CHALLENGE OF FACING A WOUNDED LEICESTER THIS WEEKEND
“They are a pretty proud club and what they achieved last year, they will want to send a message out that that (the defeat to Saracens) was a one-off. They are very dangerous. I can only imagine that they will go back to what works for them. The Leicester side that everyone saw last weekend will not be the Leicester team, in terms of personnel or strategy that plays this weekend, we are fully aware of that.
“It would be a strong message (going to Leicester and winning), we weren’t far off last year. We want to make every week special, like a cup final. These kinds of weeks make it easier for that to happen. These are the kinds of the weeks when you face the champions on their turf, they are special games and they have more gravitas, their own weight.”
INFLUENCE OF GEORGE FORD AGAINST HIS FORMER CLUB
“To give us some insight into how they used to operate. You can pin too much on assumption of how they are going to play. But we certainly have an insight into their own mentality and how they went about it tactically so we are very grateful.”
ROBERT DU PREEZ
“He has been brilliant and he is in good form. In every facet of the game he is performing; his defence is strong, got a couple of turnovers, his decision making is brilliant, he is driving at the line in attack really well so we are very lucky to have him on such good form even with George (Ford) in the wings. It is all connected, in particular with confidence players which fly-halves like Rob are.
“I have had a lot of small conversations to improve our relationship and one of those was just after every session going up to him and getting a hot debrief off him like his feeling of how he performs so we can get some consistency. Some people just do the session, tick the box and go home. Not Rob, he is not like that. So we are both on the same page of how he is performing in training and that has gone on for a while now. I wouldn’t give that assurance (guaranteeing someone a place in the team) to any player. They have got my backing and I believe in them but you can’t guarantee someone a shirt. I think it probably invites complacency and star culture where that one person becomes bigger than the team, so that isn’t a tactic. I try to get the best out of him and spend as much time with him.”
RAFFI QUIRKE
“He is up for selection. Raffi is quite a highly strung, extremely motivated individual. These lads have a habit of perhaps doing too much. You have to look after them, pull them back a little bit more until he can understand himself how he can keep himself on the field. He tore his hamstring off his bone, so there is some scar tissue around the operation he had to make sure that it is just scar tissue and not micro tears. Within that he managed to stub his toe doing some static skills in the preseason that has waylaid him two weeks. That waylaid his loading and we wanted to get his loading up to a certain level so he is robust enough if he is selected on the bench to play 70 minutes. He has to able to have that workload in him and not get reinjured. We are almost overcompensating for worst case scenario with Raffi.”
EXCITEMENT ABOUT JOE CARPENTER’S DEBUT LAST WEEKEND
“Really excited. It is important to keep a lid on it a bit because he is still young and it is just one game. We have a duty of care to manage him like we have with our other young lads. I think it is improbable to think that he is just going to go through the season now and perform at that level every game because of the mental and physical strain the Premiership puts on these lads. But we know it is in him now, we have all seen it. We can’t put the cat back in the box, it is out of the box. For him to get that Man of the Match I was proud. His actual dad was there and he was really proud. That is the perk of the job when you get to give someone an opportunity who we have all known who was has watched Sale FC, who have been involved in the organisation that there is a real talent there for a year and a half. Just through misfortune and lack of opportunity he hasn’t been able to showcase it. Long may it continue, I think we have a real player on our hands.”
SUCCESSION/ RECRUITMENT MEETING LAST WEEK
“It went really well, really positive and a bit of an eye-opener for me. You can’t do exactly what you want to do but we feel like we have the resources to keep the core of these young Northern lads together with a little sprinkle of South African stardust to take us through the next 3 or 4 years if not longer. They are always exciting those meetings because you get to be rugby manager for the day and look at figures, players and squads. Then the reality of it is that it is people’s lives and careers. There is an ethical reflection you have to put on the back of those types of meetings.”
FUTURE OF THE DU PREEZ TWINS
“It’s their option after this season, a two-year option. I can say that those negotiations are going very positively and healthily. And you can see that in their performances.”
INFLUENCE AND SETTLING IN OF JONNY HILL
“To quote Morrisey, he has fit in like a hand in a glove. I couldn’t believe how quickly he assimilated himself with the team. He already had a great mate in Tom Curry. He did all the work behind the scenes in terms of the lineout calling but not once did he interject in a meeting. He sat there, watched and observed. He is quite quiet-natured in his approach and ability to influence. He is not a shouter, he is very composed and calm and that in itself lends itself to being accepted because he is not coming in talking about the world according to Jonny Hill and they have really accepted him. And then there is his talent; they all have respect for him because of how hard he works and how he athletic he is. He is well and truly part of the furniture and family. Him and Flats (Tom O’Flaherty) are two of the best socialites that I have happened to meet in the game. He was getting into lineout calling at Exeter and he is doing it with England and he is our key chief caller, although it is a group thing so it is never really one person. It is a syndicate really, 4 or 5 of them. They talk on a Sunday, look over the clips, send emails, meet on the Monday morning and then you finalise the line out by 10am Monday morning. He facilitates that, this week on his way down to England he was watching clips in Tom Curry’s car and sending comments through.
INFLUENCE OF ALL THE NEW SIGNINGS
“He wasn’t involved through pre-season (due to rest after the Australia tour), but him, George (Ford) and Tom (O’Flaherty) which is really rewarding saying we want to give our observations from the different organisations they have been in. So they were reaching out to me of which we implemented it in a few ways. George is the same. Kieran Wilkinson played his first Prem Rugby Cup game the other day and by his own admission didn’t have the best of games, there were a few things that went wrong. We had all his clips lined up for him, but I asked George if he didn’t mind having a chat with him. George went and found him, organised a meeting, sat down and went through his clips and the feedback he got was so much more insightful than he would have got off us. We were talking about decision making and execution in our summary, whereas George said ‘I saw you lose your confidence and I saw your head drop’. So he talked more about the belief, the body language and the confidence that helps you drive decent decisions.
OTHER POINTS
No communication with England as of Tuesday afternoon, big training day today. “No news is good news”. Expecting to get all players back in fine fettle and health.
Ben Curry training, should be fit for the weekend despite going off with ankle injury in win over Exeter last weekend. Up for selection
Robert du Preez Senior has been over a number of times to watch the brothers play, he has kept his distance from the coaching side of things to make sure it is about the 3 brothers not him
Tiny bit of space in the cap left, not a lot. Few injuries through the pre-season, necessity for numbers which was raised in succession meeting last week. Caveat of potentially bringing in some players from Worcester on short-term loans is would it rock the boat with things going well at the moment
Succession meetings take place every 6 weeks
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