As part of  the Club’s commitment to enhancing the skills of our Coaching Staff, Jason Grier travelled to Melbourne to attend a training course for coaches run by the Rebels. The two (2) day course was focused on introducing the elite training programs to club rugby and  included the attendees watching the Saturday night trial against the Auckland Blues. Each of the coaching staff from the Rebels introduced a topic that they are most passionate about. Jason provides below the key areas that stood out for him during the course;

 Rod Macqueen – Building and maintaining a culture. Rod emphasised the need for players to have something to believe in. As a club or as a team the player group needs to create a clear set of values that represent their intent on and off the field. He mentioned it was necessary for the players to have a say in the development of the core values and for a leadership group to maintain these values. 

 Nathan Grey – Winning the contact. Nathan is very passionate about winning the contact when in possession. His philosophy was simple, everything must be done with intent and most importantly intent to go forward.  He talked the attendees through the different methods for breaking the tackle (step, fend, hit and spin etc.), he emphasised that if you didn’t have intent to make it past the contact zone your arsenal was useless. Most importantly he focused on going forward after breaking the tackle or after using one of the line break techniques. Too many people fend, step or evade a player and then continue to travel sideways into the next defender instead of straightening up and charging forward.

 John Muggleton – Defence. Muggo always entertaining, manages to break the defence down to the simplest form and technique. He took us through the correct tackle technique and structures. The main thing learnt was the foot position at the point of contact. He emphasised the need to change the foot position from straight on to 45 degrees before contact. This helps the player to reduce the head on, straight shoulder and hip confrontation to a side hit and drive through mostly ending up with the tackled player landing on the ball carrier and in a position to jump to his feet. He also emphasised need for the players to drive 2 steps past the contact.

We look forward to Jason and the coaching staff bringing these learnings to life during the season.