How beasting from O'Connell put George Robson on the road to academic life
Lost in France
Robson’s madcap year in France playing Top 14 rugby for a small-town, chronically under-resourced, club could probably make a book in its own right.It was a massive eye-opener – the club was in meltdown and were eventually relegated – and although he doesn’t regret a single second and made friends for life at the club and in the community, it also caused him to look at rugby afresh.“Oyonnax was extraordinary. They were this incredibly gritty small club who were famously difficult to beat on their gluepot of a ground at the foot of the Alps which was always mudd or covered in snow or frost. They had regularly rolled over the big boys who just didn’t fancy it.“So what did they do? They threw away their biggest advantage and broke the bank by installing a state of the art 4G pitch. And then they sacked half the loyal squad that had battled so hard against the odds to get them up into the Top 14 and keep them there. There was immediately a massive division – 50 per cent of the squad were old hands shaking their heads at the changes and 50 per cent were new arrivals like me.“There were major man management problems as well. For some reason we were never told the team for Saturday afternoon until Friday night or sometimes even Saturday morning if it was a home match, so that drastically reduced the effectiveness of our training in midweek. And then coaches started to get sacked every three months or so. You would turn up on match day and they would be in a huddle fuming over the latest dismissal and not concentrating on the game.“It was all a bit disconcerting and the rugby itself was absolutely brutal. It’s my considered opinion that very few English clubs could parachute into the Top 14 with much confidence of them flourishing.“Of course the top English and British teams can compete with Top 14 sides in one-off European matches, not least because those games will not involve French officials, most of whom still let anything go. The notion of a gap in the lineout for example is totally alien and simply not refereed. You can go hoarse complaining but it makes no difference.“The Top 14 just batters you. Every side, every week for 26 matches, has a massive pack and then most of them empty the bench in the second half with even bigger 135+kg units who are only physically capable of playing for 20 or 30 minutes. It’s unremitting, it’s not just two or three games in a Heineken Cup season spread over five or six months.“And back to the refs again. The home crowds are so hostile and partisan that the fans still play a huge role in decision making. I thought I’d been around the rugby block but it was a real eye opener“It’s a funny thing though. Before I left for France I had done my first year at Northumbria – I enjoyed it and worked diligently in my spare time without being totally wowed by the whole academic thing – and decided to defer the second year so I could give my full attention to moving abroad, living in the community at Oyonnax and learning French.
“But the season I spent there was such an exercise in observing mis- management and flawed leadership at the club that it totally ignited my practical interest in the degree. When I came back a year early I took to my studies with a vengeance, I had so much stuff I wanted to dig into.”
Getting into Oxford
On returning to England Robson hitched up with London Irish where Brendan Venter was plotting their return to the Premiership and the club were rather attempting to rediscover themselves with that elusive brand of total commitment and professionalism on the pitch and good times off it that is their trademark.Robson also, as he says, picked up his studies and started utilising his first hand experience by embarking on a dissertation examining ‘the management of power by directors of rugby in professional rugby’.Having worked under Mark Evans, Dean Richards, Conor O’Shea and Brendan Venter he wasn’t exactly short on outstanding raw material and practical examples of good and, perhaps occasionally, not so good practice. For the curious, a copy of his pearls of wisdom can be viewed at the archives of Northumbria University library.The dissertation played a big part in Robson being awarded a first-class honours degree and, much emboldened, Robson, at the end of the season, decided to conduct his own negotiatons for a contract renewal.To cut a long story short the negotiations proved much more troublesome than he had envisaged and quickly developed into a watershed moment. There was already a promising job offer on the table from MusclePharm – did he, in fact, even want to continue as a professional rugby player?He didn’t. It was time to get a proper job and while he kept his hand in as the lineout guru at Richmond on training nights and qualified as a grade three coach with the RFU – “I’m a rugby tragic I will always be involved in rugby somehow” – the dye was cast. He had played his last game in anger.Except that he hadn’t, with the opportunity to at least apply for the MBA course changing everything. Robson takes up the story again.“I looked at the course which almost felt tailor made for me, it ticked every conceivable box – but then there was the small matter of getting a place, it’s incredibly competitive and places are much coveted.“I did the application forms and had to submit various essays, which I enjoyed doing, and finally got invited for the interview. Travelling up I decided on balance that it might not be a good idea if any of the panel were rugby fans – they might remember some of my less than honourable moments on the pitch. A quick google search will have revealed a couple of bans.“As it happens the ‘panel’ was one person, a very scary Claude Littner type, or at least he was adopting that persona for the interview. What followed was one of the biggest shoeings of my career, but he must have sensed a spark of potential and ability because a few weeks later, amazingly, came the letter confirming my place.“It makes for a full life but I’m loving it. Intensive studies at Oxford where I am based, rugby matches or training with the lads, some assignments in Europe with business.“Most important of all are my wife Bantikia and youngster Axel. They have stayed at our house in Fulham while I spend the week in Oxford. Their support is everything and I couldn’t be living this dream without their indulgence.”
