Just what do the players and coaching staff do all week? We are really poor in several areas of what I would call "core skills" which anyone with even a small amount of talent should be able to perform to a decent standard with regular practice/training. Things like.....
Kicking for touch. We should be making a minimum of 30 meters with every kick but we are lucky to make 20 at the most. If it was my job to kick for touch then I would stay back an extra half an hour after every training session and practice kicking for touch and learn just how far I can kick it and expect to make touch comfortably. In the second half today CT just didn't seem interested and basically told R.Horne to kick to touch instead. If thats his job he should WANT to take the kicks and do a good job of it. If he cant do it to a decent standard somebody else should be given the job.
Passing accuracy and speed. Its just so slow considering these are professional rugby players. Its never in front of the man to run on to at pace without having to break stride and its never a long flat ball to create a bit of space by missing 1 or even 2/3 players. If this skill was practiced every day then I see no reason why our players couldn't improve especially as they should have a decent sill level in the first place.
Timing and Angles of Runs. This is not even a "skill" as such but more about attitude and being "clever". This can be trained through using "phases of play" training and repeatedly working on certain moves over and over again so that in a game situation the players instinctively take the right option (which isn't a drop-off inside ball all the live long day!)
Video Analysis sessions. Do these even happen? Do we highlight weaknesses and try to exploit them? Do we taylor our game plan depending on the team we are playing? Do we try and get the players involved and give them the incentive to think for themselves so that they actually want to improve and win?
Just how professional are we behind the scenes? In a sport that has a salary cap we should be looking at improving in every way possible in the areas that dont count on the cap but do help to improve the performance of the players and the team.
I'm not convinced this is happening and if anything we seem to be getting worse and relying on things happening in games rather than making them happen or asking a player to come up with some individual piece of magic.
One final thought. Do we have a problem with player power at this club? Are the players only interested in giving 100% when it suits them and anytime something happens they dont like they think they can play poorly until they get their own way? If so we will never get to the top of the sport until something is done about it.
I hate thinking this deeply about bloody rugby!!
