‘Rugby isn’t about self-glorification’
FOR the first time in his life, Toby Flood has things exactly how he wants them. Gone are the days of switching between his law studies and rugby. So too, the interminable months of trudging around the lower reaches of the Premiership with the Newcastle Falcons.
Free of injury, he has finally taken the most important step of all; moving out of Jonny Wilkinson’s shadow. Now, the 25-year-old is the man in charge, tasked by Richard Cockerill and Martin Johnson with guiding both Leicester Tigers and England to new heights.
Flood’s rivalry with Jonathan Sexton, however, is one that threatens to run for the next decade, and they go head to head at the Aviva Stadium this weekend, just as they did three weeks ago.
On that day there was only one winner, as Ireland crushed England’s Grand Slam dream. To see Flood walk off a field looking crestfallen is something few observers have become used to in recent years.
In fact, it is hard to square the memory of the callow 19-year-old who first burst onto the scene, a baby-faced kid who had, as a child, thought about following his grandfathers, Gerald Flood and Albert Lievan, who appeared in the TV series ‘Ratcatchers’ and the film ‘The Guns of Navarone’ respectively, into acting.
Initially, the question went unanswered as Wilkinson was in situ at Newcastle. Indeed, the careers of the two have been linked almost from the moment Wilkinson coached Flood when the latter was at Kings School in Tynemouth.
The 2003 World Cup winner saw something special in Flood, and it is to Wilkinson’s credit that he tried to cultivate that raw talent, knowing that at some stage it would come back to haunt him.
“I was lucky to come across Wilko at such a young age and he inspired me to have a work ethic I might not have had,” says Flood. “Even now we just encourage each other and push each other on, which can only be good for us and for England.”
Wilkinson agrees: “Toby’s been on a really impressive upward curve ever since our early days together at Newcastle because he learns from his experiences, daily and weekly,” he said. “The most impressive thing is that the rate of his improvement has never tailed off in his career — if anything it’s increased. But that hasn’t surprised me after our days at Newcastle. He knows that I’m there if he needs anything in training and at half-time as well. But as soon as he runs on the field he’s very comfortable in himself.”
And that is one of the major differences in the player that Leinster will confront at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow. Flood is now comfortable playing flat on the gainline, waiting for the right pass or the right step.
But when he was thrust onto the international scene within 21 months of making his debut, Flood was a fly-half pretending to be an inside centre. He threw an interception pass that presented Argentina with a try, their first victory at Twickenham and, ultimately, cost Andy Robinson his job.
That he did not crumble is a credit to Flood, who has maintained interests away from rugby with a degree in business management and a Graduate Diploma in Law.
He left the Falcons to join Leicester in 2008, having only been included in England’s World Cup squad the previous year as a replacement for the injured Jamie Noon.
Since then, Flood has become a much more vocal and dominant character, and has grown into the role of fly-half. Yet while prone to bouts of self-analysis, he is loath to discuss it with the press. Indeed, his self-worth is measured in the rather more traditional manner of rugby players.
“For me, rugby isn’t about self-glorification,” he explained this week. “You don’t have to show anybody other than your team-mates what you are capable of. You have to remember that it’s not for yourself, it’s for the team you are playing in.”
Yet Flood was unable to demonstrate anything after he suffered an Achilles injury during the 2009 Heineken Cup semi-final victory over Cardiff Blues. It kept him out for six months, and ensured Wilkinson was firmly entrenched as England’s fly-half when he returned.
Yet during last season’s drab Six Nations campaign, the need for Flood and his Leicester half-back colleague Ben Youngs became clear and England have not looked back, beating Australia twice before winning their first Six Nations title since 2003 last month.
“We know each other’s games very well,” says Flood of Youngs. “We have played together for quite a while now, so I know when he drifts across and tries to draw a man in what will happen next. There is an understanding there of what the other is trying to do.”
Yet both suffered at the hands of Sexton and Ireland. Youngs was sin-binned and then replaced, while Flood was anonymous.
“It’s going to be hugely different going back there this weekend as it is a club game,” says Flood, “And the emotion will be very different compared to what was riding on Ireland-England. I think it’s certainly going to be good to go back there.
“And everyone knew that Ireland would tear straight into us from the first whistle. We knew that would happen, and we knew the ferocity with which the Irish would play. And sometimes it’s difficult to control a game when you are losing the ball or turning it over. We have to try and calm it down this weekend.”
And Sexton and Leinster? They were victorious in the 2009 final against the same opponents, which Flood missed due to injury, and seem very evenly matched.
“I have a huge amount of respect for Jonathan Sexton,” he adds. “He links so well with those guys around him. And Leinster have a huge amount of talent in the backline, with the likes of Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy. Jonathan is a very good all-round player, and if Leinster run the game then he will be a huge part of that.
“And in terms of the ferocity that us England boys saw in the match against Ireland, Leinster will be very similar. I watched their defeat to Munster on the weekend, and I saw the intensity that was there and realised the level of performance that we will have to have.
“And Leinster will want to win the collisions, and we have to be ready for that. It will be a pretty hectic first 20 or 30 minutes.”
But if Leicester are victorious then Flood will be at the heart of it.
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