Some are billing this weekend’s match at Cardiff as a shoot-out between Warren Gatland of Wales and Eddie Jones of England, though neither of these middle-aged men will make a tackle or pass or kick the ball.
Coaches and managers now get at least as much media attention as players. It did not use to be like this and not only because for a long time the very idea of a coach was anathema to the men – they were all men then – who ran rugby union.
Coaches were all right for schoolboys, but the idea smacked, indeed stank, of professionalism. International XVs were picked by a committee of amateur selectors. Doubtless they made many weird decisions. Anyone who remembers the game then will recall some of them. But of course professional managers/coaches/selectors have also been known to blunder.
