The value of the pre-season programme is ultimately best judged retrospectively – in terms of how it has contributed to the overall success (or otherwise) of the team. Having said that, ‘Hammer’ [Crusaders assistant coach Mark Hammett] and I are pretty happy with how we are travelling as a squad heading into what will be a demanding opening phase of the Super 14.
The three games we had allowed us to try a number of different playing combinations across the team.
It also provided the opportunity for us to assess how our players had adapted to the demands that had been placed on them during the strength and conditioning phase of our preparation, and also to judge their understanding of the experimental law variations that have been introduced into the competition this year.
In each case, as a result of what has already been achieved, we can look ahead to the opening rounds of the competition positively.
There’s no doubt the ELVs have sped the game up.
That was something we had anticipated, although it didn’t drive our strength and conditioning window within our overall tournament preparation.
Every year around this time I end up telling the media – when quizzed on our preparation – that our strength and conditioning coach Ashley Jones has built the engines of the players before allowing the players and coaching staff to take control and ‘drive’ the team.
In each of our three pre-season hit-outs, the players were still going strongly at the final whistle.
That was very pleasing, especially considering the number of players we included in each of those games who were relatively new to this level of training and competition.
Inevitably the ELVs are going to be a talking point during the early stages of the competition at least.
Whether that feedback is positive or negative will depend on the consistency with which the new laws are applied, especially around the contentious contact area.
As I understand has been the case for most teams, we struck some differences in interpretation through our pre-season hit outs, and it had a big impact in terms of how the game was played.
In Motueka (v Hurricanes) and Sydney (NSW Waratahs), the referees used free kicks judiciously to clean out that area and prevent the players from illegally slowing down ball receipt.
The result in each case was a fast-paced and free-flowing contest, which was no mean feat in Sydney given that it rained steadily throughout the contest.
Our experience in Melbourne was less satisfactory.
To be fair to our referee on that night, Stu Dickinson, he was refereeing with the ELVs for the first time.
As such, he was arguably on an even greater learning curve than the players.
Hopefully as a result of that experience, Stu will police the contact area more strongly going forward, because the leniency he showed on that occasion certainly changed the dynamic of the game – which led to a more static, stop-start contest.
If we can get consistency in application across the referees throughout SANZAR, the ELVs will be for the betterment of the game.
They most definitely reward teams who look to play constructively.
As such, they surely cannot be a bad thing?
With the trials behind us, we now face a demanding four weeks, starting with the ACT Brumbies at home, followed by three matches on the road at Loftus Versfeld (Pretoria), Newlands (Cape Town) and Subiaco (Perth).
The Brumbies always seem to hit the ground running every year.
Last year, they were super impressive in bowling the Chiefs at Hamilton in round one, after the Chiefs had been all the rage during an unbeaten pre-season.
That makes them a dangerous opponent first up, especially given that they are traditionally a clever team who manipulate the game well.
No doubt they will have come up with some interesting adaptations working with the new ELVs.
We head for South Africa straight after playing the Brumbies for what promise to be two major assignments in the Republic.
The belief that will have been built up in the country, after last year’s competition and then the Springboks’ Rugby World Cup success, will only make an already onerous challenge even more difficult.
The Bulls still have the core of the squad that won the title last year, and they had a fantastic crowd behind them when we ventured to Loftus for the semi-final.
It clearly lifted them on that evening, and will no doubt be a major hurdle for us to overcome again, although it is an experience our whole squad is looking forward to.
We finish off in South Africa at Newlands, where it will be fascinating to see how much the Rassie Erasmus influence has taken hold of the Stormers.
One of the more innovative coaches I’ve come across, Erasmus is another who I’d expect to have studied the ELVs extensively in order to come up with some creative advantages.
It won’t surprise us if his combination with new skipper Jean de Villiers revitalizes the Stormers. A number of our guys internally are already predicting them to be one of the competition’s big improvers this year, and we’ll certainly have to be at our best when we play them.
We weren’t two years ago, and wound up getting well beaten at Newlands.
Our three-week tour finishes in Perth against the Force, in what will be another tough game.
Not only have the Force put the heat on every side they have hosted in Perth, they also showed during our trial against them in Melbourne in early February that they have the potential to give the semi-finals a good shake this year.
That trial was arguably the most physical of our pre-season games, and I’ve no doubt that the Force will improve a great deal from there.
That being the case, they’ll be a real threat to everyone!
– By Robbie Deans (via: http://www.crusaders.co.nz/)
Mike
Guest
Very interesting to hear what the great man thinks on the eve of it all. Though we all know how little the trials reflect what happens once the season starts proper. Some teams play the trials very much as they do the rest of the games, and some go crazy with experiments. It is certainly not uncommon to see the clichéd games of two halves at trial time, as often mass substitutions are made around the half way mark to test out some youngsters, new guys, or perhaps give the old hands some match practice. With the ELVs on top of that, I think we're pretty much at a clean slate. There's been a lot of personnel changes in most of the teams. Some for the better and some you might think for the worse, at least on paper. Teams like the Brumbies, Bulls and Highlanders have lost some real anchors, but that does not necessarily mean that their replacements, will not become the next great thing in those positions... However, there seems to be a large percentage of the exodus that are experienced front rowers (Highlanders, Cheetahs, Sharks, Force, and a couple others I believe? ...off the top of my head here), with the new laws coming into play, one would think there's gonna be less scrums - so those pesky northerners would have us believe anyway - so maybe some younger, fitter, faster props in there will be just the ticket? Likewise, there are many positions in most of the teams that are yet to be nutted down. We may all think that Tahu is going to be an outside centre, but with a change of codes, perhaps he ends up inside or outside of that? Much like last year, all talk of Giteau had been that he confirmed 12 was his spot, though many wanted to see him at 9. I personally thought he was going to make the perfect 9/10 combination with his old mate Henjak, and after Hilgendorf got injured, Gits played most of the remaining of the season at 10, and the Force all of a sudden started to win a bunch of games.... But seriously now, for the Wallabies later on, Jim Williams isn't going to provide any pep talks is he?? Just re-sign him as a player and pop him on the wing. That will be safest.