Worth a listen

[Brandnewtorugby]

Hi, just listened to Rob Baxter on The Rugby Dungeon pod cast. He is very generous with his answers where others would be more guarded. Found it very interesting and lots of insights that are probably useful for more than just rugby.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Thanks I'll dig it out.

I know Bryan Moore isn't everyone's cup of tea but I'm currently enjoying listening to Ben Ryan  on a recent episode. Some interesting discussions on France, their fitness, or lack of it, and why they're not very good at travelling.

Ben is obviously a diligent student of the game and a deep thinker.

[InBetweenWasp]

About halfway through it.  Some interesting tidbits there:

-- Exeter often going to the corner is largely because he sees 3 points as a negative.  It's not a great effort:reward ratio and ends up with you having to try and exit your own half again.  He doesn't feel it punishes teams enough both from a points perspective or an energy perspective as it gives them time to rest by the posts, as well as take a slow walk to the kick-off if needed.  So tap and go, or 5m catch and drive is also about trying to place at pace and with power to exhaust their opposition

-- They encourage tempo all around.  Sees that if they are dawdling at lineouts, or going down at scrum-time it gives the opposition time to recover and backs Exeter's fitness over other teams so wants to see them getting to set-piece play as quickly as possible to reduce the recovery time between phases for other teams.

-- Recruitment he looks at hundreds of minutes of game time, often looking at what the player does off of the ball and their body language (Do they look exasperated or defeated when something negative happens, or do they reset and try to rectify) as well as looking for coachability as the prime asset.  Believes that if a player - even a top one - isn't coachable, then there's no improvement to be had from them.  You effectively recruit them at their peak and it's downhill from there

-- Bats back the chat about de-powering the scrums and says he doesn't solve the problem that people are looking for.  Claims lots of talk from supporters and pundits suggesting players are too big/powerful and that they need to encourage more rounded athleticism from players to improve the game won't give the result they're seeking.  Explains that if you de-power the scrum, you don't wear out the opposite making the defence harder to break.  Also explains that what happens when back-rows don't need to scrummage as hard and are faster/lighter: They break from the scrum quicker to defend.  Argues that the power game (when combined with tempo) helps break down opposition and thus enables teams to score more tries. 

Looking forward to the rest of the interview!