On to England.  What are Brian’s thoughts on Martin Johnson and England?  “Jake White once said – and I agree with him – that 85% of his job is selection.  Andy Robinson’s problem was that he was no good at selection.  He had too much choice.  England are still suffering.  If you get 3 years out a four year cycle wrong, then there’s a problem.  Players like Mat Tait and Toby Flood don’t know if they’re good enough and they should do because they’ve had the time.  75% of your squad should be chosen by now.  England needs continuity.  For the six weeks of the RWC you need 22 players who are good enough – experienced, fit and talented.  The average number of caps is 40 for a side who wins the RWC.  Martin Johnson needs to be consistent. There are lots of people waiting in the wings to take the places if the England team fails.”  Brian suggested that the media was also a problem for any England coach because they are forever putting forward their own suggestions to replace a player who might not have had a good game or a good series.  He said that Clive Woodward was good at dealing with the media and basically telling them to get lost.  He also had six years and his ‘judge me on the world cup’ challenge ended up being the second world cup campaign he led.  “Martin has got to try to get some consecutive runs, but he’s still suffering from the period of bad selection.”

Brian ended the evening by telling us that for the recent Quins game against Bath, a box had been made available for former players.  They were reminiscing about their playing days and how much the Stoop had changed.  No more running track and 3 men and a dog on the grassy bank!  Brian’s first visit had been as a Nottingham player.  He said that at the Bath game he’d spent time in the bars [he reported this in his recent Telegraph column] talking to people about the summer’s events.  He said that some people were angry that Dean’s actions could have, quite literally, put the club out of business.  “People were afraid that the hard work that’s been done at Quins over the past few years could have been lost.  The hysteria (in the media) that might have sent this club out of business is stupid.  The ERC changed its mind about Quins being chucked out of the HC.  First they asked that we weren’t kicked out because all the arrangements had been made and then they changed their minds because of all the bad press.  But if you send this club down, you’re ruining normal people with jobs and mortgages.” 

Brian paid tribute to the fans’ part in the development of the club and our role in its future.  He joked about the fact that he’d actually heard middle-class people ‘whooping’ during the match.  The atmosphere led one former player to remark:

“Wouldn’t it have been great to have played in front of this crowd at this ground?”

And with that, at 9.30, the assembled crowd gave BM a round of applause as he picked up his biker’s jacket and went off home.  The only disappointing thing for me is that no-one asked Brian if he really did have the urge to slap Eddie Butler every time they were in the commentary box together!

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