News

Excerpts from interviews with Graeme Moody – Radio Network

High Performance Players’ and Coaches’ Courses
February 2005

Eddie Jones, Wallaby Coach

"It's still early days but certainly the courses are very high quality, the coaches and players who attend are going to benefit from them."

"I learned from my experience there and reckon it's an excellent resource that everyone should use."

"It's performing a very good duty bringing coaches and players of different nationalities together to learn about high quality coaching, and it’s an area that's not well-equipped in world rugby."

"I don't think rugby in Australia is a big enough rugby market to support such an academy but Australian rugby is most definitely looking at the opportunity of sending Aussie players and coaches to benefit from the experience."

"It appears to be being well utilised by the New Zealand rugby community."

"There's no danger of giving away national rugby secrets. There's not too many secrets in the rugby world. Certainly strategy is kept close to the chest but strategy is temporary and changes from game to game, and team to team. A strategy that worked two years ago is not going to work today."

"It's more a forum for the exchange of thoughts and sharing of ideas than trading war secrets."

"It's an excellent resource."

Wayne Buck Shelford ....former All Black captain, North Harbour coach, Saracens head coach, now coach of the Navy team in Japan. Buck returned from Japan to attend just the second week of the two week elite coaching course, and will be back in June to complete the first week.

"It’s been very, very, very good."

"It's been fantastic for us to actually have the chance to spend the time with Eddie Jones Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen."

"All the information is so recent because they're real top line coaches now, and the game changes so fast."

"It's all about development. All coaches continue to try to develop and learn new ways. The game evolves fairly quickly."

"For myself who has been out of the NZ system for 2 and ½ years, this is about keeping up."

"My approach is changing all the time. The young people playing the game now are very different to say 20 years ago, ten years ago. The focus is on the people playing now rather than harping back to the old days when I was in the game."

"It's not about you, it’s about them."

"For us as coaches we need to develop better coaching of skill work, and to look for reasons why the skills aren't being developed."

"What Eddie gave us (for instance) was the way to review games and how to break it down into little segments and what to look for in those segments, to move on. Eddie's system was very, very simple, and as coaches we can tend to over complicate things."

"It's been well worthwhile. I'll be back from Japan in June to go through the first part of the course that I missed this time."

"I'm already looking forward to getting a couple of coaches from this course up to Japan to help me with the Navy team there."

"A valuable part of this course is that you're building up links with a network of coaches world wide that will be of on going assistance in your career."

"This academy is doing a fantastic job. Murray has seen a gap that needs filling."

Otago Development coach Bruce Carvell left the Feb 05 course totally sold on what IRANZ offered. Bruce is returning to Dunedin all fired up to make sure others share in what was offered to him.

"I'm going to go back home and try and get one of the funding agencies to get a scholarship going, so at least one extra player or coach can benefit from what’s on offer."

"I'll certainly be promoting the course to the Otago rugby union."

"Maybe it'll be possible to take some of the course instructors to Otago so at least players there can get part if not all the course."

"New Zealand rugby should be doing more to make full use of what's being offered by IRANZ."

"There is just so much information being made available and not enough use is being made of it."

"The South Africans here just couldn't believe international coaches like Eddie Jones, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen would ever be so available to them, and be so willing to share their expertise."

"Initially it was surreal to be sitting down to breakfast with Eddie Jones, Wayne Smith, Steve Hansen, Ian Jones, Richard Loe and Frank Bunce and chatting rugby on level terms. But they were all so down to earth they quickly made me feel at ease and treated me as an equal"

"Wallaby coach Eddie Jones was so impressive in his session on how to identify key problems and rectify them, it had me wondering how the All Blacks would ever beat the Wallabies. But those fears were quickly dispelled when Wayne Smith came into take the next session on attacking strategies. He showed himself to be every bit as capable and clever as Jones!"

"I return to coach the Otago Development team with a wonderful new array of skills and techniques to solve problems."

"The IRANZ Course should be run fulltime, when one course ends another should start. If NZ rugby doesn't make full use of what’s on offer it'd be very foolish."

"I want others to share the experience for the good of NZ rugby".

Andrew Ryland is one of six American rugby players booked to attend IRANZ courses this year. Andrew, a former line backer in the Penn State University team, now plays rugby for the New York Athletic Club and the All American National team.

"To work in a small team situation of only 20 of us with international coaches like Eddie Jones, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen is absolutely unbelievable for any young player in this game."

"I think the idea of creating and exploiting space is the biggest thing that's hit me. American rugby is kind of a little smash now. You know you run here and if there's some one in the way too bad. So the session with Smith about opening up space, feeding it and getting to that space made a big impression."

"Rugby's very different to American football, much more free flowing and you have to make decisions on the fly and on the run, which I find one of the more frustrating and difficult things about rugby. It's kind of a two headed monster, because the player freedom also makes the game much more free flowing and allows much more creativity than in American football."

"It's a funny story. When he (Buck Shelford) came in I noticed he was quite a large man. But it wasn’t until I was in the library looking at one of the books on New Zealand rugby that I put two and two together."

"Some of the position specific coaches like Ian Jones and Frank Bunce are much newer so I knew them straight off."

"When I go home I'm going to be the envy of all my friends to be able to say I had coaching sessions with the names that I’ve had, that I've had personal coaching sessions with the names that I've had."

"A lot of guys back home would love to have this opportunity that I was blessed to have had."

"All the things I've learned will make me a much better player and I want to hand it on to anyone who'll listen to me back home."

"It's just unbelievable for any athlete, any rugby player wanting to reach the next level to be exposed to these ideas and these theories that are kind of above and beyond where you are at."

"It's a great investment in your career."

James Strachan, sent by Auckland Rugby Union. An openside flanker who plays for the Auckland Development team and Grammar Carlton Club.

"The food was very nice. I put on a kilogram in spite of all the hard work and training!!"

"I've already spent some time talking to my club coach about what I experienced at IRANZ - and he's so impressed by what he's heard he wants me to put it down on paper for him."

"I'll write about technique and decision-making in the contact area, outline drills to develop decision-making on defence and attack, and the need to work on basic skills which involve a lot of intricate processes that I wasn't aware of before going on the course. For instance, by the time you break down what's involved in passing a ball successfully, it's amazing how many linked processes are needed to do it consistently well."

"We learnt so much I can't wait to start practising some of the drills so they become automatic. Simple things like ensuring my legs don't cross as I run into a certain position to make a tackle, which meant I was very easy to sidestep."

"To do things on the field with a bit more technique and a bit more thinking means you do them so much more effectively. Even watching Super 12 games now I notice where things could have been done better."

"It does seem pretty incredible to have been coached by the likes of Eddie Jones, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen - a real privilege. I just can't wait to start putting it into practise."