It has finally started, take-aways from the RWC The anticipated opener, France had a nervous start, early injury concern and a crazy break by Rieko with a kick pass to the wing by Beauden for a shocking early score (why put Beauden on 15?). In the end it all came good for the home team – give away 11 penalties against a team that has Thomas Ramos… Let’s get this party started! We all thought Argentina had a chance against England, even a bigger chance when Tom Curry got red. But somebody took control and Jannie-de-Beer-ed Argentina out of the game! Note: add rugby historian to coaching st ..read more

I asked ChatGPT to design a scrum training This is what it came up with: Scrum training according to ChatGPT Setting up a training session for Scrum in rugby union involves focusing on key aspects of scrummaging technique, individual skills, and team cohesion. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you organize a productive training session for scrummaging in rugby union: Define Objectives: Determine the specific goals and objectives of the training session. These may include improving technique, enhancing strength and stability, developing communication, and building teamwork within the scrum ..read more

Is it: “Lucky, they made mistakes” It is always interesting how we frame a loss. Like in “We just lost the final, but it was close”, but how do “just” and “close” translate to what is needed to win next time? HSBC Sevens Toulouse Men’s Final This was an exciting final with Argentina in front of the classy New Zealand outfit. But Argentina made some handling errors and allowed New Zealand to catch-up and finally lost. (There was also a tactical mistake with how the ARG scrumhalf positioned with NZ scrums). Looking at this super exciting match I felt ARG gave it away and lost it rather than NZLD ..read more

“Merci Beaucoup!” Set the scene Okay, England has a new coach and it is the home game against France. Everybody eager to see how the English rugby team will be ‘en route’ to the RWC and what a better test than against the team ranked second in the world: France! It turned out that the French felt they underperformed in the 2023 Six Nations and thought they had something to prove too! Ollivon scores Lots to talk about but I discussed this with some friends: Charles Ollivon scored the easiest of tries. Let us view the try: Marcus Smith is retrieving the ball near his own goalline, gets pushed o ..read more

Do we want thinking players? Reading my posts you will understand I like the Adaptive Game, I love to see players react to situations with creative and sometimes surprising solutions. When I discuss these situations a lot of coaches seem to think that this is due to the natural talent of these players, you either see “it” or you do not. We even make it something mythical when we call it “French Flair”. I do not agree, and the French philosophy is not at all as simple as “Go play and do whatever pops into your mind”. There is a lot leading up to that. We can educate our young players and create ..read more

Forming a team is not only picking 15 players, it is more about making the best out of what you have got. Intro Perhaps the Tuckman model is a bit outdated now, these are re-posts from a bit back in time. Do we have time now to go through this team development cycle? Skill Mix Optimisation Which player should play on which position, matching the individual skills with the requirements of a position is the task of the coach. You should have a clear understanding of these requirements. This part of the teambuilding is called Role Clarity. It is made up of three components: Role Definition, Role ..read more

How to maximise performance of your team? Our focus is mostly on performance, not realising the importance of the previous three steps in the teambuilding process. How do we measure the performance of our team? Winning or Losing? Number of tries scored? How does the performance of our team relate to the topics of our next training session? I strongly believe that Outcome is the result of a controlled process. Rather than to focus on results, better think about feedback and control parameters. You as the coach has to develop a model that  describes the process and its controls. Think about ..read more

The ‘Storming’ phase in the process of teambuilding is where players try to find their spot in the team, relations are built and authorities are established. The coach is more passive in this phase carefully observing what is going on. For instance, the coach will be looking for a captain and try combinations like this 8-9-10 during this phase. I like to share some of my experiences of the storming phase. (Back then I unfortunately did not understand the whole process as described here). Coming new to the coaching job from coaching the Colts, I brought young raw talent with me to the First XV ..read more

Forming a team is not only picking 15 players, it is more about making the best out of what you have got. Skill Mix Optimisation (“I like that word Darling, write it down, I want to use it more often”) Which player should play on which position, matching the individual skills with the requirements of a position is the task of the coach. You should have a clear understanding of these requirements. This part of the teambuilding is called Role Clarity. It is made up of three components: Role Definition, Role Acceptance and Role Performance. Strange as it may sound, if all the players work very ha ..read more

Ever had a “Hey, I did that too!” reaction when you read something? Well, I had one when I watched Trevor his latest video on his hero Amy Edmonson. But first, I liked how he backordered a 2016 magazine because it had an article that set him on his Train Ugly journey. The material he shared in the clip was not all new anymore but he also told the story of volleyball coach Karch Kiraly asking his players “How can I do better for you?” as model behaviour for continuous learning and safety around asking questions. Here is the video from LearnerLab: Trevor gets a magazine Then my a-ha, after a su ..read more