Rugby’s biggest 'passing of the torch’ moments
Like all sports, Rugby is always changing.
New European sides emerge as a tour de force in the Champions Cup sweeping away all comers, while an exciting, young generation of players can turn an underperforming nation into World Cup contenders in just a few moments.
Sometimes these changes take on a more symbolic meaning in retrospect, and the events, whether on the field or off, are talked about years in advance as the time when the new blood arrived.
Here, The Flanker looks at some of times the torch was passed, or snatched, from one generation to the next.
The ballad of BOD as Gatland drops the legend
O’Driscoll was forced to watch the final Lions test in 2013 from the stands.
It’s perhaps one of the boldest, and most controversial, selection calls made in rugby history.
In 2013, with the series delicately poised at 1-1, Irish great Brian O’Driscoll was dropped from the entire Lions squad for the third and deciding third Lions test against Australia.
Not only that, coach Warren Gatland did so with both Sam Warburton and Paul O'Connell, the two previous Lions captains, injured and O’Driscoll the obvious leadership choice.
Instead he did not even make the bench, with Manu Tuilagi drafted in to take the number 23 jersey - abruptly ending the Leinsterman’s Lions career in a blink of an eye.
The move generated huge outcry, especially in Irish circles with Keith Wood saying Gatland had made a “terrible mistake” in not making the man they name BOD captain, let alone not playing at all.
The massive selection call, in which Gatland picked 10 of his Welsh faithfuls in the starting XV, ultimately paid off big time as the Lions swept to a 41-16 victory over Australia to take their first series victory since 1997.
The episode is still a bitter pill to swallow for many though, with O’Driscoll himself sounding remorseful while talking about the incident back in 2017.
“"I did think if I was playing there was a good chance I would be captain because Sam (Warburton) was going to be out. But then I got the tap on the shoulder on the Wednesday at the coffee machine, 10 minutes before a team meeting,” he said.
I saw Gats and Rob Howley and I thought 'this isn't good, you don't need two people for good news'.
"I was asked to go into the team meeting room and they delivered it pretty quickly.
"I think you black out a bit when you hear the bad news...and I had never been dropped before," he added.
The move represented a change in philosophy. O’Driscoll, a man who had been one of Europe’s leading players for over a decade by 2013, was put to pasture in place of hungry upstarts like his replacement starter Jonathan Davies and Tuilagi.
His international retirement would follow a year later and with the physicality of the game growing ever more, there’s a good chance we may never see another like BOD again.
Wilkinson teaches new dog old tricks
Wilkinson helping Farrell in a training session before the 2019 Rugby World Cup final.
CREDIT: Getty
The Indian summer of Jonny Wilkinson’s career at Toulon, where the World Cup winner won two Heineken Cups at Mourad Boudjellal’s house of fun, coincided with the emergence of the next great England fly-half in Owen Farrell.
The pair were at completely opposite stages of their career before the 2013 Heineken Cup semi-final; Wilkinson was just a year away from retirement and had done it all while ‘Faz’ was the hungry upstart with just the one Premiership title to his name.
The two faced off at Twickenham for the first time, with a final spot against Clermont on the line with both 10s dominating the proceedings.
Only two names scored points that day, Farrell and Wilkinson, as the attritional game ultimately came down to a kicking contest between the generational players.
It all came to a head in the 73rd minute, with the score standing at 18-12 to the Toulon ‘galacticos’. With the North Londoners pinned in their 22, the 33-year-old Wilkinson went to his old faithful to take the game out of reach.
Despite Farrell doing all he could get in the Toulon stand-offs way, he, like so many others over the years, was forced to watch Wilkinson’s drop goal fly through the middle of the post to book Toulon their first European Cup final spot.
As the two men lay on the Twickenham turf, Wilkinson gave Farrell a sportsmanlike tap on the back as if to appreciate the effort of the youngster.
And in many ways it was a tap which passed the torch too.
While Wilkinson’s side won the game (and the final a year later) Saracens would soon become the dominant force in Europe, with Farrell now bearing down on Wilkinson’s England points record as we speak.
Looking back, it’s fortunate that we got to see the past and future of English rugby on the same pitch, one close to retirement while another on the brink of superstardom.
And with one consolidatory tap on the back, the old vet passed the mantle to his young pretender.
Go Beaudy!
New Zealand celebrate their 2015 Rugby World Cup triumph at Twickenham.
CREDIT: Martin Bureau / AFP
New Zealand turned up at the 2015 Rugby World Cup as the most dominant team in rugby history.
They had swatted aside all comers since the 2011 tournament, including an unbeaten year in 2013, and arrived in England without the weight of history that preceded their victory 4 years earlier.
They showed their brilliance throughout the tournament, playing rugby on a different level to the 19 other teams. It all culminated in their 34-17 victory over Australia, a score which while harsh on the Wallabies showed how ruthless these All Blacks were.
It was team filled with class., from Dan Carter at 10 to Richie McCaw at flanker, and an all-time great centre partnership in Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith.
Throw in names like Julian Savea and Brodie Retallick, all under the watchful eye of Steve Hansen, and this emerged as visibly the most talented squad ever assembled.
In the 65th minute of the final, however, the All Blacks brought on squad player Beauden Barrett in a bid to finally put Australia away in the sport’s showpiece match.
With three minutes to play the Wallabies made a final effort towards the Kiwi line but knocked the ball on. The ball fell into the hands of Ben Smith who took off and placed a kick in behind the retreating defence.
Coming outside him at blisteringly quick speed was Hurricane Barrett, who after a simple touch with his knee collected the ball to dot down and crown New Zealand the first ever back-to-back world champions.
Little did the spectators in that stadium know that over the next four years it was that substitute who would go on to be rugby’s best player as the talents of McCaw, Carter, Nonu and Smith took their leave from the international stage.
Their 2019 exit shows this generation of All Blacks weren’t quite up to the 2015 vintage, but looking back it was clear the man to lead the nation’s next generation was chosen that fateful evening.
Japan earn right to be talked about with big boys
You could argue the 2015 Rugby World Cup win deserves to be on this list as it put Japan firmly on the map as a rugby nation.
‘The miracle of Brighton’ has been talked about enough, however, and many still considered the whole match a fluke, especially as the Brave Blossoms would still go out at the group stage of the tournament.
Far from dropping the ball on this achievement, however, Jamie Joseph, successor to Springbok slayer Eddie Jones, immediately set to task on getting his side ready for a sustained campaign at their home World Cup in 2019.
Solid results in the subsequent year followed, including a draw with France and a Pacific Nations Cup title in 2019, but with a group containing Scotland and Ireland there was real reason to believe the Japanese could be the second host nation to exit their World Cup at the group stage.
A nervy win over Russia failed to settle those nerves but it was the way they came back to defeat Ireland after being 12-0 down that really put people on notice.
To then follow those victories up with bonus point victories over Samoa and Scotland to top their group, playing absolutely scintillating rugby at the same time, showed Japan had earnt the right to be talked about as a Tier 1 team.
The first half performance of the Scotland game in particular was fairly recognised as some of the most skilful play rugby audiences had ever seen.
To put all this in context, just ten years before that win over South Africa in 2015, Japan had only one World Cup triumph to their name, a group stage victory over Zimbabwe in 1991.
An exit to the Springboks in their first quarter-final visit followed in 2019 but the statement had been made. Japan were here to stay and talk swiftly arose of adding them to the Rugby Championship or Six Nations.
It will be a treat to see how they fare as the 2023 edition approaches.
