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Telegraph
4 days ago
- Sport
- Telegraph
My greatest Lions team from the players I coached
I found picking my all-time best Lions 23 – from the players I have coached on tour – an extremely difficult task, even after writing down the most influential performers. The exercise made me reflect on how privileged I have been and what makes a winning combination, because, as we keep saying, the British and Irish Lions do not win as often as they lose. My memories of 1974, 1989, 1997 and 2009 are particularly fond, even though the Springboks beat us 2-1 in the last of those series. There was just so much right with the tour as far as the play was concerned. Back in 1974 and 1977, the tours lasted nearly four months and there was one coach and 30 players. The challenge was different to what it is now because you were away from home for so long, which meant how the environment felt was more important. You cannot do without the selflessness of non-Test players. Mike Burton, Chris Ralston, Tony Neary, Roy Bergiers, Jeff Evans, Jason Leonard, Graham Rowntree and Alan Bateman were the best I encountered in that regard. The 1974 group were incredible in training as well as in matches. They never took a backward step. Poring back over my notes has not made it much easier, so I am going to pick a team of Lions I played with and a team of Lions I coached. The first one is more straightforward, because so many of these individuals are just outstanding. The vast majority are from 1974. JPR at full-back was immensely brave with a superb sense of timing when he hit the line. Dick Milliken was a fantastic centre to play with. I have opted for real pace on the wings and the half-backs speak for themselves. As for the pack, a front row of Ian McLauchlan, Bobby Windsor and Fran Cotton was never second best to anyone, and Bill Beaumont just edges Gordon Brown. When I coached, I wanted the players to feel the way I did as a player. I came back from the tour a different person, which is what the environment can do to you. Putting together this line-up was almost impossible, I must admit. I changed my mind on one position overnight. Maro Itoje, Tadhg Beirne, Dan Sheehan, Tom Curry and Finn Russell have all been excellent and would have all come close. I do think that it is tougher for players to really define themselves on these shorter tours in the modern game. Having said that, I believe Jac Morgan was in that category. The longer tours I had as a coach gave me a chance to see chemistry building at first hand and to watch players emerge as they played alongside new and unfamiliar team-mates. The four home unions must look at it as giving the Lions the very best chance of success. There is no other team in the sport with the same following that captures the imagination in this way. Perhaps the Ryder Cup comes closest. I know there are plates to spin, but we should end the season earlier in a Lions year in the same way that happens for a World Cup. The next tour is to New Zealand in 2029, and the players are going to need to be given the best opportunity to prepare extremely well. They must be made the priority, properly. You could see from 10,000 miles away that Andy Farrell had created a healthy environment. The challenge for him was the lack of the time he had in the build-up and factors like Blair Kinghorn coming in late. I might be a little biased, of course, but I think everyone with a vested interest needs to come together and think about what an ideal Lions season should look like and buy into it, because the concept is unique and absolutely worth sustaining so it can thrive. Besides anything else, it is a huge driver of revenue for the four nations and the hosts. My team of the greatest Lions I coached 15. Neil Jenkins Gavin Hastings played all three Tests in 1989 and captained four years later. That is a record to be proud of, and one that reflects his ability. But if Jenks had not played in 1997, I cannot say for certain that we would have won the Test series. He rewarded the team by kicking his goals, delivering under the most severe pressure. 14. Ieuan Evans Ieuan was very alert and quick while still being a good footballer. With speed on the outside, you can make a big difference. Tommy Bowe emerged brilliantly in 2009. 13. Jerry Guscott I have a soft spot for Lions centre partnerships, obviously, but I have seen two of them become, in my opinion, the best in the world despite never playing before the tour in question. Those were Scott Gibbs and Jerry Guscott in 1997 and Jamie Roberts and Brian O'Driscoll in 2009. That's what Lions chemistry can do, and I must have Jerry because of his series-winning moments. 12. Scott Gibbs This man was just exceptional in his own way and I feel I am being unfair to Roberts and O'Driscoll. Alan Bateman deserves credit for his performances in 1997 as well. 11. Rory Underwood Alan Tait was a hero of 1997 but Rory gives us real speed out wide. 10. Gregor Townsend Gregor was at his best when he was working off other really good players; his game went up a level in 1997 and he kicked on over the following seasons. I'll always remember the build-up to Guscott's drop-goal in 1997, when he carried hard to the line – not because that was a strength of his, but because it was absolutely the right decision in the moment. Those moments, under severe pressure, reinforce what the Lions means to me. Neil Back and Guscott hit a ruck – one of about three Jerry hit in his life – and we turned the ball over. Keith Wood kicked down-field, our pack drove South Africa and Gregor carried before Jerry hit his dropped goal. That is what the Lions brings out of players. You read what is required and do things that you are not necessarily renowned for. 9. Matt Dawson This was difficult. Robert Jones, Rob Howley and Mike Phillips were all great players. All of them had an unbelievable impact on the Lions teams they were part of, but I am sticking with Matt Dawson. 1. Tom Smith Like David Sole, who is on my bench, Tom was ahead of his time. To start in six consecutive Test matches between 1997 and 2001 takes some doing. Technically, even against dominant packs, his scrummaging was fantastic, as were his game involvements. 2. Brian Moore It is a coin-toss between Brian and Keith Wood. I am having them both, with Brian starting and Keith coming off the bench. They both shaped the respective characters of the tours they went on. 3. Jason Leonard Technically, Jason was good. As a personality, he was immensely influential. Paul Wallace did remarkably well to keep our scrum competitive in South Africa. 4. Martin Johnson (captain) There was no doubt about this one, though Paul Ackford and Paul O'Connell would have been next in line. Johnno was the ultimate Test-match animal. 5. Simon Shaw I cannot forget how good Shaw was in 2009 against probably the two best second-rows in world rugby at the time – Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield. Back in 1997 he was outside the Test squad and he trained brilliantly to prepare his team-mates. He was on his third tour in 2009, and was brilliant when the opportunity finally arrived. 6. Lawrence Dallaglio Mike Teague was sensational in 1989, the man of the series, and Ben Clarke impressed against the All Blacks in 1993. I have chosen Lawrence because he is the ultimate driver of emotion within a team and the perfect vice-captain. 7. Richard Hill Amid all the competition in the back row, this man is the first name on my teamsheet; a definite inclusion. In all the key moments of any given game, he seemed to be in the right place half a second earlier than anyone else to impact things. Australia knew that in 2001, which is why they targeted him. 8. Dean Richards The powerful figurehead of any side, whether for carrying or mauling, Dean impacted games in a similar way to Will Skelton did in this year's series. He was clever as well, with a good pair of hands and smart linking with his back line. Tim Rodber was tremendous in 1997, which made it so hard to leave him out. Replacements Keith Wood, David Sole, Paul Wallace, Paul O'Connell, Mike Teague, Mike Phillips, Brian O'Driscoll, Gavin Hastings
Irish Examiner
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Fans live their best lives as Lions lose out on historic Dublin opener
Go ahead, scoff. Plenty will. 'The British and Irish Lions'. The very phrase tends to get up the nose of a sizeable portion of the population. Some of them are even embedded in rugby's everyday community. But this felt like an … event. It just hit differently. Call them an anachronism, or a corporate machine, but you can't fake a sense of occasion. There was something quirky and inherently giddy about the sight of Baggot Street and Beggar's Bush awash with that famous sea of red. And with the subsequent colonisation of the three-tiered verdant spread of seats inside the stadium itself. Here, in Dublin, was the canvas we had seen projected on our screens so many times down the years when so many thousands of travelling fans from these islands have laid claim to vast chunks of Loftus Versfeld, Eden Park or Suncorp Stadium. Friday night's game against Argentina marked the first time the famous touring team had ever played a game on Irish soil. It's a rare enough treat across the Irish Sea, too. This was just the third sighting hereabouts since before the haunted trip to New Zealand in 2005. Word, and modern ticketing systems, had it that over half of those in the full house of 51,700 had bought their way in from outside of Ireland. Proof of it was in the smattering of kilts and leeks and in the smorgasbord of accents that abounded in D4. One guy was dressed wig to toe in a kit from the tourists' 1970s heyday, his movements as he skipped up the steps with his tray of beer not exactly prompting the iconic images of a JPR or a JJ in full flight, but we'll forgive him that. Pints. Sunshine. The Lions. People here were living their best lives. Jeer if you must, but there is something to be said for groups from the Welsh Valleys, Middle England, the Scottish Borders and Ireland north and south having the craic together like this. It shouldn't work? You're right, but it does. What of it? One discordant note caught the ear when a group of lads, decked in uniform Lions jerseys, approached a hat and scarf stall on the corner of Raglan Road and Elgin Road. 'Irish hats please,' one of them said, 'everyone thinks we're English.' The warm-up, so often a scene of minor interest, was in itself a means of familiarisation with a cool tableaux: Bundee Aki and Sione Tuipulotu running practice lines on one side, Maro Itoje and Tadhg Beirne engaging in a second row clinch for a simulated scrum. Fantasy rugby, but for real. It was Beirne, Munster's finest, who plucked the kick-off from the warm city air just after eight o'clock and it was met by a guttural roar, a release, that put you in the mind of the opening race at Cheltenham or midnight on New Year's Eve. What followed was a deathly hush. An emotional peak and pitch had been achieved and there was nowhere else to go in that moment but back to zero. Or maybe it was a combination of the sweltering weather and the hours so many had spent in the city's bars. There was plenty of stop-start, some caused by spills, others by TMO checks or HIA calls. But that was to be expected given the ad hoc DNA that is in the Lions and a Pumas team that was playing as a collective for the first time in seven months. Sprinkled around all that was some real quality. Both teams showed some exhilarating skills with ball in hand. Bundee Aki's opening try for the Lions followed a dizzying game of hot potato in contact with Luke Cowan-Dickie, Marcus Smith, Sione Tuipulotu and Fin Smith all fingertipping the pill on. Argentina saw that and raised it with two sumptuous tries, both of them on the break. Tomas Albornoz and Santiago Cordero claimed the points in question but to focus on the finishes would be like gushing over the frame that holds the Mona Lisa. The Wallabies have shown signs of rebirth under Joe Schmidt in the last year but concerns remain over the quality of challenges available to the Lions before the Test series. So maybe being 21-10 down here at the break, and then 28-24, was no bad thing. Losing 24-28? Not so great, but hardly disastrous either. There was one genuinely lovely moment approaching the 74th minute when Owen Farrell, son of Lions head coach Andy and a man was felt hounded out of international rugby by persistent abuse, popped up on the big screen and got one of the night's biggest cheers. One of England's finest, loaded with love by a Dublin crowd. Quite the night.
Associated Press
17-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
JPatterson Realty Marks Five Years of Luxury Real Estate Excellence and Impact
06/16/2025, Chapel Hill, North Carolina // PRODIGY: Feature Story // JPatterson Realty (JPR), the boutique real estate firm founded and led by Jennifer Patterson, is proudly celebrating its five-year anniversary. A Keller Williams Luxury partner and RealTrends-verified team, JPR has built its reputation on a distinctive concierge-style approach, a client-first mindset, and a growing commitment to community impact. What sets JPR apart is not just its elite client base or track record of success in the high-net-worth segment of North Carolina's Western Triangle region, it's the heart behind the business. Patterson, a former CPA with nearly 20 years of experience in real estate, launched JPR as a reflection of her professional awareness and personal calling. 'This five-year milestone is both a celebration and a commitment,' Patterson said. 'It's a recognition of the relationships we have built with clients and communities, and a recommitment to lead with purpose, not just profits.' Headquartered in the dynamic and highly educated Chapel Hill–Durham corridor, JPR serves a niche clientele. The average client, Patterson explains, typically holds a net worth of $4–5 million. 'These are not celebrities or billionaires,' she says. 'They are people who have worked hard, saved well, and want a partner they can trust when buying or selling their home. We offer more than transactions, we offer clarity, discretion, and guidance.' JPR's small but dedicated team hopes to expand its presence across the full Triangle region, seeking new team members who share their high-touch approach and community-driven ethos. But as Patterson looks forward, real estate is just one piece of her evolving vision. 'The next chapter for me involves deepening my work through the Della Lee Difference,' she explains, referring to her philanthropic initiative named after her grandmother, Della Lee, a pioneering educator during the Depression era. The Della Lee Difference operates on three pillars: Della Lee Homes, Della Lee Schools, and Della Lee Communities. Through Della Lee Homes, JPR donates a portion of its commissions to build homes in underserved regions around the world. 'It's not just about giving,' Patterson said. 'It's about inviting others to be part of something meaningful. We want our clients to see the good they have helped create. To date, through Della Lee Homes, we have already helped build at least 30 houses across the Caribbean and Central America.' Under Della Lee Schools, JPR supports a work-study program for students from low-income backgrounds with a local school. The final pillar, Della Lee Communities, includes local engagement with food banks and other nonprofits in the Durham-Chapel Hill area. When asked why she integrates giving so deeply into her business, Patterson is clear: 'It's who I am. I truly believe we are called to help each other, and that our success is meant to be shared.' With a strong legacy, a trusted brand, and a purpose-driven roadmap ahead, JPR's future looks bright. 'This anniversary is not just about what we have done,' Patterson reflected. 'It's about what we are ready to do next.' Media Contact Name: Jennifer Patterson Email: [email protected] Source published by Submit Press Release >> JPatterson Realty Marks Five Years of Luxury Real Estate Excellence and Impact
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A dereliction of duty in the Senate
Renter advocates gather in Annapolis to call on lawmakers to pass Good Cause Eviction legislation in February, but the bill never got out of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. (File photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters). In what many are calling an astonishing dereliction of duty, the Maryland Senate's Judicial Proceeding Committee (JPR) failed to move 'Good-Cause' eviction legislation forward. Despite unprecedented statewide support, including a 96-37 vote in the House last year, JPR allowed amendments pushed by the landlord/developer (LL/D) industry tying the legislation to rent stabilization laws, and weakening good-cause standards, letting landlords arbitrarily and unjustly evict renters from their homes. The committee's first amendment would have required rent stabilization programs across Maryland to drop vacancy control from apartment homes. Vacancy control maintains rent levels for apartments when a tenant moves out. Vacancy decontrol lets rent float up to market rates, often to levels new tenants cannot afford. Affordable housing advocates adamantly oppose decontrol, pointing to the further loss of reasonably priced housing stocks. The second series of amendments would have knocked the teeth out of the good causes that would be required to justify nonrenewal of leases and the eventual eviction of a tenant who stays longer than the lease term, known as Tenant Holding Over (THO). Including minor violations of a lease or community rules, for example, as a justification to evict turns on its head the very principle of establishing a stated, substantial violation to justify forcing someone from their home. Maryland Matters welcomes guest commentary submissions at editor@ We suggest a 750-word limit and reserve the right to edit or reject submissions. We do not accept columns that are endorsements of candidates, and no longer accept submissions from elected officials or political candidates. Opinion pieces must be signed by at least one individual using their real name. We do not accept columns signed by an organization. Commentary writers must include a short bio and a photo for their bylines. Views of writers are their own. Consensus has been building for decades that stable, quality homes are central determinants of community health, welfare and prosperity. The idea that a rental apartment is a mere 'unit' no different than any commodity, like craft beer or concert tickets, has faded as the relationship of stable, quality housing to social welfare and prosperity has changed. Nearly 40% of Maryland residents now live in rental housing not as a station on the way to owning, but as permanent housing. It is no longer acceptable to destabilize whole communities with unpredictable and excessive rent increases that rely entirely on market potential, or to evict without good reason, without considering the social and economic costs to tenants and our communities. At least that's what we thought … But alongside modern thinking on housing policy that promotes affordability, and legislation to ensure stability, a counter narrative promoted by the rental housing industry and its well-financed network of lobbyists and bloggers has spawned, citing cherry-picked and distorted data. The narrative goes like this: Things like good-cause protections, rent stabilization or stronger code and rights enforcement might sound nice to uneducated renters and their advocates, but they don't really need them. What they really need is investment in building more housing so that market competition will eliminate the lack of affordability and disincentivize bad landlord behavior. They define the housing crisis solely as a 'shortage,' citing market demand for housing while ignoring the instability of existing residents' housing, and conveniently omitting discussion around when or how that demand might be met in specific markets. They say all we need to do is 'build our way out of the crisis.' Industry-friendly bloggers cite the building boom of the Sun Belt and how housing prices there have come down, not mentioning high vacancy rates and low demand in some of those cities. They cite the St. Paul, Minnesota, sample where new multifamily building slowed after rent stabilization passed — but fail to mention how, when the city went back and exempted new development long enough for investors to recoup their investment and make a profit, investment in multifamily housing continued at its hurried pace. Closer to home, the LL/D bloggers cite the lack of building in Takoma Park, citing rent stabilization as the cause. They don't mention the lack of land availability in Takoma Park, now understood to be a built-out community. Housing codes and renter protections were introduced decades ago to put an end to the squalor, instability and abuse past generations of tenants endured. Teachers, police, nurses, retail workers, immigrants, young families and now, an increasing number of senior citizens are no longer able to purchase a home in a housing market that places home ownership well out of their reach. Marylanders must ask why Senate Judicial Proceedings Chair Will Smith (D-Montgomery) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) would give deference to these fallacious industry narratives that set up a false choice between renter protections and building more housing, rather than using every tool at their disposal to get this done for constituents demanding action — and facts. More than 5,000 Marylanders were evicted last year for THO, likely a tip-of-the-iceberg figure as it does not count those who move before going to court. Until our elected officials press them on just what that means, we will continue to see whole renter communities destabilized, while anger grows at those elected to represent them who failed to act.
The Guardian
27-01-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Rise in antisemitic abuse means UK Jews more likely to consider move to Israel, experts say
A rise in antisemitic incidents in the UK since the 7 October Hamas attacks and the Gaza war has shifted attitudes among British Jews towards emigrating to Israel, experts say. Demographers at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) thinktank said British Jews considering settling in Israel – known as making aliyah – were now more likely to 'take the next step'. Antisemitic incidents reached the highest level ever recorded, monitoring and community safety organisation the Community Security Trust (CST) said. In the 12 months after the 7 October attacks there were 5,583 incidents in the UK – including abusive behaviour, threats, assaults, damage and desecration – a 204% year-on-year increase. The CST said it was hopeful the Israel-Hamas ceasefire would improve matters, but added 'it is too early for us to assume that antisemitism, or the broader threats facing our community, will diminish'. JPR's executive director, Jonathan Boyd, said antisemitism was influencing decisions about migration, but said claims of a UK 'Jewish exodus' were 'alarmist'. In 2022, when asked 'how likely is it that you will emigrate to Israel in the next five years?', 73% of respondents to JPR's Jewish current affairs survey said they were 'very unlikely' to emigrate, but that percentage fell to 65% in 2024. Those who felt themselves 'very likely' increased from 5% to 6%. 'It looks as if wherever people were on that question, they have moved up one notch from where they were,' Boyd told the Guardian. 'There's a sense people feel more uneasy about their place in British society. 'All of these things that have been going on since 7 October contribute to people saying, is this where I want to spend my life? I think often it's sensationalised, but there is something going on, there is a shift.' The comments come as 50 survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp join world leaders at the site of the former concentration camp in southern Poland to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation. A new report by equality thinktank Runnymede Foundation said current approaches to tackling antisemitism were not working, warning of a 'growing feeling of insecurity among many Jewish people'. Meanwhile, Marc Levy, the CEO of Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, said many in the region's tight-knit community, which experienced the highest number of incidents outside the capital, were so 'rattled' they 'don't see a future in the UK'. Nonetheless, Boyd said the numbers of people moving to Israel from the UK remained 'stable', but could increase in the event of a serious economic downturn or social unrest. Figures from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics show 520 people migrated from the UK to Israel between January and November 2024, a year-on-year increase of 46%. But this came after what the JPR describes as an 'unusually low' number of UK emigrants to Israel in 2023, amid political and security crises. The JPR projects, based on monthly averages, that the final number for 2024, with December's official figures not yet available, will be 'about 570', above the historical yearly average by about 15%, but below 2009's high of 708, and 'counter-balanced' by people migrating in the other direction. 'Clearly Britain is physically a safer place for Jews than Israel, but if you feel the vibrancy of Jewish communal life is in some way compromised here, in Israel you have the only place that puts Jewishness front and centre,' Boyd said. 'If that matters to you, you are willing to take those risks about security.' Official figures show the largest number of migrants to Israel from January to November 2024 came from 'former USSR countries' combined at 20,509, followed by the US at 2,597, France at 1,864, then the UK. Calling antisemitism a 'stain on British society', Prof David Feldman, co-author of the Runnymede Trust's antisemitism report, called for 'alliances between Jewish people and other racialised minorities,' adding: 'Antiracism must inform what we do, not only when confronting antisemitism in the UK, but also when we address the status and treatment of Palestinians.' Levy said Jewish community life 'behind gates and security guards' had become 'normalised' in the UK, adding: 'As a Jewish person [post-October 7] a lot of the time you were looking around for solidarity and there wasn't any. I'm hoping with the ceasefire things will calm down and we can start rebuilding our friendships.'
