Some Thoughts On Coaching - And A Bombshell From Wales

I am in regular email contact with Ian MacEwen, a former teacher, now retired from The King's School, Canterbury – where, a certain Huw Jones was once a pupil

I first got in contact with Ian, when I was writing the obituary on his father, Bob MacEwen, (pictured below) who won thirteen caps as a hooker for Scotland in the 1950s, out of Cambridge University and London Scottish and who would surely have won more, but for falling-out with then then all-powerful JM Bannerman; who insisted Scotland pack down in 3-2-3 formation, when every other tier one nation had switched to 3-4-1. Bannerman did not take kindly to Bob MacEwen telling him he was behind the times.

 

Bob later gave the RFU years of sterling service as one of the first advocates of proper coaching in rugby.

Ian's last missive, I now print, with his permission; he makes some solid points regarding coaching:

“Aristotle’s interesting reflections on coaching has set me thinking, not least in recalling the many discussions I had with my Father on the subject.

So at the risk of boring you, I pen a few thoughts……

I have a hazy memory of weekends in the 1960s when Father would disappear to drive all over the country to host coaching weekends with his friends Ray Williams and Jeff Butterfield on behalf of the RFU to coincide with the publication of 'A Guide For Coaches.'

Father, Ray and Jeff had met and played together at Loughborough College. The trio met predictable resistance from the RFU alickadoos who presented two reservations:

1. Coaching would advance the onset of professionalism - who can now say that they were wrong on that point, although the term ‘professionalism’ can be interpreted in a variety of ways.

2. Coaching would stifle individual flair on the pitch. The trio turned this argument on its head by stating that coaching was intended to provide a framework within which flair could flourish. They also acknowledged that bad coaching was worse than no coaching at all.

Jeff, as the supreme flair centre, railed against coaches who spent time on organised back moves that would be attempted irrespective of whatever circumstances threw up, but who couldn’t coach a back line in the basic skills of receiving and giving passes at pace

Above all, Jeff wanted coaches to provide players with the confidence and skills to react to what was in front of them. I can recall him telling me about his try for the Lions against South Africa in the first test of the 1955 series when he sliced through the Bok defence with a series of dummies. He said that he was desperately trying to pass the ball but at each moment of release he saw that a Bok defender was in the way so he made the instinctive decision to hold on

Aristotle mentions Sir Matt Busby and Brian Clough from the round ball game. I have read that Busby’s coaching of Best, Charlton, Law and Co amounted to no more than an instruction to go out and express themselves on the pitch while Clough, at the peak of his powers, was a genius in turning journeymen players such as John McGovern and John O’Hare into champions.

[Aristotle: in my defence, Busby had proved himself an innovative coach as early as coaching the Great Britain team at the 1948 Olympics. But, it has to be admitted, he tended to leave much of the actual coaching to his long-term assistant, Welshman Jimmy Murphy.]

Brendan McCullum’s approach with the England cricket team warrants scrutiny. With little track record of coaching at international level, he has transformed the mindset of the England team. I don’t sense that he does much actual technique coaching but concentrates on cultivating a positive ‘can do’ culture whereby the aim is to seize the initiative on Day 1 of a Test and then dictate the pace of the game. So far so good: to win a series in Pakistan 3-0 is extraordinary and it will be interesting how this clever tactic holds up against the more forensic Aussie bowling (although playing the Ashes series early in the summer is likely to mean green top wickets ideal for Stuart Broad and James Anderson).

I have read that this empowerment of the players has coincided with a reduction in the size of the back up team. There are fewer layers of management which opens up more time and room for good communication and conversations between the players themselves and between the players and coach. In contrast I remember a couple of years ago watching The Test documentary on the recovering Aussie cricket team post ‘sandpaper gate’ and being surprised by the size of the back up team when they assembled for yet another meeting- Justin Langer and assistant coaches seemed to outnumber the players!

There is always danger in the ‘Groupthink’ approach, whereby consensus decision making from expert constituents becomes the norm - safety in numbers…..

There is a parallel with the way that coaching has developed in rugby. The game appears to have been broken down into sections - backs attack coach, backs defence coach, line out coach, scrum coach, not to mention all the other off field advisors from nutritionist to psychologist - with the consequence that players are at risk of being turned into non-thinking programmed automatons (as hinted at in the discussion on Irish youth rugby).

Coaches appear to think it clever to plan a series of moves ahead - I really dislike the term ‘pods’. This rigidity of approach may be why Finn is turning heads in the 6 Nations with his refreshingly contrary style and approach; meanwhile Toony merits credit for coming to a modus vivendi with the Gallus One after the autumn rift and allowing him his head - one can envisage a number of coaches uneasy with that unstructured approach.

I have always thought that the English instinct is to play rugby by numbers, hence the difficulty that they have always had in accommodating at No 10 flair players such as Stuart Barnes, Danny Cipriani and now Marcus Smith. There is always a tendency to revert to the safe reliable choice of yeoman stock such as the likes of Owen Farrell.

Carwyn James must rank among the top Lions coaches. In 1971 he was wise enough to leave the coaching of the forwards to Ray McLoughlin and then Mighty Mouse and Willie John McBride, while he gave captain John Dawes a big input in shaping the back play. Carwyn retained the vision on how to win the series: he concentrated on honing individual and collective skills and in creating the right mindset in terms of a belief that winning was possible.

And this was achieved throughout a four month tour with only Scotland’s Dr Doug Smith in support as Manager. Different world, different game fifty years ago of course……it could be argued that the squad contained some amazingly talented players but so have all Lions squads who haven’t always achieved the same level of success.

So what are the priorities for a successful international coach? A knack for successful selection (which could be rooted as much in instinct as in statistical evidence) and acute people management skills. Ironing out technical flaws comes very much third.

One example springs to mind to demonstrate this order: you will recall that in 1976 the England selectors, influenced as ever by the media bandwagon, picked Mike Lampkowski the Headingley scrum half only to discover that courageous and incisive runner that he was, he could only pass off one hand. He was given intensive top level coaching but the fault lay in selection as the skill should already have been inputted at club or county level.”

I am grateful to Ian for sharing his thoughts on this subject – he certainly makes several excellent points in the above. I commend these thoughts to the house.

FINALLY – a wee story which dropped my way late on Friday.

JINGS, CRIVVENS, HELP MA BOAB – I can think of a lot of guys who are going to go ape-shit at this news, but, believe it or not: Wales is thinking of setting-up their own version of Super6.

Apparently there was a meeting in Cardiff on Tuesday night, at which the new proposals were outlined. According to Wales Online, each Region has been asked to nominate one semi-professional club, to participate in the new league. Rygbi Gogledd Cymru the North Wales regional team will also participate in the new league, while as yet undecided criteria will be introduced to decide which three of the remaining Welsh Premiership clubs will make-up the eight clubs in this new 'Elite League.'

These changes are due to come into effect for the 2024/25 season. However, there are many issues still to be settled and, given the general state of Welsh Rugby at the moment, a lot of infighting is sure to follow before, if it does happen, the new set-up emerges.

There is, unlike in Scotland, in Wales an acceptance that there is a gap in standard between the club game and the United Rugby Championship, a gap which demands an intermediate tier of the game, similar to our Super6.

I spoke to someone involved in Super 6, who told me, they had been aware of these Welsh plans for some time. This Welsh initiative, should they be able to get it to work, will hopefully lead, at long last, to the cross-border games which were mentioned when the SRU set-up S6 back in 2019.

There are suggestions too that some of the English Championship clubs would also be keen to participate in any cross-border competitions.

I await the howls of outrage from the usual: “Super6 is a failure” suspects.