Who’s To Blame? (March 2006)
So my old rugby league mates Joe Lydon, Phil Larder, and company are taking a battering for their work with an underperforming England RU side from the pundits who know best. "Too many league men coaching in rugby union." "What do they really know about the intricacies of the 15 a side code?" "The power running and midfield crash ball tactics of league don't work in rugby union. "Well,you could have fooled me!
Of course there have been far too many refugees from the 13 a side plying their trade in the rival code but a league coach appears to have become a badge of honour for any Zurich Premiership club regardless of the advantages to be gained. You can't blame a few of the lads from accepting the handouts. But what of Shaun Edwards and his work at Wasps? What of the input of ex league coach David Ellis in the French camp? What too of the efforts of former Great Britain RL fullback, Alan Tait, in helping to revive enthusiasm for the oval ball across the border in Scotland? Nowt said there!
And what of the supposed problems caused by Joe Lydon and his like in the coaching of crash ball tactics and power running in midfield? Well, again, you could have fooled me. For, if there was ever any player who ran gracefully on attack, knew exactly when to pass and draw the opposition, could beat an opponent with speed or a swerve it was the former Wigan star. No enthusiasm for power rugby there. And how silly and trite of the media and a few disgruntled ex England coaches to label Rugby League as being the reason for the England RU side's current malaise in midfield. I don't see St.Helens' Jamie Lyon and Sean Long, Warrington's Lee Briers and Martin Gleeson, Leeds' Danny McGuire, or Bradford Bulls' Iestyn Harris and Shontayne Hape subscribing to such simplistic coaching doctrines when they play.
No, let's be honest, thanks to the almost total emphasis on the forwards in modern rugby union and the endless rolling mauls and charges in midfield, the constant scrummaging near the opposition's try line, and the now standard charge from the lineout there is little open back play. As I have always understood it the first priority of the forwards in Rugby Union is to win the ball and give it to the backs to score the points. Now it would seem that the priority has changed, the modern forwards now win the ball to keep it and score the points themselves.
Despite the ever increasing crowds watching the Zurich Premiership - testimony to the shrewd marketing of all the clubs - the standard of rugby is woeful and the back play is dire to watch. As it is in the Celtic League too! No matter who the coach might be at international level, if the talent isn't being produced at the clubs and an open style of play is not being encouraged then there is little he can do, be he an ex league or union man. No one can train a donkey to run with carefree abandon and win the Derby on Epsom Downs.
And, unfortunately for the immediate future of the England RU team our national coaches have, at present, only donkeys to work with in the stables.
Ray French
So my old rugby league mates Joe Lydon, Phil Larder, and company are taking a battering for their work with an underperforming England RU side from the pundits who know best. "Too many league men coaching in rugby union." "What do they really know about the intricacies of the 15 a side code?" "The power running and midfield crash ball tactics of league don't work in rugby union. "Well,you could have fooled me!
Of course there have been far too many refugees from the 13 a side plying their trade in the rival code but a league coach appears to have become a badge of honour for any Zurich Premiership club regardless of the advantages to be gained. You can't blame a few of the lads from accepting the handouts. But what of Shaun Edwards and his work at Wasps? What of the input of ex league coach David Ellis in the French camp? What too of the efforts of former Great Britain RL fullback, Alan Tait, in helping to revive enthusiasm for the oval ball across the border in Scotland? Nowt said there!
And what of the supposed problems caused by Joe Lydon and his like in the coaching of crash ball tactics and power running in midfield? Well, again, you could have fooled me. For, if there was ever any player who ran gracefully on attack, knew exactly when to pass and draw the opposition, could beat an opponent with speed or a swerve it was the former Wigan star. No enthusiasm for power rugby there. And how silly and trite of the media and a few disgruntled ex England coaches to label Rugby League as being the reason for the England RU side's current malaise in midfield. I don't see St.Helens' Jamie Lyon and Sean Long, Warrington's Lee Briers and Martin Gleeson, Leeds' Danny McGuire, or Bradford Bulls' Iestyn Harris and Shontayne Hape subscribing to such simplistic coaching doctrines when they play.
No, let's be honest, thanks to the almost total emphasis on the forwards in modern rugby union and the endless rolling mauls and charges in midfield, the constant scrummaging near the opposition's try line, and the now standard charge from the lineout there is little open back play. As I have always understood it the first priority of the forwards in Rugby Union is to win the ball and give it to the backs to score the points. Now it would seem that the priority has changed, the modern forwards now win the ball to keep it and score the points themselves.
Despite the ever increasing crowds watching the Zurich Premiership -
And, unfortunately for the immediate future of the England RU team our national coaches have, at present, only donkeys to work with in the stables.
Ray French