THIS WEEKEND’S FINAL REGULAR SEASON GAME AGAINST NEWCASTLE
“I have pitched it in two ways to the boys as an option of attitude. One you can lean into it as the last game of the regular season with not a lot to play for, for the home crowd for some of those tik-tok Hollywood moments and maybe worst of all preserve and protect yourself for the week after. That is one option if you will. The other, which is the one that I have continually tried to lean into myself is seeing this as an opportunity to improve. We don’t feel we have reached our ceiling. To ramp up not to wind down particularly with the games to follow. To build momentum and having pride in the basics as opposed to valuing those Hollywood moments because all those things in option two I spoke about will put you in better stead for hopefully the two games to follow.
“There are the options and with every attitude approach it is a choice so I have given the players that choice. As soon as you start taking your eye off the ball then you get hurt and lose whatever momentum you had. I have asked the coaches around me and the chats with senior players to keep pushing me to the latter of those two attitudes which is to push on not to pull back.
“Two years ago against Exeter we tried to bring that home semi-final back in the last game of the regular season. In the last five minutes of that game both AJ MacGinty and Akker van der Merwe got injured. So I am super-conscious of continuing to build momentum, cohesion and performances, not to the detriment of fitness.”
RETIREMENTS OF JONO ROSS, BYRON MCGUIGAN AND WILL CLIFF
“Those were the moving parts I couldn’t talk about previously in recent weeks because it was at their discretion not just the club’s. They have been huge. We are keeping on Byron in a coaching role. Jono has got a life and future back in South Africa. Cliffy is actually training really well. He has an opportunity with FFM next year, he will be working with one of our sponsors that he has carved out for himself. There is the possibility for him to do a little bit of coaching. He is half-blind in one eye from a head injury a while back. If he gets another similar occurrence he could go blind. The risk he takes to play the game he loves is too great for him to be a 3rd choice with a young family and another career ahead of him. That is a sensible choice.
“We did talk about extending it to a World Cup giving us that bit more experience and strength in depth as well as what he adds around the place but he felt it was the right time. He made that call as did Byron and Jono. It’s tough but it’s probably right. I understand why they have done it even though I would love to have them around. But I think it’s the right decision for all of them with the careers ahead of them. Life goes on.”
SIGNING OF ERNST VAN RHYN
“We found during the back-half of the Premiership Rugby Cup games that maybe the young players coming through need a bit longer than what we thought at the start of the season. At that point in time we were lacking the depth in physicality that our game model relies on. You look at Saracens who are top of the pile, they have got four international locks- Itoje, Tizard, McFarland and Isiekwe. How do we stack up against that? We probably need some more strength in depth.
“We looked for locks last summer and we got Jonny Hill who was not a bad scoop! But there wasn’t a lot out there. Then we went back out into the market to see what’s out there and Ernst van Rhyn came up and we were like wow, where’s he been hiding? I think it was really good timing on his part as he is getting married this summer, going to have a young family in the years to come and a fiancée who wants to experience life overseas. He admires and is a fan of the Du Preezs’ and how we play the game. That is important. He can see himself having a good support base when gets here which is really important for guys coming overseas.
“Then it comes down to conversations and due-process like it always does, what’s he like. I can see he smashes people, he is from good pedigree but you need to know what they are like personally. I asked him what his x-factor was. He said if he scores three tries but he didn’t work hard enough his dad wouldn’t speak to him after a game. I said perfect. His priorities are all in the right place. He is captain material, super polite, courteous. The more polite they are off the field the more of a lunatic they are on it. He fits the bill for us as a marauding, physical, hard-working back five player so he can play four, five, six or seven. He is a good leader, right time in his life and young so he can grow with the squad. Good for him, good for me and it seemed like the perfect fit. This one was done quickly; it was done over one conversation. It seemed like a match made in heaven and I am looking forward to him coming over.
“Quite humbling really (the signing of Ernst being a statement addition). It does say a lot about the club and the people here. He speaks to Cobus Wiese, he lived with Cobus and he speaks to the du Preezs’. The signing of Ernst and Manu’s new contract are big statements in terms of the growth of the club and what people are buying into.”
INTEREST IN TOLU LATU
“We are after the best, we are after good hookers with what we have left in the cap. He is one of the best out there but there are rugs here that can be pulled from French or Japanese clubs. He is on the list of which there are a few. He is up there, decent.
“There is always a reason behind a reason or they are just a fruitloop which could be the case but I don’t think that is the case with Tolu at all. We have got a pretty good record with players who play on the edge for example Jean-Luc du Preez who was the biggest offender in terms of yellow cards as was Jono but their track record over the last two years shows our evolution in our ability to manage that side of the game whilst keeping physical. I would rather have someone there and pull them back. That’s the question, can you pull them back in certain aspects of control than have to lift them up in areas of physicality. That answers it. He’s on the list. The list is long.”
OTHER NEWS
Nick Schonert- running and hitting scrum machine, almost as good a diagnosis of a Grade 2 MCL as we could have had, every chance he will be up for selection for the semi-final, got to get through certain loading metrics to be up for selection next weekend, not available this week
Dan du Preez- up for selection this weekend, only 5% of in terms of strength of that shoulder, would have been hard to pick him for semi-final if he didn’t play this weekend, has worked really hard, might need a bit of surgery after the season/ repairing might be needed, unlikely to make South Africa World Cup squad due to time he has missed this season, part of his decision can’t make the injury any worse, not a sacrificial lamb, if he had surgery he would have missed the end of the season and the World Cup
Cited DOR curveballs of departures of AJ MacGinty, Lood de Jager and Faf de Klerk in terms of having the rug pulled from underneath you for different reasons
Game is not getting easier, better to be in control of your own destiny, purpose changes for players the older they get
Opportunity to give send-off to likes of retiring Will Cliff this weekend, not to the detriment of cohesion though
Want and desire to take games in the future to bigger stadia, but first job is to make sure the AJ Bell is full every week which the club has done recently
Spoke about youngsters who have been signed from the Yorkshire pathway- Tye Raymont and Tom Burrow, who a number of clubs were after
Praised Gus Warr’s consistency and decision making, game management, has had to fight really hard for contracts throughout his career so far and fight his way up the pecking order, a real energy giver
Thanks again Kieran - invaluable.