Bruce McLane

I am not going to condescend like some foreigner who, as if he has some great new idea, says that we need to get some top notch college football players (Big Ten guys Brian) who couldn’t make it to the NFL to play rugby.

REALLY. We are SO lucky that you arrived on our shores to let us know that football players are gifted athletes. For now, I am going to assume that we will not be getting the Ohio State football team playing this season and go from there.

Crossover players in rugby are a hit or miss proposition, there is a lot of similarity between rugby league and rugby union wingers and there have been mixed results when these players cross over, even the absolute stars of rugby league have a bit of trouble crossing over. I think the same is true for football players, wrestlers, basketball players, etc. some take to it, and some don’t.

As a country we need a vision for the game we would like to play. I would think it is one where we hit the line hard consistently and do that with the intention of getting through gaps and keeping the ball alive.

We need to develop the skills necessary to play this sort of game throughout our elite levels of play at all age groups. This is an area either overlooked or done in a nonsensical drone like fashion.

We need to select the appropriate players to carry this out. We need to select players for positions and not positions for players as best we can. How can we best compete internationally?

We need a succession plan at all levels, we must use appropriate opportunities to mix experienced players with potential players to have a balanced side.

We need to establish quality combinations in the front row, back row, halfbacks, etc. We need to have consistency and balance in our selections so that we maintain a bit of confidence and stability throughout the side. This is not saying to grandfather people in and keep the underperformers, but to look to work with our best players and give them more of a shot than a one and done.

We need to seek out and develop leaders for key areas of our game, scrum, LO, defense, kicking game, etc. These players lead by example, take pressure off the captain and/or coach and act as the mind of the coach on the field. By dispersing the jobs, the players can really focus and get their area right and in turn the team will be right.

We need players who see the game in terms of the team and not in terms of themselves. We must put the team first. We can’t worry about who scored, it is just that WE scored.

Saying that we can develop the rugby nous of a major playing nation overnight is somewhat of a pipe dream, but what we can do is get the basics right, scrum, LO, restarts, and defense. We can make players better and more efficient in the contact area, to get more phases.

We can get players to set up quickly enough and deep enough to run good lines. We can read basic defenses and exploit their weaknesses. We can get fit enough, we can get strong enough. We can all give back to the game and introduce youngsters to the game.

I think Scott Johnson and Nigel Melville will make these strides with whoever their coaching team is. We can help by developing our players to be the best they are capable of becoming and then who knows, we will probably shock some people with some nice wins and some entertaining rugby.