Players Who Shook the Crumbie #43: Neil Back

Iain · Post by **Iain** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:15 pm

Never before or since has a lengthy ban improved a player to such an extent!
Neil was an immediate pick for the letter H shirt for Tigers since the early 90s, his long flowing blonde hair (those a bit younger will find that hard to believe!) popping up all over the pitch in countless all-action performances. Yet Jack Rowell consistently overlooked Neil for an England place, with the infamous reasoning of him being "too small". Neil eventually made his debut for England against Scotland in 1995, but slipped again into the international wilderness, although he did claim a place in the England 1995 World Cup squad in South Africa, before seeming to slip off the international radar.
The 1996 Pilkington Cup Final against Bath was to prove a tourning point for Neil. With Tigers leading heading into injury time, referee Steve Lander pinged the Tigers defence several times for killing the ball on the line before running under the posts to award Bath a sensational last minute penalty try. A livid Neil was then seen to push referee Steve Lander to the ground at the final whistle, although Neil maintained that he mistook Lander for Bath back rower Andy Robinson (yes, the same bloke!). Thankfully, the RFU believed Neil's version of events and handed him a six month ban, where a lifetime ban was a real possibility.
For lesser men, this ban would have ruined a career. Neil on the other hand, having recently turned professional, took this six months to put in some hard training and become as fit as he humanly could. This mission was well and truly accomplished. The result: arguably the fittest player to ever play professional rugby. When Neil returned to the Tigers team, his new found fitness and freshness led to him having his best season to date, and earned him an unexpected call up to the Lions tour of South Africa in 1997.
Neil's international fortunes changed for the better with Clive Woodward's appointment as England supremo, and very quickly Neil became a fixture in the England back row. And the rest is history. A legend for England, forming part of the 'holy trinity' en route to a World Cup winners medal in 2003, a legend for the Lions appearing on three tours, and a legend for Leicester with an incredible haul of five league medals, two Pilkington Cup medals and two Heineken Cup medals before hanging up his boots after the 2005 Lions tour of New Zealand having come out of international retirement especially.
Very hard to pick out highlights for Neil as he consistently for the best part of fifteen years just went about his job, very rarely having a bad game, doing the ugly work incredibly well, and being the man who fell over the line with the ball at the end of an infinite number of rolling mauls.

maskedsquid · Post by **maskedsquid** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:56 pm

And who could forget the (in)famous "Hand of Back" in the closing stages of the European Cup final against Munster at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Poor Peter Stringer was distraught. I was delighted.

Iain · Post by **Iain** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:09 am

Can't believe I forgot to mention that! Its only cheating if you get caught!

To be fair that was a clever bit of play. Neil has always been the master of the calculated risk, being able to weigh up the consequences of getting caught bending the rules versus the benefit of getting away with it. Like all good number sevens, he played right on the very edges of the law. The Hand of Back was one of his more outrageous efforts, but had he been caught even the penalty wouldn't have been enough for Munster to snatch victory.

steadysteve · Post by **steadysteve** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:42 am

The memory of Neil Back tackling BOD at Lansdown Rd in the european cup the season before last, lives with me still.
It looked a bit special at the time but when I had time to view it on vidio it was an outsanding bit of skill.
BOD cut back against the grain, Backy was going the wrong way but managed to buckle at the knees, bend backwards, twist and make the tackle, this from a veteran at the end of a long career and a long season.
Backy was special because though he was skillful he made full use of the tallent he had by hard work, application, and always trying to improve.

dailywaffle · Post by **dailywaffle** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:15 pm

The phrase "if you are good enough, you are big enough" was made for Back. The fittest player I ever saw, with a phenomenal work rate, he proved that you didn't have to be big or especially fast to be world class. His power to weight ratio must have been off the scale !

I don't know his final tally, but I understood that he scored nearly as many tries as Rory Underwood in the 90's. I don't remember the match, but I am also pretty sure that he is one of a small number of Tigers forwards to score a drop goal.

Fantastic hands, great passer of the ball, outstanding ball winner and a wonderful link man; probably England's greatest ever open-side.

Gate · Post by **Gate** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:46 pm

I love the Backy story that Johnno used to tell - when they were doing full contact training in Johnno's early days, and Backy's (by then already false) front teeth got knocked out in a tackle, and he just picked them up and put them in his pocket, leaving Johnno thinking ":censored: hell! This guy really is tough!".

banbury tiger · Post by **banbury tiger** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:53 am

thank god you've got backy in there - legend !

banbury tiger · Post by **banbury tiger** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:54 am

p.s - didn't he give joe worsley a big right hook in the 2005 premiership final ! good shot too !

dailywaffle · Post by **dailywaffle** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:50 pm

banbury tiger wrote:p.s - didn't he give joe worsley a big right hook in the 2005 premiership final ! good shot too !

There are many great moments in Backy's career; but I'm not sure that commiting GBH on Joe Worsley was one of them.

Incidentally, Back was (and still is ?) a huge admirer of Clive Woodward, who showed great faith in picking Back when everyone else considered him 'too small'. SCW occasionally gets a bit of stick on here, but his handling of Back was inspired.

banbury tiger · Post by **banbury tiger** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:17 am

yes it wasn't one of his great moments but it was still good see we managed to get something over on the insects that day !

Iain · Post by **Iain** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:17 am

Sorry there is no way I can agree with that! A sly blow is never a moral victory.

By the way the drop goal in question was for England against Italy.

steve424 · Post by **steve424** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:24 pm

He is an alround skillful man i rugby, a ledgend, and i never knew he could drop kick! :o

Lemmy · Post by **Lemmy** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:56 pm

Iain wrote:Can't believe I forgot to mention that! Its only cheating if you get caught!

To be fair that was a clever bit of play. Neil has always been the master of the calculated risk, being able to weigh up the consequences of getting caught bending the rules versus the benefit of getting away with it. Like all good number sevens, he played right on the very edges of the law. The Hand of Back was one of his more outrageous efforts, but had he been caught even the penalty wouldn't have been enough for Munster to snatch victory.

I was wondering when the infamous Neil Back would make and appearance on the list.

As a Munster man it is still a little hard to swallow when the 'hand of Back' rears its ugly head but to say that it's only cheating when you get caught is ridiculous!!

To compound that by claiming that Munster would not have won had the penalty been given, is astounding. They would have hardly taken the penalty but gone for the try, which if converted would have won the game. :shock: :shock:

Anyhow its history now and we have the conveted HC this year at last. It feels good!

Back was a talented player but in my opinion not as good as many believe and certainly not a world class number 7. He did make the most of what he had and you could never doubt his passion and committment to the cause.

Hope this is not too unpopular a post!!

The hand of Back :x :x :x

Iain · Post by **Iain** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:59 pm

Lemmy, Munster would almost certainly have gone for the scrum again from the position they were in, so net result if Back had been caught would effectively have been the scrum being re-set. He may have got sin binned, but a scrum is defendable with 7 men. As I say, calculated risk!

Lemmy · Post by **Lemmy** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:58 pm

Iain,

Fair enough, we'll agree to disagree!! :D :D

He got away with it and I suppose at this stage that is all that matters. Calculated risk but i still think Munster would have scored from the scrum/penalty. Optimist indeed!!!!