The Best Article On Rugby I Have Read In A Long While

IF YOU only read one newspaper article on rugby this week, then, I urge you, make it this one:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/13/eddie-jones-hit-and-hurt-rugby-mixed-up-messaging-six-nations

The piece was written by former Fiji Sevens Head Coach Ben Ryan, the be-spectacled “ginger” Englishman who guided the Pacific Islanders – Leone Nakarawa, Bill Mata et al, to that nation's first Olympic gold medal in the 2016 Games in Rio.

Olympic gold medal-winning coach Ben Ryan

Of course, only a free thinker such as Ryan could have penned the piece, the wit and insight therein is beyond the ken of most of the scribes writing about rugby in today's newspapers.

Ryan's piece is a stark warning about where the game is in danger of going. I liked it, he articulates very well some concrns I have had for some time. Of course, it helps to have Ryan's background; he was one of the last Loughborough University students to be influenced by the great Jim Greenwood, the former Scotland captain and: “The best coach Scotland never had,” Ryan is a graduate of both Loughborough and Cambridge Universities, so he clearly has more brain cells than your average rugby journalist.

Jim Greenwood - Ryan's coaching mentor at Loughborough

He doesn't quite, as I have been doing for years, advocate a return to “real rucking”, but, he does, as I have done – point-out the absurdities of today's breakdown laws and the way this, and other laws, are NOT being adequately refereed. Not that I would blame the referees for this – it must be difficult to enforce laws which are absurd and clearly not working.

However, PLEASE, take the time to log onto the online Guardian and read Ryan's piece, the more people who do so, the better.

In the piece he makes a pertinent comment on rugby's current infatuation with size. This is reinforced by a couple of the BTL (below the line) coments from readers. The first, from a reader calling himself DaveH95 says:

“I coach U10 and the physicality required to compete at that age, is terrifying. Coaches exhorting their players to smash at the breakdown and the tackle are forcing smaller children out of the game at an early age. Bigger children are dominating and that is destroying the skill and fun of mini-rugby. I haven't a clue what the answer is, but something needs to be done, pronto.”

This brought a response from another comenter: “Rugbysupporter,” who wrote:

“Wait till their (sic) Under 13/14. The Premiership academies go round the clubs and schools to invite players down. They will openly tell you they are looking for physical specimens (they will teach them rugby).”

That comment reminds me of a Scottish basketball team with which I was involved, over 30 years ago, We hired a couple of American players – back in the day when every leading Scottish club was doing this, in a vain effort to keep up with David Murray's MIM team. One of the Americans had a father who was a reasonably successful college coach, taking a

sabbatical and willing to come over and coach us.

One of the first things this coach did was promote a keen but relatively talentless big guy from the end of the bench to the starting five on the grounds: “I can coach him to be an effective basketball player, but, I could never coach him to be six foot eight – that's a bonus.” The guy, willing though he was, was simply not as good a player as the smaller guy he was displacing. But, that was American thinking in action.

As I say, that was over 30-years ago. American thinking – get the big guy in there and hope he can read a play book, then run the plays. As Ben Ryan writes in his Guardian piece:

“The advent of professional rugby brought coaches and clubs more time with teams and one major result was thicker playbooks that produce thicker players – because phase play came in that relied on a pre-programmed set of movements, with less player-led direction and more coach-led orders.”

Gregor Townsend's coaching style and philosophy calls for players who can think on their feet and play what is in front of them. Toony encourages his players to express themselves. Do Dave Rennie and Richard Cockerill give the guys the same freedom, at club level, as Toony gives them with the national team? I sometimes wonder.

Glasgow, at their best, had (and still have) Niko at his best – freelancing for all he is worth. But, Niko seems to be an extravagance, only let-off the leash occasionally by Rennie. The most-exciting Glasgow rugby was when Niko had a free pass to do his thing, with big Leone alongside him. I had hoped, when Leone moved-on, that one or two of the other forwards would have picked-up the baton and started to off-load at pace. But, it hasn't happened.

Leone Nakarawa - none of the Glasgow forwards has picked-up his off-loading baton

Bill Mata, like Niko, produces a lot of uplifting moments for Edinburgh. But, has the rest of the Edinburgh squad tuned-in on his wavelength? I doubt it. Blair Kinghorn, in broken play, produces some terrific Nakarawa and Mata-style surges, but, all too-often, he dies with the ball. Even when he has a support runner on his shoulder, he dies with it, rather than off-loading.

The single crucial off-load which I can remember from a Scot in the 2019 6 Nations is Finn's wonderful scoring pass to Sam Johnston against Ireland. The style of play which Toony wants us to produce calls for a lot more of these type of passes. He should perhaps be asking the guys: “Fellas, why aren't you showing me more of this sort of rugby?”

It's not a case of Scotland cannot do this – we have shown in the past we can. And if we can get back to that, we will be a test for anyone.

On Saturday, England will want an arm wrestle. They will want to slow the game down, dominate us physically and wear us down. Hopefully, we can run their Shire horses off their feet, but, only if, instead of running head-down into them, we attack space, at pace, and off-load to support runners. Play like Scotland – not like England-lite.