Saint George, the symbol of knighthood, is little celebrated in the modern era. Memory of the chivalrous and gallant knight who, as legend has it, rode to the rescue of a town, and especially the soon-to-be sacrificed king’s daughter, saving them from a hungry dragon by promptly slaying the beast and writing his name into folklore is apparently not much cause for celebration when the 23 April rolls around.
It’s a gripe London Wasps and England star Joe Simpson was very vocal about when he spoke to Sport.co.uk ahead of his club’s clash with Bath Rugby due to be played on – you guessed it – 23 April.
“I like the whole St George’s Day atmosphere,” Simpson said. “But that is one thing I think America are slightly better than England at. In sport they have a real passion for their country. I think the Welsh and Scottish have it and I think that is one thing England could work on.
“I love that we’ve got a day for English people to celebrate and I think it’s important to be patriotic and love where you live. I’m thoroughly English now and it’s a privilege to play in the St George’s Day shirt.”
The privilege was one equally enjoyed by over 60,000 fans at Twickenham Stadium in the corresponding fixture last year. On that day a rampant Bath conquered their old rivals 35-19 and crushed the Adams Park side’s chances of qualifying for the play-offs. Wasps finished 3rd yet had an Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final against Cardiff Blues to look forward to. It’s safe to say these teams have previous.
This season, with them languishing in 8th in the league, narrowly losing out to Harlequins in last week’s quarter-final and earlier shooting themselves in the foot away to Glasgow Warriors in the Heineken Cup, Shaun Edward’s team have no such luxuries to look forward to. Bath are in a similar situation: capitulating early in Europe and nine points off the top four in 7th.
Despite the disappointment felt this season at Wasps’ Adams Park and Bath’s stadium The Rec this game at Rugby HQ offers a stand-alone opportunity for both teams to bury the memories of this season and put on a show to celebrate the patron saint of England.
With that in mind, on a chilly Monday night by the north stand at Twickenham the Wasps players got into the spirit of the occasion – donning their St George’s Day jerseys and punting rugby balls at giant dragon targets projected on the side of the stadium…why not?!
Amid all the madness Sport.co.uk snuck a quick word with two of their most celebrated players; one a wily second row with a penchant for drop goals and the other a tricky centre with a taste for singing.
First up, at 31, with 13 England caps and one for the Lions, bringing all the nous and creativity he garnered from his New Zealand playing days with the Wellington Lions and the Hurricanes, is Riki Flutey – popularly seen as a key component of Martin Johnson’s midfield…
Second up, at 37, with 66 caps for England and two for the Lions, amassing three Premiership trophies and two Heineken Cups in over 13 years with Wasps: Simon Shaw…
The Wasps players slay the Twickenham dragon
//RIKI FLUTEY//
Here promoting the St George’s Day match against Bath Rugby at Twickenham, instead of the usual PR campaign they’ve got you doing something utterly unusual: kicking and throwing rugby balls at dragon targets on a giant interactive video game projected onto the side of the Home of Rugby…what do you make of all that?
Good mate. It’s good fun. We don’t do many promotional appearances at this time of the night [going on 10pm on a Monday evening] but it’s one of the better ones. It’s very interactive with trying to hit the dragon down and it’s good fun.
Are you used to these video games? Surely the likes of Simon Shaw and Serge Betson are at a bit of a disadvantage; TVs were barely invented when they were growing up…
[Clearly not appreciating Sport.co.uk’s sarcasm] I myself am not really used to video games either but it’s good fun.
Speaking of extra-curricular activities we heard a rumour you were going to be singing with former M People lead singer Heather Small for the St George’s Day fixture. Are you going to be out there on centre stage?
Ah no. No, no, no. We were just promoting the St George’s Day game and she came to the club and gave us a few singing tips. It was good but obviously I’ll be playing and focusing on the game. I’ll leave it up to the expert, to Heather, to entertain everyone.
Hopefully she’ll crack out Search for the Hero. That’s our favourite. On your bio on the Wasps website it says you have a penchant for karaoke and are quite the exhibitionist. Any chance you could form a band with Saracens’ Matt Stevens of former Celebrity X-Factor fame?
I don’t mind having a bit of a sing-song [http://bit.ly/fnsQb2 understates Flutey http://bit.ly/hbKXAG] but if I was ever going to go down that road I’d need to have some serious lessons to sharpen up the voice. One of the other problems as well is you yell so much out on the field on the weekends and during the week in training that you’re just destroying your vocal chords. It’s something I love. It’s something I enjoy doing.
Were you in a band when you were growing up?
No never been in a band. Growing up I’ve always been around music and singing. In New Zealand it’s a big part of the Maori culture back home. Growing up we were forever having singing lessons.
Now let’s briefly turn our attention to rugby. Everyone knows you were born in New Zealand and started in Super Rugby so what did you make of the Crusaders v Sharks game at Twickenham last month?
Oh it was fantastic. It was an amazing spectacle. It’s great to have the southern hemisphere teams come up here and show a different style of rugby. The weather was fantastic for the day and the way both teams wanted to play. It was great to see so many people come out in support and support what they were trying to do with that game in terms of raising money for the people affected by the earthquake back in Christchurch. I think they raised over £1million overall and I’m sure the fans and spectators enjoyed what they saw and got great value for money.
A lot of reaction to that match has been to laud the superiority of the southern hemisphere style of rugby over that of the northern hemisphere. Do you feel there is that much of a divide?
Yeah…[hesitates]…I don’t know. A big part of it is the weather we get over here. It’s a lot different from that of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Come wintertime over here the fields are muddy and horrible and you have to play a kicking game and keep it tight in the forwards. In New Zealand it rains and the weather gets a bit horrible but the turfs always nice. But with the summer coming now and fields getting a lot drier the supporters will see a different style of play from a lot of teams. Teams will be ready to play from deep and if it’s on to play attacking rugby they’ll play it.
The Crusaders’ Sonny Bill Williams stood head and shoulders above everyone that day. In terms of his offloading, playmaker role to break the opposition defence and put a team-mate through no one can touch him. How do you rate the Kiwi?
He’s been playing amazingly. He’s been fantastic. He’s got all the skills in the world and an amazing physique and he’s powerful. He’s learned a lot over the last couple of years learning rugby union and he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with at the World Cup.
We’ll let you get back to your shooting practice. That’s quite a score from Dave Walder you’ve got to beat. Best of luck.
Cheers, see ya.
//SIMON SHAW//
Hi Simon how do you do?
Well, thanks.
Simon it wasn’t a bad start for you there – a respectable score ahead of Serge Betson and Riki Flutey. What did you make of all that?
[Laughs] Well I think I was given a couple early on. Think I was about two or three foot wide of the mark but it was good fun, good craic.
This is obviously – with the slaying of the dragons and all that – promotion for the St George’s Day match with Bath Rugby at Twickenham. How much do you look forward to these big occasions?
It’s always fantastic coming to Twickenham and playing. Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd on the day. I think last year we got over 60,000 so that would be fantastic if we could do that again. It’s always a great day out for the family and a good spectacle. Wasps-Bath games historically have been fantastic spectacles so I’m looking forward to it.
Sport.co.uk were in the crowd for the corresponding fixture last season. The result [35-19 to Bath] pretty much wrecked any chance for Wasps reaching the playoffs. So what are you going to take out of this match with a top four finish gone?
Well we’re in a slightly different situation this year. We’re struggling to get top six and that’s our focus – to get into Europe now. Our goals we set ourselves earlier in the season have gone now but there’s still plenty up for grabs. That’s our focus in the immediate future and the St George’s game is a couple weeks away so we’ll take each fixture at a time.
A late arrival to your season has been Josh Lewsey coming out of retirement to bolster the backs. Have the boys given him a bit of stick for returning to the game after his time out scaling mountains and posing as a corporate suit?
Yeah but you can give him as much stick as you like, it all blows over his head. He’s had stick throughout his career but he’s got on with it and done the job. He came on at the weekend and considering he’s been out of the game for so long played very well.
How much of a boost has his return been to yourself and the team?
Well we’ve been struck down with so many injuries, especially late on, in this campaign so it’s great to have someone of Josh’s calibre come in.
At the same time you’ve got the promising Christian Wade making his debut against London Irish…
Yeah I think Christian was perhaps a bit disappointed he didn’t play last week and he proved his point against Irish. He’s got an incredible amount of pace and he’s a talent for the future. The more experience he gets in the tail end of the season the better. He’s got a chance now because of injuries and hopefully that experience is going to be perfect for him next season.
Turning to England now and looking ahead to the World Cup, with your experience ahead of 2003 and 2007 what happens next after the final whistle against Ireland in the Six Nations to that first kick-off against Argentina in New Zealand?
As I said before the immediate future is helping Wasps out and making sure they’re competing for something at the end of the season and into the next one. That’s what I’m concentrating on now. Looking beyond that ideally I’d like to finish the season as fit as possible with no injuries going into what will be a very long preseason, a very long pre-World Cup build up. There’s the two games against Wales and one against Ireland before any squads are finalised so there’s a lot of work to be done.
Are you still looking forward to it as much as ever?
Yeah, absolutely. I’m not in the starting spot at the moment so I need to work harder than ever to secure a place in the squad even so I need to just keep plugging away.
So finally, what is the likelihood of you emulating a certain lock who won the World Cup, retired and went on to manage his country just a few years later?
[Laughs] Ah, no I can’t see that happening, certainly not captaining. I’m still fighting for a place in the squad so that would be one hell of a climb; and, as for coaching I’d never say never but it’s not really my bag.
Last thing, honest. Did you or did you not once score a dropped goal in a league match? Surely you’re one of the few second rowers to have ever done that…
I did, yeah. I think I’m the only one in the Premiership but we were losing by some considerable margin so it was probably not the appropriate thing to do at the time. I’m still proud of it all the same.
Well best of luck with the rest of the season.
Cheers.
Good to speak to you.
Bye.
