The giant coaching box redwoods of yore are thinning out and an injection of fresh thinking is required at the top nations
It is hard to believe but somewhere out there is a well-known rugby coach without a new book out. It is tempting to imagine Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland duelling with inky quills at dawn, going at it while their faithful ghostwriters hold the blotting paper. Both protagonists are still proudly old school at heart, having learned their trade long before the arrival of the internet.
Publish and be damned with faint praise is the usual endgame with such post-World Cup autobiographies but both Jones and Gatland have gone in refreshingly hard and low. The former has been particularly blunt about his regard – or lack of it – for English club rugby. “I often wonder ‘Is it ever going to change?’” writes Jones in My Life and Rugby, bemoaning the “widespread lack of imagination and skill” and the “stodgy games” he says he watches week after week. He also feels English coaches are more reactive than proactive, held back by a reticence he still struggles to get his head around.
Written by Robert Kitson
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/nov/19/have-rugby-union-super-coaches-stunted-the-growth-of-those-following-them under the title “
“. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
