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Forum Guru
 
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 19/03/2011 21:45:42
Posts: 60,
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| I must again state that the majority of teams we have played against played the game in a great manner. I have no idea whether the said team were deliberately cheating or not or whether the players had misinterpreted their coaches' advice. I will indeed speak to the head coach and try and clarify on field communications, I will also suggest we need a forwards captain/pack leader. Our captain hasn't always been the best 'personality' to always engage with the ref. Interested to know what folk think are the qualities needed to make a good rugby captain. If I shout from the sidelines then I'm one of many voices telling the ref what to do. A season on we are better equipped technically to do with issues. Interestingly I spoke to one of their assistant coaches after the game and they had changed their approach as they were sick of losing, he wasn't referring to the scrum, indeed they had started to play a structured kicking game at u12s, this ties in somewhat with other themes. In future if the captain or pack leader are unable to resolve the difficulty then I think will have the courage of my convictions. Thanks.
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Supreme Being
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Last Login: Yesterday @ 17:19:03
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GE... I don;t disagree massively :-) And I certainly agree that bawling at the ref from a distance is NOT the way to resolve issues, ever. What is needed of course is some sort of protocol - and "half time only" is not sufficient IMO as an example.
I would say though, that if the rules of your GF are such that you have no way to pass on anything to the ref, then a 4th official sort of character should be available to you coaches. I understand that for the boy's full and maximum enjoyment of the day they should be given the chance to feel they are "in the bigtime" ... but that shouldn't absolve anybody else's normal duties as a responsible adult. Of course, i would imagine that as its a GF you'll enjoy a very experienced referee who will undoubtedly be well on top of any oddities that occur. Its the more mundane friendly type fixture with a coach-as-ref type scenario here more problems such as we discussed are likely to occur IMO.
didds
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Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 23/11/2011 09:52:38
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I'm a bit late on this one but I thought I'd throw in my two'penneth anyway.
To be honest I'm not suprised that there are problems in front row play in youth rugby. Coaches who have, sometimes, limited knowledge of tight five play do stirling jobs in getting safe and effective scrummages onto the field but many others struggle. In many cases where I have seen young front row forwards driving in (as in Crookedfeed's example) I would surmise that they have found that this can work through a lack coaching, rather than the reverse. Often their basic body positions are not good enough and if they were to step up a grade their lack of technique in the 'illegal manoeuvre' would be more dangerous to them than their opponents.
This starts a viscious spiral where referees are so worried about scrummaging (often rightly) that it doesn't become the contest that it should be and even at a good level will dictate the bindings of the props and command the engage. Given that the laws states that the engagement process is now the same for U/19 as for seniors it doesn't give the best preparation for colts to step up to seniors and causes confusion for those colts playing both.
If there is a solution, it lies in better coach education. When I first took up fly fishing (off topic I know) I was told that one lesson from a good pro was worth years of trial and error. I believe that the same applies to scrummaging. Many clubs are now running 'coach the coaches' sessions on scrummaging. On the sessions that I have run, coaches who have little experience in coaching scrummaging at junior level are crying out for some help and direction and seem really pleased with the input - unless they're fibbing to protect my ego of course. An hour with an experienced forwards coach seems to meet some of that demand.
So, for those of you who already know how to coach the scrum well, I apologise. For those others, find yourself a well qualified forwards coach and set up a session.
Pat
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