Lessons from Great Coaches: Rob Baxter and Exeter

I love learning about how other coaches manage their teams.  This is the second in what I intend to be a series of posts about what some exemplary coaches are doing across the globe, and what lessons we can take from them as amateur coaches. Imagine yourself a professional level coach.  Now imagine yourself with [...]

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Training for Chaos

I’m currently reading The Red Devils, by G.G. Norton, an official history of the British Airborne forces.  Having never served, I don’t know if the military equates to sports, though many things I’ve read about training suggests sometimes it does.  Either way, I read a great quote in this book which immediately made me think [...]

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Sevens Advice

I’m not the biggest fan of sevens, but it can be a great venue to grow the game in smaller areas / schools and can serve to create a microcosm of the (much superior ) XVs game for skill and vision development purposes.  As some schools in these parts have opted for sevens tournaments this [...]

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Keeping It Simple

Read this quote a few weeks ago from Sir Clive Woodward, former World Cup winning England coach, that I thought further emphasises my point that rugby’s a simple game that we don’t need to over-complicate.  I can’t think that I’ve ever imposed a complicated game plan or even a lot of structure on the players [...]

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Lessons from Great Coaches: Stuart Lancaster 1

Interim England coach Stuart Lancaster has his first Test – both in name and practice – this weekend against the Aulde Enemy, Scotland (or is England their aulde enemy? … yeah, that … anyway).  I think I’ve mentioned that I was a fan of England during the Woodward era, but not as impressed with his [...]

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