With only days to go until the IRB/Emirates Airline Rugby Photograph of the Year 2009 competition closes, Total Rugby Radio caught up with IRB World Rugby Yearbook editor Paul Morgan to find out what he as a judge is looking for in a photo to be in with a chance of joining 'Mud, Glorious Mud', 'Commitment' and 'Gladiator' as winning entries.
The winner and five runners-up will be published in the IRB World Rugby Yearbook 2010, which will hit the bookshelves in early November. The winning photographer will also win a trip for two to the Dubai Sevens later that month, courtesy of Emirates Airline.
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Total Rugby: What would you say to an amateur photographer considering entering such a prestigious competition?
Paul Morgan: I wouldn’t discourage amateurs, people who have only taken just one photograph in their whole of their life entering because I always think to be a great photographer you have got to take a great breadth of work, but in this instance we are just looking for one photograph. I know a lot of competitions will ask for 10 or 20 photographs, but I think this is good chance to get lucky. If this was your first day fishing you might catch the big one, so I would to everybody, whether you are somebody from one of the biggest agencies in the world who has been working in photography for 30 or 40 years or someone who has gone to one match on the island of Vanuatu and taken one photograph, you never know what is going to appeal to the judges.
TR: What about some of the previous winners, what made those stand out?
PM: The first year (2006) with Morgan Treacy from Inpho, it was a shot from an amateur game, a shot from an AIB league match in Ireland. It was just a really muddy player. Those people who might remember the old Fran Cotton muddy man photograph, it was a little bit of modern day one of those, it was a guy at the end of a division three match, real great grassroots rugby, he was exasperated, looked like he had given his all and had a very, very muddy face. Last year with Matthew Impey, that was more of a big match, the Guinness Premiership final. It was entitled 'Gladiator' because it was the moment that Wasps had scored their second try against Leicester, with Raphael Ibanez coming out of a ruck having scored it.
TR: As one of the judging panel, what do you look for in the entries?
PM: 'Gladiator' was all about the expression on Raphael’s face really, it said everything about rugby, it summed up the spirit of rugby in that one moment, to see his face having just scored the try which eventually won the English season for Wasps. It was about an emotion, it was about the look on his face, so I think these two winners really captivate that.
As one of the judges, that is what I am looking for really, we are looking for spirit of rugby, we are looking for a shot that sums up what is great about rugby union and we are looking for emotion on people’s faces. Last year we had a couple of shots from the Rugby World Cup the year before that showed a lot of crowd action. They got to the shortlist but none of those won but that is a great attempt that you can do, people just watching games you can have some great pictures of that.
TR: You're busy working on the IRB World Rugby Yearbook at the moment, what can rugby followers expect from the 2010 edition?
PM: Since we have been supported by the IRB, the Yearbook has just gone from strength to strength. We have some great features again this year, all the top 20 countries are there in all their glory, we have got Tri Nations, a Lions tour. It is a real attempt to sum up the rugby year. It is over 600 pages so quite a tomb, but we try and cover every single part of rugby, from hopefully getting confirmation of the Olympics decision in October right the way down to some of the much, much smaller tournaments. A great look at the rugby year.
TR: Any famous names contributing to the Yearbook this year?
PM: Things are still being finalised, but we have certainly got Scott Quinnell looking at the Six Nations, Paul Wallace – one of the most famous Lions – looking at the Lions tour. We will have John Eales on either the Tri Nations or the Super 14.
We have got quite a big piece at the front of Yearbook this time. We are starting off like a spirit of rugby article, talking about how rugby has had a few knocks in the past few weeks and how we can gain that spirit of rugby back. I am a big fan of the game obviously and I am a big fan of the people in it and I am a big fan of the integrity of the people in it so I know we can get that spirit of rugby back. We have got a big piece at the front of Yearbook talking about that.
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This is abridged from an interview with Paul Morgan from this week's Total Rugby Radio show, which will be available from 17:00 UK time on Thursday, 20 August.
