There is a quirk in the history of the Six Nations that makes uncomfortable reading for fans of the home countries: the season following the last four British and Irish Lions tours, France, taking shrewd advantage of their rivals’ best players falling into a trough of post-tour exhaustion, have won the championship.
England coach Stuart Lancaster is acutely aware of that trend. “Oh yes, I knew that,” the England coach smiles when asked if he is worried about Les Bleus’ history of post-Lions glory. “Interesting stat.”
He has plans to stop it happening again next March. “The key thing is the rest period,” he says. “We’ve got in place agreements with our clubs to allow those in the Lions squad time to recover. The season finished on July 8. If you were knocked out in the Premiership your season ended on May 5, you were back in pre-season training on June 25.
“In the past, Lions players would have been straight back into the club action. But clubs are very sensible now, they don’t rely on senior players as much, they have big squads they can rotate. We must get that bit right.
It is going to take management.”
Management is something Lancaster believes in; actually, more than that, he has invested his life in its pursuit. In his sporting view good structure provides a framework in which excellence can flourish: the manager’s job is to remove obstacles from the pathway to success. Since he was confirmed as England coach in March 2012 he has been working tirelessly to reinforce English rugby’s systems, happy to borrow ideas and innovations from others.
This is his second summer break in charge of the English team. But not for him a month off, feet up on a beach. Rather, he is busy assessing schemes, meeting coaches, ensuring that everyone – from club stalwarts to those running local youth teams – is focused on the single goal: making England the world’s best.
“The quality of the players coming through our programmes now is the best it’s been,” he insists. “The club academy system started in 2000, and it’s coming to real fruition. That was my first role, I left teaching to become academy manager at Leeds.
“But where our system has got so much better recently is at identifying late developers. We were always quite good at spotting 15-year olds. But truthfully it’s only when the player reaches 20 that you know.”
He cites Joe Launchbury – let go by Saracens at 18 yet a central member of England’s team at 21 – as a prime example of how the game has buffed up its methodology. Not just in spotting a good player, but ensuring he is properly prepared for the step up to the big time.
Because of its intense physical demands, rugby can provide a brutal examination of youthful potential. Timing a young player’s progress, Lancaster says, is a crucial part of management. The memory of Mathew Tait, his career knocked back several years when, as a callow teen, he was sacked by Gavin Henson on his debut, weighs heavy.
And what Lancaster is working on behind the scenes is to make the transition, from club academies, through junior representative teams, to the senior squad, as seamless as possible.
“I have got a vision. But it is dictated by what it will take to win. Most sides are the same from a strength and conditioning point of view. There isn’t the drop off in physical condition in the last 20 minutes like you used to get. The second tier nations – Samoa and so on – are as organised defensively, harder to break down. So the difference will be in the point of attack. If we base our game on being in good condition physically and being great defensively I don’t think that will be good enough. It has to be attack. New Zealand won 22 of their last 23 internationals. Their game is based on fluidity of movement, skills, athleticism and counter-attack.
Rugby: Astute boss won"t rest until England are top of the world
No comments:
Post a Comment