Rooney, Hart and Richards Row New York’s Hudson River for Haaland World Cup Bet

Wayne Rooney had made pundit promises before, tossed off on air in the heat of a match with little thought for the consequences. This one involved a boat, and unlike most punditry bets, nobody let him forget it.

Fresh off the water on New York’s Hudson River, Rooney, Joe Hart and Micah Richards completed a forfeit born from a wildly wrong prediction made earlier in the tournament on BBC air. Rooney had declared he would “row the River Mersey” if Norway reached the World Cup quarter-final. Norway did. So the BBC trio traded the Mersey for the Hudson and rowed anyway, prompting Erling Haaland to needle Rooney on his way out of the tournament: “I’m looking forward to seeing you, Wayney boy.”

“Micah Nearly Killed My Back”

Asked how the row went, Rooney did not pretend it was effortless. “It was more relaxing than I thought,” he said. “Once we got into a nice little rhythm, we were OK. A couple of other times we came out of the rhythm and Micah nearly killed my back. But no, it was good. Harty looks like he’s been doing it for years. So it was actually enjoyable.”

Richards was more measured about the experience. “It was good fun,” he said. “I wouldn’t pick it to do it again, but I enjoyed it, there for the lads.” Hart saw it as one more example of how the trio has carried itself through the tournament. “It sums up how we’ve been the whole World Cup, as a trio,” he said. “None of us were so comfy doing it but no one cared, we all got on with it and it was a good laugh. And Wazza said he was going to do it and he has done it, so he’s a man of his word.”

Two Decades of History Before the Cameras

The three worked together for the first time at this tournament in England’s goalless group game against Ghana on 23 June, and the chemistry showed instantly. Hart put it down to a friendship that predates their broadcasting careers by years: “while we’re all very professional in what we’re doing, we also go way back, like a long way back, and that’s important,” he said. “It means that we’re ourselves and feel comfortable around each other. Gabby, Kelly and Chappers have been unreal as presenters in getting the best out of us. As a group we’ve really found something.”

Rooney compared the on-air chemistry to something closer to home. “It’s strange in a way, but it’s very similar to when you’re playing on the pitch,” he said. “We all have our bits of analysis to do but in terms of when we’re talking, you don’t want to speak over someone else, so it’s about eye contact and understanding when you’re coming in next. It’s really good chemistry.”

The history runs deep. Richards remembers meeting Hart when Hart arrived at Manchester City from Shrewsbury in 2006. Hart says he actually met Richards a year earlier, when he was 19 and Richards was 18. Rooney has known Richards going back to Richards’ first England call-up in November 2006, recalling his first impression: “Who’s this loud lad coming in?”

Rooney said the trio have “played with and against each other,” enjoy each other’s company, and remain “very respectful of what we’ve achieved” and, above all, respectful of what they are doing now. “We’re respectful of each other’s opinions. And what helps, too, is that before the show there’s a lot of preparation, we try to talk and help each other out alongside the producers, who do it so well,” he said.

Honesty on Air, Even When It Stings

The trio has drawn a large audience this tournament, with Richards putting the figure as high as 24 million viewers for some broadcasts, and all three said their approach depends on being willing to criticise players they used to share a dressing room with. Hart explained his own standard: he expects to hear that his opinion carries less standing than a former player’s, given he never played the game at that level. That does not change anything for him, he said, as long as the criticism stays fair. “I’ll die on my sword for this but I’ll always represent the players,” he said. “I can’t forget what playing out there actually feels like. That’s not giving them excuses, but explaining why certain things happen, especially at the World Cup, when the level is unbelievable.”

Rooney said the same principle guides his own criticism. “There’s times where we’ve all been criticised when we were players and it’s not nice. But from my point of view I don’t mind criticising but as long as it’s constructive and it’s in the right way,” he said. “Like when I’ve said a player has not had a good game: I’ll say that if I feel the player will know he has not had a good game.”

The Question England Cannot Avoid

That standard extended to Thomas Tuchel’s substitutions in England’s 2-1 semi-final defeat by Argentina. “Like after the last game, I felt it was a mistake by Thomas Tuchel to go defensive,” Rooney said. His point was simple: telling viewers the players were brilliant when they were not, or that Tuchel was brilliant when he was not, is exactly the kind of dishonesty that makes an audience stop listening.

Asked directly whether Tuchel should keep the job, the three offered different shades of the same verdict. “Yes, though I would have liked to see him go for it more against Argentina,” Richards said. Hart held back his own conclusion. “I’m going to reserve my opinion, I want to hear his verdict,” he said. “We were there that night and it got really wild. England were toe-to-toe with the best team in the world with the medals to prove it and the best player to ever play the game. Then I felt like it was drifting away, my sense was that Tuchel could have got caught up in the moment as a human and just thought: ‘Revert to type to what got us through against Mexico.’ I think that’s something he’ll reflect on.”

Rooney went further on the substitutions themselves. “It was there for us to win with 15, 20 minutes to go, whatever it was,” he said. “He made a big mistake in not allowing us the opportunity to get more pressure on the ball and surrender possession. But if Tuchel gets sacked who are we going to bring in? You could get Pep but is that going to work? Tuchel will learn from his mistakes so I would keep him.” Richards largely agreed, while pointing to the strength of the opponent. “I agree with Wayne in terms of the manager and the negative moves he made on the day but Argentina were the better team,” he said. He felt England’s players had given a determined effort, but admitted that on rewatching the second half, “they absolutely battered us.”

Padel, Not Rowing, Next

England went into Saturday’s bronze-medal match against France as underdogs for motivation, a fixture Hart admitted before kickoff was a hard sell on paper. “If I was going for a Golden Boot like Harry then I’d definitely be motivated,” he said. “You’ve got to create a narrative. It’s obviously easy for us to joke and say it’s a pointless game, but if you’re in that England camp and representing your country on the biggest stage, then do it. That’s where Tuchel has still got to be a top manager, a top motivator.” England answered emphatically, beating France 6-4 in a ten-goal thriller in Miami to secure England’s best World Cup finish in 60 years. Declan Rice opened the scoring inside the first few minutes, Ezri Konsa added a header, and Bukayo Saka scored twice more before the break to put England 4-0 up at halftime. France rallied through Kylian Mbappe and Bradley Barcola after the interval, but Saka completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot before Jude Bellingham sealed it with the game’s tenth goal deep into stoppage time. The winner took Bellingham’s own tournament tally to seven, making him the highest-scoring England player at a single World Cup. Kane did not add to his six goals on the day. Mbappe’s brace moved him to ten goals for the tournament and made him the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer, clear of Lionel Messi’s eight ahead of Sunday’s final. Messi had reached his own milestone earlier in the tournament, scoring his 21st career World Cup goal in the last-16 win over Egypt.

As for Rooney’s next forfeit, there isn’t one planned. “We’re going to play padel now together,” he said, “and so it’s important that the people you work with you like.” Argentina and Spain meet in Sunday’s final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Spain’s first World Cup final appearance in 16 years, following their triumph in 2010, and a chance for Argentina to defend the title they claimed in Qatar four years ago. The match airs live on BBC One and iPlayer, with Rooney, Hart and Richards on commentary duty, presumably from dry land.