Filed under: Dan Cottrell, ELVs, Rugby Training | Tags: Add new tag, Autumn series, coaching rugby, international rugby
Can we translate what we see on the TV in international games into meaningful outcomes for our own teams? The simple answer could be no. Especially if you are running an under 8s tag team on a Sunday.
However there are some pros and cons.
Pros of using international games for your coaching
Innovation
Sometimes international teams will use a move you have not seen before. With small modifications you can this same move for your team.
Inspiration
We all aspire to play for our country or even coach them, and though the moment may have passed many of us by, we can gain much from listening to how the international coaches talk about their teams.
Points of reference
Using international games as examples is an easy way of helping our players visualise what we mean. A particular tackle or defensive alignment means more if the players have seen it performed at the top level.
Cons of using international games for your coaching
Time
The international teams have so much more time to practise the moves you might see on the TV. You can never have this luxury, so you need to be careful what elements you want to reproduce.
Refereeing differences
The quality of referees at the top level is different. Techniques that work in an international game may not be acceptable at lower levels because the referees are looking at other priorities.
Quality
A brilliant move may only work because the teams have the strength, speed and skill to perform them. This also goes for some of the close quarter techniques in rucks. I would especially highlight “sealing” manoeuvres, because the top level players are enormously strong across the shoulders and neck. They can take up very low positions and be far safer from injury that less experienced players.
Filed under: Dan Cottrell, Rugby Coaching, Rugby News, Rugby Training | Tags: All Blacks, ELVs, England, international rugby, IRB, IRB Nations Cup, lineout tips, Ospreys, Pacific Nations Cup, rugby decision-making, rugby kick and chase, rugby training tips, Under 20s World Cup
A bumper rugby weekend on the international front, with matches in every corner of the world. Full tests in the Southern Hemisphere, an A team tournament, Under 20s World Cup, IRB Nations Cup and the Pacific Nations Cup. Chuck in some women’s sevens and you could easily have sat in front of the television all weekend and not ventured outside.
ELVs or not, there was plenty of scintillating rugby on show, and no sign that international games are turgid, or indeed one-sided affairs.
But we don’t just watch the games for “our team”. We want to take something away with us, a little titbit to take onto the training ground for next week.
Filed under: Rugby Coaching, Rugby Team Management, Rugby Training, Uncategorized | Tags: Rugby Coaching, Martin Johnson, South Africa, Tri-Nations, Wallabies, Wales, Warren Gatland, Declan Kidney, Graham Henry, Springboks, All Blacks, Crusaders, international rugby, Robbie Deans, Peter De Villiers
Here is a fantastic article published this weekend in the South African Independent on Saturday by Peter Bills.
It shows us that the world’s best coaches give the players a lot more freedom to express themselves than previous eras of coaches.
De Villiers, Deans can change rugby
June 07 2008
By Peter Bills
The stagnation of world rugby, a reality confirmed by the recent World Cup and the Six Nations tournaments in the northern hemisphere, could be resolved in 2008’s Tri-Nations Championship.
The arrival of Robbie Deans as the new coach of Australia this week and Peter de Villiers’s innovative hand on the controls in South African rugby, offers the game the opportunity to make overdue progress.
