Training - Wednesday 16th March

Training went really well last night. We began with some analysis in the impressive video suite at the club, outlining the themes for the evening: continuity of play, never allowing the ball to slow down. We moved from drill to drill, each logically a step up from the previous. What we do understand in Scotland is the need to win the contact – win the duel. But that is where most coaching normally stops or loses clarification. The French, as I have already said, are obsessed with having this diamond formation at all times, with the ball carrier having an option deep either side and a man dans l’axe immediately behind him. If this happens the ball need never slow down, each person who takes the ball on adds pace to it, blasting through the contact, off-loading before or after the tackle.

 I felt sharp, fast, physically excellent, though I was still making mistakes that I wouldn’t expect to make, giving it when I should have held it and vice versa. At one point I got so frustrated after several failures that I slammed the ball down into the ground, like a petulant tennis player with his racket. I had done well, thrown the right pass, supported, taken the ball again and just had to finish off with a final 2 v 1. I held onto it. The coach telling me that was a knock-on didn’t help.

We finished off with more of the conditioned game we like to play. 12 v 12 roughly, a ruck = failure. It’s absolutely knackering but when it comes off it is wonderful to play in, whether you’re a part of the cellule who offload their way up a touchline or whether you’re in position waiting for it to be spread out. It makes me want to be a coach.

One of the things we focus more on in Scotland is first-phase moves. Where we want to often thrown 1 or 2 passes with lots of movement to put a man in hole then under the posts, the French don’t seem to be in such a rush to score. They simply want to create this diamond of support, and score using every single support runner if need be. Our arsenal of first-phase moves is frustratingly small, and I’m always trying to bolster it. One conversation was telling:

“But if he gets tackled then he has no support”

“Well the point is that all his support are away creating the hole for him to run through. If he gets tackled then he gets tackled but why not have a go putting him through for a one v one with the full-back?”

“Hmm”

I suppose a perfectly planned, perfectly practiced backs move doesn’t quite fit in with the French mentality. Off-the-cuff is better.