Profound thanks are due to Matt Sherratt and Lee Blackett for proving last weekend – with Wales and England A respectively – that less can be more when it comes to coaching rugby teams. In doing so, they exposed some tedious myths.
In this case, the ‘less’ is time together and the ‘more’ is the performance outcome. Both men had to work fast to make a positive impact and they both managed it in fine style.
Sherratt was rightly and richly acclaimed for transforming Wales from a broken rabble into a side who nearly upset Ireland, while Blackett, Bath’s highly-regarded attack coach, quickly assembled England’s second string and masterminded a slick eclipse of their Irish counterparts.
Speaking on the BBC, former Wales captain Sam Warburton was impressed and near-incredulous about Cardiff head coach Sherratt’s rapid overhaul, saying: ‘He freshened the boys up, so they were full of beans for the game and he imprinted, so quickly and impressively, his attacking gameplan. I can’t believe he made so many positive changes within one week.’
There should be a lesson here for the professional game at large. Stop over-complicating an already complicated sport. What Sherratt and Blackett have shown is that it doesn’t need to take months and years to establish cohesion and fluency and lethal potency, in a team full of good players.
They have demonstrated that so much can be achieved by trusting the talent and not clogging up the works with a torrent of data and detail, structure and metaphorical chains.
Wales interim head coach Matt Sherratt (above) deserves profound thanks and praise for proving that sometimes less can be more when it comes to coaching rugby teams
Wales were much improved at the weekend and almost pulled off a shock upset against Ireland
Sherratt showed it doesn’t need to take months and years to establish cohesion and fluency
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What a heartening message it sends: pick players in their favoured positions, give them a simple outline of expectations – mindset and system – and, to a certain extent, let them get on with it.
Just don’t expect this attitude to catch on with Steve Borthwick. The meticulous England head coach is reportedly up in arms about losing a training week before the next autumn campaign, but does more time in camp always equate to clear and indisputable progress? No. Hell, no.
This is tongue in cheek, but it might be best if they did away with all the drone footage, the endless hours behind laptops, forensic analysis and over-thinking every tiny element of how the next opponents play and just liberate good players with concise orders. Or maybe ban them from gathering until seven days before a Test, so they don’t have enough time to tie themselves in knots.
Of course, this sort of view would doubtless unite the coaching fraternity – possibly even including Sherratt and Blackett – in eye-rolling outrage. It would be seen as an ignorant verdict on the vast amount of work which goes into making a team function well with the ball, in an era when defences are so suffocating.
But there is just something better about rugby as a product when it is played in a natural, heads-up fashion. Look at France’s performance in Rome. After their route-one onslaught softened up the over-powered Italians; it was all ‘joue, joue’ – playing what they saw and using well-honed instincts to seek and exploit space. Imagine England doing that? No, neither can I. Not right now, anyway.
Fabien Galthie was supposed to be on the brink of a trademark Gallic implosion, following his team’s shock loss at Twickenham and the bitter recriminations which erupted in the aftermath. So much for that theory. Instead, his France team produced rugby from the heavens.
Maybe it all came about because he spent day and night looking at data on a laptop and loaded more detail on to his players, or maybe – just maybe – he trusted his own instincts to alter selection and simplify tactics.
Meanwhile, if Sherratt maintains his miraculous impact, the WRU should make him their only target to replace Warren Gatland, whatever he says about not wanting the job. Why not? His lack of profile and Test pedigree shouldn’t matter if he proves he can do the job. The solution doesn’t have to be on the other side of the world, it can be hiding in plain sight.
Lee Blackett should be lauded for the same reason with England A, who beat Ireland A 28-12
Sherratt was named interim head coach after Wales parted ways with Warren Gatland (above)
Dublin decider set to be a cracker
What a title shoot-out is in prospect when Ireland and France meet in Dublin on March 8.
It promises to be an intriguing clash of cultures; Irish efficiency and nous and organisation against French might and off-the-cuff brilliance. It is the game which will sell the tournament to the wider world. It is the game which should have broadcasters queuing up to bid for the next Six Nations TV deal after this year’s championship comes to an end (once officials have FINALLY sorted out the Nations League, to complete the rights package).
It is the game which should remind the southern superpowers that the best of the north can rise to their heights, despite so much World Cup evidence to the contrary.
Let’s be clear, most neutrals will crave a French win, as it would set up a glorious Super Saturday climax to the annual European showpiece, with three teams potentially in the mix to claim the title.
Replica trophies in various locations, different colour ribbons organised and ready, multiple contingency stocks of champagne on ice and celebratory fireworks, plus sky-high tension and twisting, turning drama all day and night. Yes, please to that scenario.
Ireland are welcoming France next on March 8 – a match that is bound to be a title decider
British and Irish Lions with a new accent?
The way things are going, there could be scarcely any British and Irish accents within the potential Lions Test back line Down Under this summer.
Over the weekend, Ireland’s Kiwi contingent further enhanced their chances of featuring in the series against the Wallabies, as James Lowe, Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Park starred in the hard-fought win over Wales.
At Twickenham, Scotland’s giant South African, Duhan van der Merwe, was Man of the Match against England and Tom Jordan from Auckland was a stand-out performer in midfield, in the absence of the team’s Australian captain and Lion-in-waiting, Sione Tuipulotu.
Meanwhile, there is a vast array of native talent at openside, where Ben Curry showed that he can become a tour contender, along with twin brother Tom, while Jac Morgan delivered another epic statement about his all-court class and Rory Darge co-captained Scotland with distinction.
Good luck to Andy Farrell with sifting through that lot, while not forgetting Sam Underhill, Tommy Reffell, Josh van der Flier and even Jack Willis, over in Toulouse.
New Zealand-born James Lowe (centre) is a leading contender to be on the Lions tour this year
France were stylish in more ways than one against Italy
If there are going to be kit changes as a means of helping colour-blind people to tell teams apart – which is obviously a well-intentioned initiative – then the alternate shirts should be subject to stringent standards.
Sadly, Ireland’s was a sartorial catastrophe, with what looked like streaks of green paint on a white background. It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that, after coming on as a replacement, Aki willingly spilt a large amount of his own blood in order to partially cover up the atrocity he was forced to wear.
At least France were less offensive on the spectating eye with their plain white change-kit shirts, with the suppliers’ trademark stripes across the top. It wasn’t only their attacking play which was stylish.
France captain Antoine Dupont and his team-mates looked the part in their away kit vs Italy
The last word
Amid the aftermath of the Calcutta Cup close encounter at Twickenham came the shock revelation that Scotland’s Finn Russell was forced to take his conversion shot for glory from the wrong place.
At the time, it appeared as if he was trying to ‘steal’ a couple of metres, in from the left touchline, but it turned out when footage was reviewed that he was wrongly ordered to set the tee two metres too wide, by referee Pierre Brousset.
How on earth can that happen, as the decisive act in a huge game, in front of 82,000 spectators and millions of viewers?
It is an utterly unacceptable oversight, when there is a TMO who can use camera footage to provide guidance to the referee at crucial junctures, which the Russell conversion to win the match at the death most certainly was.
This episode came after Tommy Freeman’s try was allowed to stand, in defiance of even the most cursory glance at replays. It was not a great occasion for rugby officialdom and demands action.
Russell should have been entitled to appeal against the placement foisted on him, but that would have required the shot clock to be paused. A mechanism needs to be put in place to prevent a repeat of the sort of error which unfairly harms a team’s prospects and undermines the credibility of the sport.
