Here’s the deal in Lyons next Saturday, when Racing 92 and Saracens compete at the summit of Europe. The two teams have defences that rank among the best in the history of club rugby. Racing shut down Leicester almost completely in the recent semi-final — Manu Tuilagi , Telusa Veainu and all.
Saracens, meanwhile, are defending as ruthlessly as ever, even though the original inspiration of the Wolfpack defence, Paul Gustard, has left to recreate England in his own lupine image.
How will Dan Carter react at fly-half for Racing, in the teeth of the defenders? He will do what he does so often — kick long. The game then turns on the ability of Alex Goode at full-back to return the ball. So often you see a tennis-like exchange of high kicks delivered by two full-backs while the other players stand craning their necks. But that is not the Goode way. He runs the ball back on the counterattack more often than any other full-back in the game.
What is in Goode’s head as he stands back at his lonely station, knowing that if he chooses the wrong play, he may be dumped way behind his own troops? He has to take an instant mental snapshot as he fields the ball. “I liken it to what a footballer does,” he says. “You see the videos of top midfield players such as Paul Scholes or Steve Gerrard. They get the ball, they pass it and their heads swivel, swivel, swivel. It’s gaining that picture of what is around them.
“It’s not quite the same for a rugby full -back, but before the ball is kicked I would already have identified where they’re weak, maybe where their chasing line has holes. You are not always guessing, you’ve watched enough videos and scanned the field and you know what they are trying to achieve with their kicks.
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“You are looking for clues as to whether their fly-half is going to kick long, and if so I need to get Ashy [Chris Ashton] to come back to counter with me. Or I might see that on the right side they have two centres and a winger but on the other side, they have two props and a lock. Obviously, I’m thinking that I want to attack them there.
“The picture changes all the time and you have to adapt very quickly. Sometimes you realise you have to kick the ball because the space is in behind the chasers. But it’s all about taking that picture.”
As Saracens use the colossal Billy Vunipola as a deep-lying defender against the kick if they lose the ball up front, Goode often has a reassuring presence alongside. “Billy’s rather handy to have back there with me,” he says. It reminds you that whereas many players in doubt these days simply put their heads down and batter their way as far as they can to try to bring their own players back onside, Goode is usually full of more subtlety. When running from the back he has the priceless trick of subtly altering his feet so that defenders do not commit, until such time as his own runners are back with him waiting for the pass. He has created so many tries for his wide men at Saracens in this fashion. His sallies are not so much a risk, more of an informed speculation. The support lines of Ashton and Chris Wyles, two brilliant support runners, are critical.
Goode has now been at Saracens for a decade, including his time in the academy. He has been part of the long march. At one time, fearing that he was not getting a proper chance under Alan Gaffney, a coach with whom he could not find a wavelength, he considered moving on. None other than Eddie Jones, then part of the Saracens coaching staff, persuaded him to stay, and persuaded him of his talent.
And so now, will they reach what will be a fitting conclusion to their crusade by taking the European Champions Cup on Saturday? “I am very wary of the view that it is our destiny,” Goode says. “We can get caught up in believing that and then forget that we have to work unbelievably hard in Lyons against an unbelievably good side. We cannot just rely on somebody else to produce something. Every single one of us has to put in a massive performance.
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“Yet if you look at the average age of our pack alone, the guys have played huge games in the semi-finals and final in Europe over the past three years and they’re still at around 25 or 26 [Goode was 28 yesterday]. That puts us in a very good place and perhaps we won’t be overawed by the occasion. But we absolutely must turn up.”
It was around six years ago that I first sat down with Goode, when he was one of the brightest young things. At the time, the Saracen stalwart fly-half, Glen Jackson, had just retired. Goode had always been a fly-half and Brendan Venter, the coach at the time, declared that he would make Goode his starter in the position. Goode was expectant.
But for several reasons, most notably because young Owen Farrell was coming on so quickly, his time at fly-half was limited. Does he still have a fly-half in the soul? “I do not regret anything, I don’t feel any disappointment,” he says. “I always said that I must keep improving and I feel that every year I’ve gone from strength to strength. I feel I’m playing some of the best rugby of my life. I’m comfortable at full-back. There have been a couple of games this season when they’ve needed me at fly-half and it’s been a nice change. But there’s nothing burning away inside of me.”
He has won 19 England caps since his first in South Africa in 2012, only an average return for a player I believe to be the most talented all-round back in England. He has not been a consistent starter since 2013 — he played in the team thrashed in Wales as England were going for the Grand Slam. Bafflingly, they ejected Goode, possibly the only man on the field who could do nothing about what happened to England that day. Some of the forwards who should have disappeared were still there to fail again in last year’s World Cup.
Since 2014 Mike Brown, that testy figure and crowd favourite, has been in possession at full-back. So what is it like for Goode to be competing against a national treasure? “I’m philosophical, and if someone is playing out of their skin you have to keep raising your own game and keep pushing. But I can live with the knowledge I’m doing everything possible. You back yourself.”
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You feel strongly that should Jones, his old mentor, not give Goode at least one Test match in Australia in the summer, then he is being terribly unfair. Goode’s range of abilities seem to marry perfectly with the attacking visions of Jones.
But the next obstacle is Carter and the very fine Racing team. “Dan has a phenomenal ability to pin you back,” says Goode. “There are so many times when he puts in a kick that is inch-perfect or a little dink into the corner which squeezes you. He allows their big players to be constantly on the front foot, so it is a huge job for me to win that sort of chess match, and not give him the space he wants.”
Space will be at a premium on Saturday. To carry the ball will feel like asphyxiation rather than an opportunity. Goode will find less space than normal. But if he can surge out of defence and bring his wings into the game, we will have a spectacle on our hands, and a wonderful chance of an English victory.
ON TV SATURDAY
Saracens v Racing 92
Sky Sports 2, 4.45pm