Brian Ashton: Spanish practices make perfect sense in raising skill levels

Tackling The Issues

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There are a fair few front-line coaches from across the sporting spectrum living up here in the North-west, including the Blackpool football manager, Ian Holloway, who works half a dozen miles up the coast from my home in Lytham St Annes.

I don't know Ian personally, but there is something both appealing and entertaining about his extrovert approach to life, and I have great admiration for the things he has achieved in the face of disadvantage and adversity.

It was Ian who gave me food for thought this week. His account of a recent trip to Spain, where he watched the world champions prepare for an international match, struck a chord with me – especially his description of a training environment that placed great emphasis on what we might call "enjoyable learning". It seems the Spaniards based their build-up on an 11 v 11, game-condition approach that puts a high value on problem solving with and without the ball, both in terms of the overview of the forthcoming contest and the specific issues that might arise during it.

I see a connection here with club rugby as the Heineken Cup enters its knockout stage. One would expect all eight quarter-finalists to enter the arena with an overview – in other words, a clear idea of how they might dominate field position and impose their will on the opposition. But there is an ever-present danger when fixtures as important as these come around. All too frequently, coaches and players clutter up the overview with so much detail that the performance becomes robotic. Instead of people manoeuvring their way through situations as and when they arise, they fall back on the so-called "game plan" memorised during the week's preparation. Do the wonderful footballers of Spain allow themselves to be locked into a pre-ordained plan? I think not.

This evening's big game in Dublin between Leinster and Leicester will be extremely instructive in this regard, for it throws up a classic confrontation between two half-back pairings – Eoin Reddan and Jonathan Sexton; Ben Youngs and Toby Flood – who, at their best, understand the importance of clear thinking and sound decision-making under pressure. They met at the same venue as recently as last month, when England crossed the Irish Sea in what turned out to be a fruitless search for the Six Nations Grand Slam, but it would be a gross error of judgement to assume that these four individuals will perform in precisely the same way. Certainly, neither coach will fall into this trap.

This is a different time – a different game, played in a different tournament and a different environment. One of the reasons the Heineken Cup sometimes produces better rugby than the Six Nations is familiarity. The close relationship developed by clubmates over the course of long domestic and European campaigns is a key ingredient in the unique flavour of a match such as this one.

As ever, much will depend on the speed and quality of ball provided by the two packs of forwards: to a large extent, it is this that determines the degree of time and space in which the half-backs can drive their teams upfield and weave a spell or two when the moment is right. However, if they can perform to the optimum only when circumstances are at their most favourable, they will find themselves enduring a long afternoon, shot through with difficulty.

This is where the importance of the Spanish football-style "game environment" training comes in. I have raised in previous columns the importance of No 10s, in particular, preparing for matches in match-like conditions, where the pressure of operating in uncomfortable, unexpected and unwanted surroundings is accurately replicated. Coaches should create as many "what if?" scenarios as they can if they want their outside-halves to make the right decisions when the intricately planned, hoped for situations fail to materialise for a large percentage of the contest. Ideally, the No 9s should prepare in the same way, for when you reach a Heineken Cup knockout match, you can be sure that individually and collectively, your half-backs will find themselves travelling some very bumpy roads.

Both Leinster and Leicester will have "done their homework", as the jargon has it, and will have devised an approach that should, if everything goes to plan, allow them to dictate how the game unfolds. But as things rarely, if ever, go completely to plan, the decision-making at half-back tends to be a principal determining factor. Will the international-class players on show today have the right mindset? Will they have total confidence in their skills and find ways of executing them in the battle zone – in the no man's land that separates the combatants? Or will they retreat, physically and mentally, to the trenches and respond to opposition aggression from a safe, ineffective distance?

Whatever happens in the other three quarter-finals, all of which have their fascinations, the game in the Irish capital has the makings of a memorable event – one in which the fortunes of four men meeting for the second time in the space of three weeks will be critical.

Warrington taught to hunt as pack but think like lone Wolves

On Wednesday morning, I spent a fascinating few hours with the former Great Britain and current Warrington Wolves rugby league coach Tony Smith, chewing the fat and comparing notes. I come from a 13-a-side background and, as I have never faltered in my regard for the high speed, the accuracy and the superior core skills at the heart of the league code, I was happy to have the opportunity to pick Tony's brains.

All open-minded union coaches and players could, and should, learn a great deal from the way things are done in league; indeed, all coaches, from whatever neck of the sporting woods, should make it their business to expose themselves to new ideas from other specialists.

Not so very long ago, league and union viewed each other with the greatest suspicion, yet there was no hint of this at Warrington. Tony opened the door wide for me, and I took the greatest pleasure in stepping into his environment, which I found to be challenging, inclusive, intelligently geared towards high achievement and – interestingly, in light of my comments about the Spanish footballers – wholly based around on-field decision-making.

It was a day well spent, in outstanding company.