On the eve of what promises to be another compelling Gallagher Premiership campaign, the season launch at Twickenham last Thursday gave us a chance to pick some of the sport’s most astute brains.
With a year of twists and turns ahead, Telegraph Sport canvassed opinions from the clubs’ directors of rugby and head coaches. Underrated players, fitness drills, salary-cap regulations and referees were among the subjects to come up.
Who is the most underrated player across the league?
Phil Dowson, Northampton Saints director of rugby: “Sam Lewis, who was at Worcester and is on trial at Bristol now. Class bloke off the pitch, can do a lot of things on the pitch. I was lucky enough to play alongside him and he’s brilliant. Api Ratuniyarawa as well.”
Lee Blackett, Wasps head coach: “It’s safer to go outside of Wasps because it depends on whether we’re trying to re-sign that player or not! Most underrated… (to Dan Robson and Gabriel Oghre) Boys, give me some names. (Robson suggests Sam James, Oghre suggests Tom Doughty). I’ll come back to this.”
Tabai Matson, Harlequins head coach: “The most underrated player at Quins is Tom Lawday. He’s just so consistent for us and often doesn’t get the accolades for doing the unseen work. But the league… I’d have to come back. My brain’s looking into the archive. It’s a bloody good one.”
Rob Baxter, Exeter Chiefs director of rugby: “I can still say it even though he has moved but I always thought Tom O’Flaherty was underrated. He never really seemed to be talked about around international rugby but he produced for us every week. I would say the same about Jack Yeandle. I am surprised that he has never really been talked about for international rugby. His time may have passed now but he has been going for years winning trophies without ever really been talked about.”
George Skivington, Gloucester head coach: “Jeez, in the whole Premiership? Oh, wow. I actually don't have anyone who springs to mind. There's so much social media and attention on it now, it's not like the old days. The stats are all out there. Back in the day there were proper underrated players who unless you were a hardcore fan you knew about.”
Johann van Graan, Bath head coach: “I'll be in a better position to answer that next season. Everyone's new to me.”
Declan Kidney, London Irish director of rugby: “Most tighthead props. Player of the match will rarely be a tighthead. It's the cornerstone of what teams do. It allows everyone to do what they do.”
Alex Sanderson, Sale Sharks director of rugby: “You exist in your own bubble, don’t you? I’m biased, but I’m going to say Tom O’Flaherty. And the stats from last season prove it as far as his metres on the field. He’s wild, brilliant and fun off the field, too. We’ve got a good player and a good lad, there. But he’s rated – I expect big things from him.”
Pat Lam, Bristol Bears director of rugby: “Jeez. The problem is I rate all my players. The guy who I backed a long time ago and then he got injured and has come back is Sam Jeffries. He went on tour with England, didn't get a game, but it just emphasises that people picked up on his ability.”
Dave Walder, Newcastle Falcons head coach: “Will Welch.”
Steve Diamond, Worcester Warriors director of rugby: “Ben Curry and Ted Hill.”
Steve Borthwick, Leicester Tigers head coach: “Dan Cole.”
Matson: (Three minutes later) “I want to say Freddie Burns. He is highly acclaimed, but I think he’s more valuable than that drop-goal in the final. There’s what he does in the locker room. He’s interesting, you know? I thought George Ford was phenomenal last year for Leicester. It would have been easy for Burns to be a bit-part, but when he stepped in, he stepped in well.”
Blackett: (Five minutes later) “He’s rated, obviously, but Joe Marler is massive. I do want to give you a really good one… Will Collier. (Dan Robson shouts: “He got an England call-up!”)”
Which players have led the way in pre-season fitness work?
Blackett: “Will Porter. That’s because Dan Robson is over there and it p----- him off. Dan Frost (looks at Gabriel Oghre). Will Porter second.”
Mark McCall, Saracens director of rugby: “Ben Earl.”
Sanderson: “Tom Curtis. He went to Australia [to play for Western Sydney Two Blues in the Shute Shield] and has come back and won all the fitness tests. Ben Curry has been a very close second.”
Matson: “Forwards-wise, Luke Wallace is always at the front. The old battler still has a lot of spring in his step. Lewis Gjaltema in the backs has been carving up.”
Lam: “Piers O'Conor. He always kills it.”
Walder: “Brett Connon.”
Baxter: “We had two or three guys who turned up in superb condition. Olly Woodburn recorded the best scores and is in the best shape he has been for a number of seasons. Jack Yeandle again and Ben Moon as well I have been really impressed by.”
Kidney: “The one thing with the London Irish players was interested to see how they would come back after a few disappointments. I've been impressed with the way they've gone about their business. It's what I was hoping for.”
Dowson: “There’s a young lad called Matty Arden, who was unfortunately injured last year. Also a guy we’ve signed from Newcastle called Robbie Smith. We have a fitness challenge called the Blakiston Run which we do every year and he was very impressive.”
Skivington: “Some of our young lads did really well. Harry Taylor, our young seven, he was really good. Couple of our young locks, Arthur Clark and Cam Jordan, were really good on the fitness.”
Van Graan: “I wouldn't want to single out a player. I would say the players have responded exceptionally well as a group to what I've asked of them. One of the first things I said was body composition and conditioning, and they've taken that on board. In a way, we'll have the data to show how far we've grown.”
Borthwick: “Jimmy Gopperth.”
Do you have bespoke fitness tests?
Dowson: “We do the traditional fitness tests but the Blakiston Run is a challenge we do. Freddie Blakiston was an ex-Saint and a [British] Lion who won the Military Cross for rescuing people from an ammo train that was bombed by the Turks in the First World War. Effectively, it’s a 2.5km run with 10 sandbag carries. Eight are 30kg, two are over 50kg. Then there’s another 2.5km run. We’ve tried to level it up so it isn’t just the fit boys who are good at running.”
Lam: “We just do the bronco. The boys love it (smiles).”
Walder: “Yes, put together by our own S&C (strength and conditioning) team based on how we play and what we want to do.”
Baxter: “We do a session on the beach and we do a weekly AST, which is a coned off run. The guys have done it for numerous pre-seasons now so we can always use it as a marker. It is shuttle runs with bending poles depending on the position you play. Backs do longer arcing runs. You do a number of reps that gets progressively harder. The biggest problem with fitness tests – and other coaches may say the same thing – is that you get S&C staff who change the parameters quite quickly so you never get a marker of where someone was compared to last season or the season before. We have always got the AST to show where they are from pre-season to pre-season and have a lot of data on how players’ fitness progresses.”
James Kenny of Exeter Chiefs completes a shuttle sprint - Premiership Rugby round-table: 'There is one referee you want at home'
The Exeter Chiefs' squad take part in a shuttle sprint session on Exmouth Beach Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Blackett: “I don’t believe in tests. If you bring boys in and test them, you are missing days of rugby. We need the boys touching the balls straightaway and how we measure fitness is through their effort habits. We judge four things – speed to breakdown, re-setting in attack, kick-chase and reload after the tackle. Every session, boys will get a score on that. We judge whether they’re fit on what we think wins rugby games.”
Sanderson: “We’ve got the bronco. We don’t really covet it. We have daily metres, accelerations. We also do seat-racing, which is a bit different. It was taken from rowing teams, who have a two- or three-month racing season within a nine-month training season, so they race for seats on a metaphorical Olympic team. If we have 45 players training, we’ll generally be 15 on 15 and once a week we’ll have a seat race, based on all the subjective analysis, with different sections – props and locks, hookers and back row, inside backs and outside backs. There’s a massive, real-life boat on the wall and one from each position gets to wear a T-shirt like in the Tour de France. They get points for their team and at the end of pre-season, the winning team will get a free meal. Tommy Taylor’s been good, so have Rob du Preez and Sam James. I’d say seat-racing is the most coveted performance prize we have.”
Skivington: “We don't do fitness tests. I would deem it as, I'll know if you're not fit. We don't do a bronco or beep test, we just monitor day-to-day.”
Van Graan: “I've tried to run all the different fitness tests, so the coach feels what the players are going through. The bronco is the most common, the repeated sprint ability test is really tough.”
Kidney: “It's the one part of the year where you get to work on the nuances of the game without a match at the end of week. Sometimes it takes to instil some things. We're learning to score more tries and concede a few less. Players hate testing, so the bronco, there was a time where you used to prove if you were fit or not. Now it's used for the players to stay healthy. You can push them more or less depending on how they do.”
Matson: “We do the bronco, which is pretty standard. Lewis [Gjaltema] was top of that with Luke Wallace leading the forwards.”
How has the salary cap reduction impacted your job?
Dowson: “It’s difficult, but it’s about managing expectations as you reset the norms of ‘I’ve played x games, so I deserve this’. It’s making sure players and agents understand that as well.”
Skivington: “We've been good at promoting our young lads, which is a massive objective for us as a club. The salary cap aligns with that. The biggest challenge will be a lot of young guys will play this year, and how ready you've got them and how ready they are. Before you would drip feed them in, but you mind yourself playing three young players in one game. It's not the way you traditionally do it. As a coach you have to be willing that it's not going to be perfect, which it never is, but to do your best to prepare them.”
Van Graan: “I've been in the South Africa system for nine years and the Irish system for five, so it's all very different. The cap going down is a big reduction and you have to plan carefully what you put in place now, because one average decision has a big impact on the rest of your squad. Your squad management will have to be spot on.”
Blackett: “I think it’s made the league even more competitive. I don’t think anyone could argue with that. It’s brought more people in line. We’ve not been up to the cap since ever since I’ve taken over. That forces your hand in using your youngsters and your middle squad players are now those young players. When you look at the national team this summer and the young guys that played well, I think that has been because of the salary cap.”
Kidney: “When someone has to go and fight for their own contract, they're the only person that's important. But you need 14 other good ones around you. There's different stakeholders with players, agents, everyone's looking for the best thing you can get. And we have to factor in EQP (England qualified player) status in a few years' time in every match-day squad.”
Lam: “Ideally you're trying to improve your programme the whole time. If you look at who we've brought in over the years, we've got people from the Championship, guys who have been let go by other clubs... yes, we bring in some stardust as well but, ultimately, a lot of the group have come through that pathway. We restructured our academy a few years ago to get that up to speed and we have a lot of young, home-grown guys coming through at the moment.”
Baxter: “Yes there’s an onus on coaching because obviously what you have got to do is try to improve your good-value players and your academy players. Also what it is going to take is management. Coaching is one thing and management is another. The reality is guys going off contract now, especially if they were a well paid player whose contract was only counting as 75 per cent, are now going to count up to 100 per cent. It is going to be quite hard for those guys to get pay rises or even remain on the same salaries. I think the management of those expectations is going to be really important. Then it is a case of how you build your squad and keep together in that structure.”
Borthwick: “A smaller squad. Acceleration of academy prospects. Those are the two main things we've had to do. Buy fewer players and bring them through faster.”
Walder: “Nothing has changed for us – and I was never really involved anyway. That was always Dean [Richards] and Semore [Kurdi]. They have now brought a rugby board in, which comprises Semore, Dave Thompson and Matt Thompson. They sort all recruitment and retention – while speaking to us as coaches as to what we want. From a coaching point of view? Over the years, I've only met Eddie Jones once – I gave him a lift to Kingston Park to Newcastle station – and he asked how I dealt with coaching the team with the lowest budget and I said to him: ‘Well, at least I feel like I coach every day. Every day I have to go and make every player better – that's my job.’ And I really enjoy that. And it's a challenge.”
Matson: “I think it’s done two things. It’s reduced the size of most rosters and, on the back of that, we’re more conscious of wellbeing. That’s not that we weren’t before, but having a focus of not breaking eggs in the first month of the competition has been a big thing. And, ultimately, we’re all prioritising our pathway and our academies.”
Sanderson: “Investment in the young, northern talent we’ve got – forced investment. One of my desires was to create a more open pathway for these lads to come through but now it’s a necessity.”
Best referee?
Lam: “They're all good [smiles].”
Matson: “[Luke] Pearce.”
Sanderson: “Matthew Carley.”
Diamond: “Wayne Barnes.”
Dowson: “They’re all very good.”
Blackett: “I’m not sure who we’ve got first up… The one I like is Matt Carley. If you’re looking for consistency, you know what you’re going to get with Wayne Barnes. I like Ian Tempest’s way with players. Matt is really strict with players, which I like. If we’re away from home, I want Matt Carley because you know nothing will affect him. There is one you want at home.”
Wayne Barnes
Lee Blackett and Steve Diamond have both been impressed by English referee Wayne Barnes (centre) Credit: BT SPORT
Van Graan: “What I would say is I'm very impressed with the group of English referees. If you look around the world, most nations have one or two. You can pick four or five from the English system. They're high quality and I look forward to working with them.
Kidney: “It would be hard to pick out a best one at the moment because four of them are currently justifying their international exposure. In fairness to the RFU, all you have to do is look at the summer Test and see the percentage done by English referees.”
Borthwick: “I was refereed by Tony Spreadbury [now head of match officials at European Professional Club Rugby]. Every time I meet Spreaders I always remind him of a penalty he gave against me in 1998 – and he was wrong. I remind him of it every time I meet him. Apart from that penalty, in front of the Shed, he was the best.”
Walder: “Craig Maxwell-Keys. About four years ago, he refereed us against Saracens and there were, in our opinion, a few contentious decisions. Two months later he came up and watched the game back with us and chatted through his decisions; it was almost like a cold debrief. He was brilliant. He said if he had had that camera angle that we showed him then he could understand why we would be aggrieved – but he didn't have it. The assistant referee had it, but maybe he wasn't experienced enough to make the call. He was brilliant.”
Topic: Premiership Round Table - Telegraph (Read 869 times)
Always a Wasp