“The first day, an interesting day. You leave in April cynical, a bit disillusioned. Now you are really happy when you come back. People are always happy to come back. On the first day, you have the photo call, and everyone compares suntans, and tells lies about the girls they’ve had.”
Eamon Dunphy’s Only A Game?: The Diary of a Professional Footballer.
There are no mental constraints in pre-season, just an unbridled enthusiasm for what lies ahead. Not the training, that’s base camp where vomiting and pain await, but in preparing a route to negotiate a climb to the summit during the season, where the prospect of winning silverware awaits.
Preseason has been transformed over the years from the summer of 1998 when the long-striding Shane Horgan ate up the ground that many of us struggled to stomach. As professional rugby evolved so too did the conditioning, focused on building a stout physical foundation that occasionally took in the dreaded cold chambers of Spala in Poland.
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Science and rugby collided, altitude tents that housed Watt bikes and those eight second max sprints where it felt like the lungs were trying to escape through the mouth, desperately sucking in what always seemed to be insufficient air. The gym programmes were tailored to suit the individual; I never managed that fourth rep with the big boy dumbbells, much to the delight of Johnny Sexton and Brian O'Driscoll.
Rugby balls lay untouched on the sideline for most of the summer. What sustains a player through pre-season is the camaraderie that stems from the fact that misery loves company but also the promise of what the season holds. There is a sense of optimism.
Irrespective of the mindset of a player, coaches have to ensure everyone is aligned to a common purpose that will allow the team to flourish
Will we be the team for whom everything clicks from the get-go, will we have to dig deeper and work harder or will it require a change of tack while the season is in its infancy? It’s also fascinating to break down the collective into individual agendas.
The young player’s naiveté is refreshing and contagious. The breakthrough or marquee name seeks improvement in pushing physical boundaries, while for the old hand the future is wrapped up in the present in fighting for a final contract.
This all goes into the melting pot of pre-season. Irrespective of the mindset of a player, coaches have to ensure everyone is aligned to a common purpose that will allow the team to flourish especially at the business end of a season. Dunphy’s point is that everyone is happy to be back but pre-season has to add substance to the initial air of optimism.
Faith in the system is crucial. In 2010 under Joe Schmidt, we won one of our opening four games, shipping 100-plus points in the process. Things could quite easily have gone off the rails. In the fifth game we played Munster and everything clicked. The vision we had been sold in pre-season materialised on the pitch and we never looked back from there.
The belief created was powerful and it represented a tangible reward for the pain of pre-season. Things were different under his successor at Leinster, Matt O'Connor. Winning a Pro14 title was more of a reflection of the players at his disposal and the exit in Europe at the hands of Toulon a more accurate appraisal of our approach.
O’Connor failed to sell his rugby vision sufficiently in pre-season to convince the playing squad. There was a lack of conviction and harmony in the style and substance of the rugby patterns and so when the pressure came on in big matches these fundamental fault lines undermined performance. Players guessed as to what the right thing to do was in a given moment and that lack of cohesion was disastrous.
External factors
Where once existed certainty down to minute detail – to resource every breakdown required a ball carrier plus two players – there followed a more laissez faire approach, where it was open to individual interpretation as to what was required.
One regime delivered trophies and a culture that drew admiring glances globally while the next, although it delivered silverware, papered over the cracks and a philosophy that was never going to be sustainable in the long run in terms of success.
Pre-season is a sanitised opportunity to plan and prepare in laboratory conditions. The litmus test is when the season starts, whether everyone truly believes in the system and whether it is endorsed by results.
There are a few different external factors this season as there are yet more law changes; the 50-22 kick option, the goal-line dropout and the changes regarding what is permissible when latching onto a ball carrier. Teams have to figure out how to deal with them on both sides of the ball.
World Rugby’s announcement that teams will be required to reduce contact in training in 2023 begs the question, why wait? Player welfare should always be front and centre. Innovators will already be drawing up plans to change the rugby model. One obvious alteration is to entrust more on-field decision making to the players to prepare for a day when you won’t be able to do 20 reps at warp speed in training under the new laws.
The South African teams offer a watered-down version of the Springboks' playbook, one that leans heavily on physical superiority in power terms
Players should be able to try things in attack without being stymied by a fear of mistakes. There is a pact to be struck between development and winning if a team is to be consistently successful. Take the example of Leinster hooker Dan Sheehan’s attempted offload that went to ground.
He did nothing ‘wrong’ per se; it was more a case that Rory O’Loughlin got too shallow in support, expecting to clear out a ruck, rather than holding his depth and width. Sheehan has the power and skill-set, something his teammates will come to understand.
In a general sense across the sport there appears a shift towards greater nuance in attack and trying to give the game room to breathe in that respect. Hopefully that’s exactly what happens and it is a little less collision-heavy and box-kick orientated in ambition.
The opening weekend of the United Rugby Championship (URC) offered cause for optimism in that respect with offloads aplenty and passing before the tackle. For example Leinster looked for passing space on the inside to counter the Bulls’ aggressive line speed and high press, while also encouraging the prone player to pop the ball to a supporting teammate. That maintained tempo, something that caused the visitors a few problems.
The South African teams offer a watered-down version of the Springboks’ playbook, one that leans heavily on physical superiority in power terms. Confronted by opponents that favoured quick rucks and sent poachers to the breakdown they struggled to adapt.
Largely positive
The adjustment from Super Rugby to URC will take a while but the return of their Springboks and playing in their backyard will help to accelerate that process.
In Super Rugby South African sides play with full teams, the season is structured in a way to facilitate that, so what the Bulls, Sharks, Lions and Stormers will have to do in the short term is invest and develop depth in their squads in the same way that the northern hemisphere clubs have been challenged in that respect.
I wouldn’t read too much into the fact that three of their four franchises were soundly beaten on the opening weekend. If these teams start to fast-track an approach to a more skill-based, higher octane game to complement the natural physical qualities at their disposal then they’ll take some stopping; literally.
The report cards for the Irish provinces on the opening weekend of the URC are largely positive. Munster looked sharp, did a lot of really good things with centre Rory Scannell a catalyst for many of them including a Sonny Bill Williams-esque offload and a beautifully weighted cross-field kick.
Simon Zebo's second try was a thing of beauty. Stephen Larkham has been busy in pre-season judging by what was on offer in terms of the patterns. They boast all the qualities required to hunt down silverware.
They also possess in Jean Kleyn and RG Snyman what defending champions Leinster are lacking in secondrow terms, that sheer power and size. Last season's La Rochelle defeat underlined an issue with maul defence for Leo Cullen's team.
As I have already touched on briefly, Leinster played with some nice variation and on first evidence the repatriation of Andrew Porter to loosehead and Cian Healy's new role as a tighthead could be hugely beneficial for both players.
Ulster's talented youngsters managed to be both dangerous and frustrating against a Glasgow side that is a pale imitation of previous incarnations. A power deficiency in the tight five meant Ulster lacked the wherewithal to control the game and the hamstring injury suffered by John Cooney will be a concern.
The return of the Irish Lions players is still a little way off but with each provincial win they sit a little taller in their seats watching others embellish the jersey
Connacht were outplayed at their own game in some respects with Cardiff centres Rey Lee-Lo and Willis Halaholo controlling the edges of the pitch with sharp accurate passing which Andy Friend's side struggled to contain all evening. The western province's grit and resilience are undoubted but they'll need to be considerably better defensively to supplement fine attacking instincts.
The pre-season window closed last week.
Now it’s time to draw down on all that work, to showcase the incremental gains, mental, physical and tactical from player and team perspectives, all in pursuit of victories. The focus is firmly on selection. The return of the Irish Lions players is still a little way off but with each provincial win they sit a little taller in their seats watching others embellish the jersey.
Everyone expects so much and they have to deliver immediately when they return later in the month with the November Test series looming and Europe thereafter.
In the case of three of the four Irish provinces the coaches will be satisfied with the opening weekend of the URC, the immediate challenge to maintain that momentum.
