewi Morris does know what he is talking about He has already set the perfect example.. To kill time Ireland have been playing Trivial Pursuit at their hotel and that is expected to be the name of the game when they meet New Zealand in the opening match of Group C at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, this evening.
If Ireland, who have never beaten the All Blacks, can limit the defeat to 20 points it will be an achievement. New Zealand, who won the inaugural World Cup on home territory eight years ago, have prepared for this in the most professional manner, training for up to five hours a day for six months.
Beaten by Australia in Dublin in the second World Cup in 1991, the All Blacks recognised that they had been surpassed in fitness. “I’ve got a good feeling about this squad,” Brian Lochore, the manager said. That statement should alert Ireland, and everybody else, to the threat posed by New Zealand.Ireland had a disappointing Five Nations’ Championship – their only success was against Wales in Cardiff – and followed that with an embarrassing defeat to Italy in Treviso two weeks ago. The nine days between arriving here in Durban and our first game against Argentina is like a prison sentence However, we cannot complain about the prison. Durban is warm, 25 degrees under cloudless skies, with the Indian Ocean not so much lapping as crashing on to beautiful clean beaches.
Leisure time is filled with swimming and “boogie-boarding” in the surf, volleyball and frisbee-throwing on the beach, golf, films, reading and playing my saxophone. Basically, anything that makes the time pass quicker before and between games.I guess this element of spare time is something which most people do not fully grasp.
They assume that you are out training all hours of the day and when you are not you are ensconced in a meeting room poring over videos of the opposition and talking tactics Fortunately not. A balance has to be struck so that your body gets the rest it needs as well as your mind. This does lead to a sizeable amount of dead time filled up by the activities listed above.However, a ban has been imposed on us doing anything in the sun on Friday and Saturday leading up to the Argentina game. Thank heaven I at least have this article to write to relieve the tedium before I bore my room- mate, Jonathan Callard, with another impersonation of Kenny G.The training itself has been keen.
