Rugby league: Schofield's new-style coaching can help Giants make leap

Promoted Huddersfield and their new coach face a first test of their Premiership credentials tonight. Dave Hadfield reports

NOT just Huddersfield, but the whole of Super League, would welcome evidence tonight that Garry Schofield can poach and pick pockets as a rugby league coach, just as he used to as a player.

Schofield, put in charge of the Huddersfield Giants during the close season, faces the first of a series of giant-sized challenges with the visit of the reigning champions, the Bradford Bulls.

The general expectation outside the club might be that neither he nor his newly promoted side will be up to the job, but the former Great Britain captain intends to surprise everybody.

Huddersfield only sneaked into Super League because of the demise of Paris and their reward for the coach who had steered them into second place in the First Division, Steve Ferres, was the sack.

Instead, they installed Schofield, with another member of the Giants' playing staff, Phil Veivers, as his assistant. It was a curiously old- fashioned manoeuvre, relying as it does on a hunch that a distinguished playing record is the best qualification for a coaching career. There are plenty of fine players whose coaching capabilities - or lack of them - have seemed to disprove the theory.

But, like his great friend Lee Crooks, who has just taken over at Keighley, Schofield accepts that he starts learning a new set of skills now and that his jointly held record of 46 Test caps for Great Britain confers no automatic advantages.

That is why he leapt at the opportunity this winter to learn from a master - the Brisbane Broncos' coach, Wayne Bennett, who, apart from being arguably the most successful coach in the world, also happens to be Veivers' brother- in-law.

"The time we spent there was so valuable," Schofield says. "We've come back with so many ideas. We have a lot of things up our sleeves and we are going to surprise a lot of people."

Although Huddersfield are not short of money, Schofield has not gone in for extensive restructuring of his team during the winter. That, he says, is because he had confidence in what he had already got.

"I know some supporters have been disappointed that I didn't go out and sign 10 or 12 new players, but I saw wholesale changes, year after year, at Leeds and it just doesn't work. It takes a season or two seasons to get used to each other and this group of players has responded very well to my training methods and to what I want them to achieve.

"It starts with discipline. I was always disciplined as a player and I expect the same from them. At the same time, you can't be serious all the time and we do have a laugh. But then, when there's work to be done, I put my boss's hat on.

"The first thing I have to do is to get them believing in yourself, because if you don't do that you're beaten before you start."

Schofield always had faith in his own ability as a player - that was how he developed the trademark interception technique that had much to do with making his name - and he now carries the same principle into his coaching.

"Take our pack," he says. "I've got a lot of confidence in them. There's size there - and plenty of experience. Everyone who comes to the McAlpine Stadium - starting with Bradford - is going to know they're in a match. I can promise you that.

"We're getting knocked before we've kicked or passed a ball, but at the end of the season people will be saying that the Huddersfield Giants are a pretty respectable side after all."

Schofield is still registered as a player, although he says he will only turn out in an emergency. Mind you, much the same was said about Veivers - a year his senior at 33 - and he is in the team to play Bradford, which suggests that Huddersfield's emergencies are coming early.

The Bradford coach, Matthew Elliott, would rather be playing the newcomers six or eight weeks into the season, when the initial adrenalin rush has worn off and the reality of facing Super League opposition week after week has started to bite.

"That's fair comment," Schofield said. "But we know ourselves that it's going to be hard every week. The challenge for us is to play as though we're up against the Bradford Bulls every time we go on that field."