molloyjh wrote:
The game at this level is essentially all about instinct. You don't have time to think. And instinct is born out of repetition. Replicate the conditions over and over until it's second nature. From what we're hearing about training I'm getting the impression there isn't the same focus on this as there was under Joe, which would explain the drop in accuracy levels. At some point the coaches have to realise that the drop has been too much and have to start refocusing on those basics more. Either they haven't, or they haven't done so properly. And that's on them.
There are a couple of schools of thought on that one though. One is that they're professional rugby players, it should already be instinctive - they just need to work on patterns, systems, and fitness in training. Theres another that says they're professional rugby players, they're supposed to be fit, so all that should be worked on are skills, patterns and systems - and there are any number of shades between. Famously, Arsenal do no fitness work in training whatsoever - its up to the players to maintain their fitness to the standard Wenger requires
People are reading too much, or not enough, into what was said in that interview I think. IIRC the difference between the two coaches was that Joe kept training on the pitch short and intense - issues that came up were dealt with off the pitch in the offices, whereas Matt prefers to deal with issues that come up as they come up on the training pitch. There are arguments to be made either way. Nowhere was it said the training was in anyway substandard, just different.
