The following is Ross Silverman’s diary of his IRANZ experience.
Thursday, May 27
Left LAX tonight at 9:30. Not exactly how I thought I'd be spending my birthday, but I'm not complaining.
One of my favorite parts about flying international is the selection of movies you get on your own personal TV. I watched Shutter Island first. Pretty interesting flick, but I'm always a sucker for Scorsese flicks.
After that I watched some classic rugby (gotta love Air New Zealand for that) and hit the sack. I was lucky that no one was sitting next me. Or, if you want to look at it the other way, the person that missed their flight is lucky they didn't have to sit next to a 260 pound tight head prop for 12 hours.
Saturday, May 30
Whoa, where'd Friday go?
Hope you guys didn't take yours for granted because the passengers on Air New Zealand flight #1 didn't get a Friday. It's alright though because I get to double up on Fridays when I come back.
Checked into a hotel and met some of the boys from camp today. Myself, a guy from Englandand two from Ireland arrived a day early.
We met two other players from Wales at our hotel. I don't know how long they've been here, because I can't understand a word they're saying. I've resorted to nodding and smiling and so far I think I have them fooled.
We made a couple of trips into town today for food and to get out of our rooms. Things are pretty boring right now but are bound to pick up tomorrow when we move into our rooms at the IRANZ camp.
Sunday, May 31
Welsh Language Update: I'm proud to say my Welsh is getting better. I can understand one of the Welsh boys and I'm pretty sure I made out three words from the other.
We moved into the IRANZ camp today. The facilities look top notch and everybody seems nice. It's about half Kiwi and half internationals.
Didn't do much today except for get to know one another.
Monday, May 31
Our day started at 7:30 am with some fitness testing; one of the last things I wanted to do that early in the morning.
I was held out of the 60m dash and 400m run because I'm still nursing a calf strain suffered at the Eagle team training camp on May 7-8. It's better to play things safe early on so I can participate in camp when things start getting fun.
I did run the 1500m and finished in 6:08, which I think is in the top 6 for the camp. Not bad for a prop.
After fitness testing, we did some basic skills testing: passing, rucking, tackling, and defensive lines. We will watch tape of ourselves on Friday, which should be a great learning experience. I think I fared well but the eye in the sky never lies.
Our final training session of the day was a passing tutorial. It wasn't too physically demanding but was packed with some solid info and drills. I got out my notebook when the session ended to ensure I remembered what I had learned.
We finished up that evening with an hour long session on mental toughness, which I found extremely interesting. Many American coaches think they can force mental toughness onto a team by running them into ground. What this approach accomplishes, in my opinion, is that players get sick or injured and a negative towards the coach is created.
At IRANZ, they taught us that the way to get mentally tough is by exercising your brain and they showed us several techniques to accomplish that.
Mental toughness is what separates the great players from the good ones and may be one of the most important things we learned at IRANZ.
Tuesday, June 1
Today’s entry is pretty short.
If you don't like it, find a big log and 6 friends (who may not be your friends afterward) and run 7 kilometers carrying the log...in the rain. Make sure you run through a river and up hills too. See if you want to do anything but sleep afterwards.
That’s all the energy I can muster.
Wednesday, June 2
All the boys are pretty sore from yesterday’s log run but team seems to be closer and better off for it. It forced us to work together and you get a sense as to how people operate in adverse situations. That said, it's not something I'm hoping to do again.Today we concentrated on recovery. A massage therapist/Pilates instructor taught us some self massage, stretching and Pilates techniques.We also had visits from Andre Bell, Eroni Clark, and Bruce Hemara.Andre is a former NPC player who has been coaching for about 12 years. He's currently assistant coach of the Wellington Lions, an Air New Zealand Cup team. Andre worked on how to attack off turnover ball and showed us some great film on what his team does off turnovers. Then he brought us onto the field, threw us into some game specific turnover situations, and had us try to simulate what we had just watched. Bruce Hemara, a former All Black hooker, coaches Manawatu, another Air NZ Cup team. We spent an hour with him working on scrum technique. It wasn't high intensity physically, but we went over a lot of technique and scrum basics. Our session with Eroni Clark, another former All Black, touched on what’s needed to live complete lives and to set ourselves up for happiness and success. We'll have another couple of sessions with him later on.
Thursday, June
Thursday morning we had back to back practice sessions. The first dealt with contact around the breakdown and things got pretty physical. In the second session as we concentrated on team defense. It was more about what we're trying to accomplish tactically than tackle technique.
In the afternoon we met IRANZ nutritionist Rachel Svenson. After the meeting we went to the grocery store to buy food for dinner. Some of the younger boys were excited to be cooking for themselves but the novelty was lost on me since I've been cooking for some time now.
The team is getting along really well and it was fun to just hang out in a more relaxed environment.
When we returned to the academy we had the rest of night off. Most of the tight five went to the gym to workout. It was a good feeling as I hadn't gotten a workout in for about a week. I'm somewhat of a gym junkie as I work as a strength and conditioning coach.
Friday, June 4
Friday started at 6:30 am with another workout. The regular gym members weren’t too happy when 10 ruggers walked in and started throwing weights all over the place.
After that we had one on ones with the coaching staff, strength and conditioning coach, physio, doctor, and nutritionist. It was good to talk to everybody but I'd rather be training than in meetings all mornings.
Following lunch we had three practice sessions.
The first was a basic team run, where we went through our pattern and plays off set pieces.
Then former All Black Scott Robinson came out for a double session of what he called "tackle and jackal" and lineouts.
In the tackle session we finally got to hit somebody who wasn't holding a pad or wearing a tackle suit. A lot of what we did dealt with how to properly track an opponent by staying on their inside shoulder, putting them in what Scott called the "power V", and then getting to our feet quickly to play the ball.
In the lineout session I did a lot of lifting from the front. Most find it more difficult than lifting from the back so if you can do it well from the front, you can lift from the back just fine. We did a number of drills moving forwards and backwards in groups of three before the jump and lift.
We finished the session with a “quickest in the air” contest, which my group won.
We have the rest of the weekend off.
Saturday, June 5
Some of boys made it into town last night for a couple of pints. It was a good opportunity to get to know each other off the pitch. We had a good time but got back pretty early as we were pretty beat down from the long week.
A lot of the Kiwi boys went home to play for their respective clubs as they're in the middle of their season. A group of about 12 remained in We watched a bit of rugby before heading into town to hang out at the mall. When we got back, I worked out and then tried to catch up on some much needed sleep.
Sunday, June 6
I had the gym to myself and got in a good hour and a half workout.The Kiwi's who left for the weekend returned and it was good to find out how their matches went.
We had team meeting about the week’s schedule and then were free to do whatever we wanted. So we watched the movie Role Models, took a quick ping pong and pool break, before coming back to watch The Blind Side.
Monday, June 7
We have a lot of guest coaches coming in this week and also play our first match.
Our morning started with a 6:30 gym session and finished with a mental skills session conducted by former All Black, Murray Mexted, the founder of IRANZ. Sandwiched in between were a skills session and a team run.
This course looks at all the sides of rugby, not just the physical. Mental skills are learned and practiced here every day and can make a huge difference in one’s rugby career. Learning from a guy like Murray Mexted, who was on the top of his sport for a long time, makes you pay close attention to what’s being taught.
We're having Hangi tonight. We buried it in the ground earlier in the day and will be digging it out after our last training today.
Tuesday, June 8
OOOOh, was last night’s Hangi good! By far the best meal I've had so far. Lots of beef, chicken, pork, potatoes and gravy and you have a meal that would make any front rower happy.
Natal Sharks Coach John Plumtree came in today. He'll be here through the week and I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can from him.
The tempo was established early this morning with a training session on the breakdown. It was cold and rainy but all the boys were happy to be out on the pitch. With a fair amount of contact, it was the closest simulation to a match that we've had here so far.
Things lightened up after that as our team, including myself, is carrying a lot of injuries. It's pretty frustrating, but I'm taking part in as much as I can.
We installed our defense today and with only two days before our match we don't have long to master it. It was less physical than the morning but we had to stay switched on and mentally focused.
Wednesday, June 8
Ali Williams and John Plumtree took us through lineouts in the morning. It's interesting to see the subtle differences between how the Kiwis and South African's do things. Both shared some great tips and we did our best to balance what each wanted to see.
After lunch we got into maul training and the backs took part in the session. The session gradually picked up in intensity and we started getting more chances to hit the backs. It's all in good fun but they need to understand where they stand in the pecking order.
After that we got into kickoff returns. The session started slow as the locks and lifters had trouble judging the ball in the air but we were eventually able to figure things out and had a pretty good training session.
Dinner was pushed back an hour to make time for George Gregan to speak to us about leadership. The former Australian scrumhalf is a legend and I can't think of anybody more qualified to speak on leadership. He gave us so much quality information that that my hand was cramping from taking notes.
Tomorrow is our first match and all our position coaches are coming in the morning. There's a huge buzz going around, but I need to rest so I can perform tomorrow.
Thursday, June 10
A great day.
It started in the morning with a couple of scrum sessions with All Black Craig Dowd. He's played all over the world on both sides of the front row. As a prop, I tried to soak up as much information as possible and then write down everything I could remember when the session ended.
We played our first match that afternoon. It was a great feeling for me because I hadn't played for 10 months and was really missing the excitement. We ended up winning 47-17 but all the boys knew we could play better. While it felt great to be back out there, I know I could have played a lot better. Craig Dowd was coaching me and I learned a lot from the game and his assessment.
Friday, June 11
After watching film today, everyone’s consensus was that there's a lot of room for improvement. No one seems too happy with our performance, regardless of the 47-17 result. Getting pointers from the likes of Craig Dowd, John Plumtree, Jon Preston, and George Gregan should help tons; not only for next week but for our entire careers.
We're on our way to River Valley Lodge today. It's a chance for the players to get away from everything: rugby, the facilities, the coaches, and try to come closer as a team.
The lodge is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so I'll be going dark for the next couple of days.
Sunday, June 13
We were the only ones staying at the lodge Friday night, which made things pretty interesting. Twenty ruggers with a full bar, nowhere to go, and no outsiders to interact with could be a recipe for disaster. But we all survived the night, some of us in better shape than others
On Saturday morning the whole team went 'rafting' on the river. I use the word rafting loosely, as my craft spent about 30 seconds actually rafting. The rest of the two hours were spent trying to throw others off our boat, trying to capsize our boat, or trying to get close enough to board another boat and wreak havoc.
That night a bus load of girls checked into the lodge. Some enjoyed our company; others wanted nothing to do with us.
Monday, June 14
Monday it was back to the grind.
We had two long training sessions today, which were much needed because we had a lot to correct coming off Thursday’s game.
After dinner we had a presentation by veteran administrator David Moffett about professional rugby. His presentation was pretty funny and a lot of what he said was true.
If any of us plan on becoming professional in this day and age, there’s pretty much a 24-hour camera on us. With new age media, anyone and everyone can be a reporter. We must be aware of that and try to portray ourselves in the best light.
Tuesday, June 15
Tuesday would be our last day of hard training before our second match on Thursday. The forwards worked about an hour and a half on scrums, which we desperately needed. While we dominated the scrums in the last match, we were not fundamentally sound and had a lot to improve on.
In our afternoon session, we had a team run. We still need to work on our fitness and keeping the defense spread, but things are going a lot better than they were last week.
Wednesday, June 16
The intensity was dialed back the day before our second game but we still had to stay mentally switched on.
Ian Foster, coach of the Waikato Chiefs, has been here the last couple of days. He spent most of his time with the backs but worked with the whole team today; doing some counter attack and turnover ball in the morning. It was pretty much a walk through of what we want to do.
In the afternoon we ran through it. I was surprised how well it went, considering that we had just covered it for the first time in the morning.
We finished up with another team run. Everybody is excited for tomorrow.
Thursday, June 17
Thursday is the final day of the camp and the day we play our second match. We realize that we're better than what we showed last week and can't wait to put forth a great performance. It's the last time this team will ever be together and we'd love to leave each other with a good memory.
Friday, June 18
Our second match was a big improvement. We jumped out to an early 10-0 lead and then played defense for what felt like an eternity.
We just couldn't force any turnovers. The opposition had a very solid structure but we didn't contest the rucks enough and didn't really look to force turnovers.
Our defense was strong but anytime you play defense in your zone for the majority of the half, you're bound to give up some points. This we did and went into halftime lucky to have a 10-5 lead.
The second half went a lot better. We forced turnovers on defense, controlled possession on offense and were able to recycle ball quickly. Our defense stayed strong and we were able to win 27-5.
We had a post game dinner at a nice restaurant and then all the boys went out and enjoyed our last night together.
Today was my last day at IRANZ and it was definitely bitter-sweet. I'm excited to return to Santa Barbara but I made a lot of great friends who will definitely be missed. We're all talking about having a team reunion in a couple years in Vegas, but who knows if that will ever materialize.
Thanks
As my last journal, I’d like to thank the entire IRANZ staff for the time and effort they expended on me and the rest of the team. The experience and coaching I received will benefit me for the rest of my playing career.
I'd also like to thank my physio, Maury Hyashida, and strength and conditioning coach, Jez Bettle, for helping me return to rugby stronger and fitter than I've every been.
Finally, and most importantly, I'd like to thank the US Rugby Football Foundation. The work that the Foundation does behind the scenes is instrumental to the success of USA Rugby and has made a huge impact on my career and those of many other players.