Subscribe With the exception of only two matches when he was injured Carling
By Admin
With the exception of only two matches when he was injured, Carling has led England ever since.This has amounted to 58 of his 65 Tests, the measure of his achievement being the simple statistic that under his eight-season tutelage England won 43, drew one and lost 14. I have huge admiration for him."This is less than surprising given that it was Cooke who took a punt on the 22-year-old Carling in 1988, a speculation on the youngest member of his team that accumulated handsomely for England. Cooke always said this was the single most important management decision he ever made but it is sometimes forgotten that if Nigel Melville had not been so grievously injured in the Ireland game of 1988 it might never have happened.By the time Carling was appointed he was the fifth captain England had had in that calendar year and Cooke was so determined to impose stability that from the start he stated his intention to maintain his new man in place at least until the 1991 World Cup. The one disservice Cooke ever did Carling was when he announced his own sudden resignation in 1994.Still, this is the last thing that would now concern Carling. "For me, the high point is being around with great players like Winterbottom, Dooley, Teague, Richards, Guscott, Andrew," he eulogised.
"It's been amazing to be a small part of that and to be around someone like Geoff Cooke. But uncomfortably for Rowell, he learned of his captain's decision only when the team gathered on Saturday for a pre-Test training weekend. "It's a stunning piece of news to all of us," the manager said.Carling's comments yesterday were as instructive for what they did not say as what they said, as has been the case ever since he began his uneasy, emphatically non-symbiotic relationship with Rowell two years ago. He kept the job only after the favourable intervention of the then RFU president, Michael Pearey. Instead Geoff Cooke, the manager, and Roger Uttley, the coach, took the rap. In Cooke's case this was a selfless act appropriate to the symbiotic relationship he had developed with his captain.Carling was moved to mentioned Cooke by name at least three times during yesterday's press conference at Twickenham, whereas Jack Rowell scarcely figured.
It was instructive that at the same time Carling should so obviously have declined to volunteer an expression of even minimal credit to Cooke's successor as England manager.Indeed while Carling was finally making up his mind last week he consulted a number of people who naturally included Cooke. He was ex-England captain for precisely two days before the RFU's humiliating climb down.But Carling's brushes with authority went back a lot longer and there were plenty of people who wanted rid of him well before this crisis came. As long ago as 1990 he was investigated for - and cleared of - taking money for opening a sports centre, an accusation made in an anonymous letter to Twickenham that now seems risible with rugby union's embrace of professionalism.Then, in January 1991, he led his team into a blanket silence after England had won in Wales for the first time in 28 years. Yesterday Carling was paying liberal compliments to a restricted group of people, and these did not include the successive committees of the Rugby Football Union who have viewed him as an unholy mixture of renegade and alternative power source in a game they liked to think they ran. The culmination of this uneasy relationship was the "old farts" affair of 10 months ago when Carling's televised remarks concerning the flatulent 57 caused him to be peremptorily sacked. In the end Will Carling's departure came when he - and no one else - chose, with his weekend announcement that he would resign the England captaincy after this Saturday's Triple Crown match against Ireland.
And though at 31 he fully intends to fight for a place as a humble lieutenant, that represents the final, perfectly ironic triumph of a remarkable career. Substitute not used: Shannon.Referee: A Waddell (Edinburgh).Bookings: Celtic: Hughes Dundee United: Coyle, McSwegan.Man of the match: Maxwell Attendance: 32,750.. Burns has rightly been praised for turning around the club in producing a style comparable with the Celtic teams of old, but the missing ingredient is a wide player.It appeared Celtic were running out of ideas until Jackie McNamara fired in a free-kick from the right which was perfectly weighted for Van Hooijdonk to send a powerful header past Maxwell. Seconds later, amid bedlam in the stadium, Thom made strides into United's penalty area and curled a delightful shot into the net.Goals: Coyle (29) 0-1; Van Hooijdonk (88) 1-1; Thom (89) 2-1.Celtic (4-4-2): Marshall; McNamara, Hughes, O'Neil (O'Donnell, 72), McKinlay; Donnelly, Grant, McStay, McLaughlin; Van Hooijdonk, Thom. Substitutes not used: Mackay, Bonner (gk).Dundee United (4-4-2) : Maxwell; Perry, Pressley, Welsh, Malpas; Winters, Bowman, Johnson, Coyle; McSwegan (McLaren, 72), Brewster (McKinnon, 86). The pace of Robbie Winters carried him into space beyond the Celtic defence and his pass to Craig Brewster found his fellow striker in space. Brewster, who scored the winning goal for United in the final two years ago, rounded Marshall and was brought crashing to the ground.Owen Coyle saw the resultant penalty saved by the goalkeeper, but Gary McSwegan was first to the rebound, knocking the ball back to Coyle who scored with a powerful shot.The second half gave Burns an indication of how far his side has still to go as he attempts to compete at the highest level.
Displaying the brand of sparkling football that has captured the imagination this season, they created several clear- cut chances, only to be thwarted by good saves from Ally Maxwell, the former Rangers goalkeeper.In the 29th minute, they fell victim to the classic sucker punch as United took the lead on a rare incursion into the Celtic half of the field. Two or three times this season that has happened because they are quality players." Burns is also hopeful that he will have a better indication today as to his chances of obtaining the services of Jorge Cadete, the Portuguese striker.Despite the late finish, Celtic should have had this tie beyond the reach of United long before half-time. Two goals in the final 90 seconds brought relief as much as ecstasy to Celtic supporters, who had watched their side struggle to break through a dogged United defence. Tommy Burns, the Celtic manager, said: "That was the perfect example of what foreign players can do for your game. There were echoes of the 1988 cup final between these clubs when late goals from Frank McAvennie secured victory for Celtic. On this occasion, Celtic's foreign strike-force of Pierre Van Hooijdonk and Andreas Thom supplied the coup de grace.