It's the hard-luck life for England

Chance and chances. You have to make them and take them lest you slip into the slough of despair Twickers is in.

When does hard luck become a way of being? When you are the England rugby team? When you are Manchester United? When you are Chelsea, Kaizer Chiefs, the Wallabies, the Proteas times two, England’s football promisers or Harry Kane? When does luck run out, how much of it do you need, how much of it do you deserve?

Can you actually make your own luck, whether good or bad? Or is it written in the stars, decreed by the universe or imagined in the moment? Luck is a four-letter word that goes well with that other four-letter word. F**k my luck. F**king jammy git.

England thought they were unlucky against the All Blacks at Twickenham on Saturday, now named the Allianz Stadium after the insurance giant coughed up £100-million for the naming rights for the next decade. Twickers now joins a family of Allianz-sponsored arenas that NSS Sports describes as being a group of “not trivial stadiums”. “In Italy it is present in Turin with Juventus, but the Allianz Stadium family includes the Allianz Arena in Munich (Germany), the Allianz Stadium in Sydney (Australia), the Allianz Park in London (UK), the Allianz Riviera in Nice (France), the Allianz Parque in São Paulo (Brazil), the Allianz Stadion in Vienna (Austria), and the Allianz Field in Saint Paul (USA), in order of construction and naming rights time to which West Ham's stadium, the London Stadium, will soon be added, as the agreement with the Hammers is due to be formalised shortly. It would be the second Allianz-sponsored facility in London after Allianz Park, home of local rugby team Saracens.”

Now the third. Allianz was a place of dalliance for England on their first outing under the German-named roof. Hell, Englanders must be all over the bar shouting at that. First Thomas Tuchel, now Twickers, what next? Luthansa Lords? Gardena Wimbledon? Were those two world wars and one world cup for nothing?

Were Steve Borthwick’s flawed England unlucky? Are they a team in development, as we keep hearing New Zealand are? It seems that every team is in development these days, from the Wallabies to United and beyond. It’s a convenient truth to wield for coaches, a promise of a land of milk and honey in a future yet to be determined. Borthwick is running out of his development good will, wrote Robert Kitson in the Guardian.

“At some stage, though, England will have to stop hiding behind lessons and learning curves and face a few home truths. Starting with their late, late defeat against South Africa in the World Cup semi-final last year they have now endured a succession of hard-luck stories in which they have either relinquished a second-half lead or missed clear chances to win. Once is unfortunate. Four times in their past five Tests – against France  and now thrice against the All Blacks – hints at other underlying problems.

“Harsh, perhaps, when a potential match-winning kick has bounced back off the woodwork, but dealing in if-onlys is not how it works in elite professional sport. England are finding a raft of ways to finish second every week. Ultimately the scoreboard rarely lies: when the moment of truth arrives, England are not passing the test.

“It is even more sobering to consider that, when you aggregate the final half hours of their past three Tests, England have managed just three points in those 90 minutes. Give or take a questionable refereeing call here and there, that is never going to be enough to swing big games. It also prompts other wider questions: are England in danger, for instance, of developing some kind of mental block?”

Damian McKenzie’s conversion from the touchline was not lucky, neither were the two tries by Mark Tele’a and the wonder pass by Wallace Sititi to set one of those up. They were the result of ambition, execution and trust in skills.

In the ‘The Numbers Game’,  a book by Chris Anderson and David Sally, they believe football can be broken down into to 50 percent skill and 50 percent luck. “Anderson, an Economics and Politics Professor at Warwick University in the UK, said ‘football is driven more by luck and chance than other team sport. There’s the 50 percent that can be controlled, like tactics, team selection and preparation. The other half is all chance.’ ”

Chance and chances. You have to make them, and you have to take them. Luck is, like love, all around us. It comes when we seek it, not when we use it as an excuse or a cop-out. Adrian Chiles, the British broadcaster and writer, interviewed Davy Russell, the Grand National winning jockey. At the 2018 Grand National, Russell almost came a cropper and described it to Chiles for his Guardian column.

“Saint Are makes a bad mistake just in front of us. I didn’t expect that. We weren’t directly behind him, we were just to the right of him a little, which was lucky. We could have been into the back of him, our race could have been over. These are the little bits of luck that you need in the Grand National,” said Russell.

“OK, so you need a bit of luck. Which isn’t news,” wrote Chiles. “But then Davy qualifies this slightly: ‘You don’t actually need to be lucky, you just need not to be unlucky.’

“Being lucky and not being unlucky. You may already consider these two things one and the same, and good on you. But I’m not sure I did, until I saw it written down here. I’m aware this may read like an audition for Thought for the Day on Radio 4, but it’s dawned on me how much of my life I’ve spent looking for that lucky break. And, to be fair to myself, when one has come along I have always felt the urge to give thanks for it. But I haven’t spent anything like long enough feeling gratitude for – without wishing to tempt fate – a marked absence of bad luck in my life. Lesson learned. I’ll keep it in mind between now and the finishing post.”