| bees rugby COACHES CORNER |
| 2009/10 |
Bringing you the latest from Bees Head and Assistant Coaches, Russell Earnshaw and Eugene Martin - scroll down or click on the dates to be taken to relevant commentary:
16th July 2010 - Russell Earnshaw
The boys are now 4 weeks into pre-season with just one more week to go until the week off for those who achieve their conditioning targets. Having joined in my first session yesterday and after almost 2 hours with Gary and MMA instructors at UTC (www.utcuk.com), I am feeling a little delicate this morning. The reality of the situation was that I ended up in a pretty dark place and after forty minutes was reduced to role of encourager rather than participator. All the pain was well worth it though to see Rob Dugard and Mauro go head to head on the conditioning like two (very) sweaty bears unable to do a single proper pull up. Rather them than me!
The summer has been pretty busy for us all. Off-field, Nicky Locke has come in as General Manager, Hunty has taken over the Community side of the club and the board have been incredibly busy getting us to where we are and throwing in a ground move for good measure. I am sure that from the outside these things look relatively simple... believe me they are not and Louise Ford must have the biggest 'to do' list in the West Midlands. Louise definitely gets my vote for unsung hero. However, she is followed pretty closely by those that turned up last week to give Portway a bit of a spruce up and the Dirt-Trackers who still manage to do all their great work throughout the Summer.
On the player front, it has been very busy. The budget is what it is and there have been a couple of well-documented cases of a disgruntled player or father. The facts are simple... every player was made an offer that would allow us to have roughly a 30 man squad for the upcoming season. Each offer reflected my views on where that player fitted into the squad and that was that. It has not been easy and we have lost players for two reasons, financial and rugby. Financially, it has been a simple choice for the players... take it or leave it... your choice. From a rugby perspective, Chris Brightwell resigned and was then offered the opportunity he came to England for. I cannot pretend I am not gutted but it is fantastic news for Chris who has been a star for us over the last 2 seasons and I am sure he will do exactly the same job for Sale and be a standout player in the Premiership. Other players have taken a step down to play more regularly and, in several cases, have taken opportunities that allow them to look at life beyond rugby. I wish them all luck and thank them for their contribution to the club, especially their role in 'The Great Escape'.
This all got me thinking about the transient nature of rugby, especially at a club who have had its fair share of ups and downs over the last few years. Despite that, we have been on the pathway for a fair few players who have either represented their country or played Premiership/Magners/European rugby. In the last three years alone, we have had Chris Brightwell (Sale and England 7's), Marika Vacacegu (Sale and Fiji), Matt Mullan (England), Alex Grove (Scotland), Will Matthews (Wasps), Woody (Viadana), Nicky Griffiths (Cardiff Blues), Uche Oduoza (England 7's), Ben Phillips (Gloucester) and Pete Bucknall (Leeds and now Leicester). Ultimately, everyone will look at our results on the pitch but I believe that player development is very important for a club like ourselves.
Back to the present and the players we have for the upcoming season. Clearly, last season the scrum was a major issue for us so a big welcome to Nglau and Rob Dugard who will add both size and nouse in that area. Ngalu has taken on the role of captain of 'Team Tonga" and with Leo, Semisi and now Heisi they are threatening to take over the club! The addition of Dan Oselton and return of Ben Gerry in that area should also make the hooker role incredibly competitive and drive the standard up.
In the back five, Semisi, Adrian Griffiths, Alex Ball, Mike Denbee have been added. I believe Semisi may well assume cult status at the club if what we have seen so far continues. In addition, Ross Noonan is eating 15 egg whites a day and is in the shape of his life so I am also quietly excited about his forthcoming contribution.
Backs-wise, it has been all change. Brakey is back (and also back in the England 7's squad), Sam Robinson and George Crook will compete for the fly-half slot. Both have shown up well so far and I am still struggling to break George's ice cool exterior. In the outside backs, it is great to have kept several of last season's guys still with us and to have added to what was an area of strength for us. Ben Barkley will add a little more grunt than we have previously had (ask Nglau!) and Ollie Grove will add to the guile we already have. In addition, we are close to agreeing deals with two more backs.
On top of this, we have the Saints deal which is in place purely for player development. They have a handful of players that they believe will benefit from exposure to another environment and Championship rugby. In addition, newly-appointed academy coach Mark Hopley should be available for parts of the season. Hoppers reminds me of me as a player, except he is better and less breakable. I am looking forward to both clubs enjoying a successful relationship and associated success on the pitch.
And finally... a warm welcome to Lorcan. Lorcan has taken over Emma's role at the club and has fitted in straight away. His friendly Irish manner is only slightly let down by his inability to get the players' names right at the moment and Mitch will soon be known as 'Midge' to us all.
And just one last thing... Matt Long has agreed to be captain for one more season. Mash is an incredible individual both on and off the pitch and no one lives our values more so than 'Mash'. For me and Euge, this was a no-brainer and I look forward to Mash being a fantastic leader for us again. I am sure he never thought he'd be playing in the first game at Damson Parkway for the club, let alone being captain. Well done Mash!
Before then, we have 3 pre-season games which due to uncertainty of existence and posts at Damson are all away in Wales. It would be great to see as many of you as possible there and then away at Worcester on the 28th August and home against Nottingham the following week.
19th January 2010 - Russell Earnshaw
The fact that I am writing this at 5.30 am in the bathroom of a hotel in Solihull probably best sums up the last two weeks of my life. Hectic!
The cold snap made Christmas fantastic. Cancelled games meant more time with the family and Fred is at an age where Christmas is magical. For someone who usually sleeps on the sofa during ‘The Great Escape’, it was a nice change to spend a perfect few days watching Fred open his presents in complete wonder and disbelief. I am hoping that he will believe in Santa for many years to come!
After Christmas came New Year. This was spent with Hunty and Nicky playing Trivial Pursuit. In bed by half past midnight and not a drop to my name is hardly the stuff of legends but we had Bedford to play away (but really at home) on the 2 nd and mental clarity would be the order of the day.
The game itself was a lesson in execution and mental belief for us as an early lead was relinquished by poor decision making on our behalf and some eye-catching rugby and top class finishing from the Blues. It was good to see ‘Brighters’ enjoying his rugby and in a good frame of mind… Bedford have certainly got a ‘good ‘un’ there.
And then came more snow! Fortunately, we had planned a mini ‘pre-season’ early January at the start of November in an attempt to both work on our game and also cheer up those who are seasonally affected. Two whole days together included spinning, a team meal at Wagamama, lots of rugby, a visit from Ian Maynard (a ‘mental skills’ guru) and even a bit of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) thrown in for good measure.
It certainly seemed a success even if we did think we had lost Will Lawson at one point. The result of a (pretty weak) karate chop to the solar plexus was one of the top ten funny moments of my life. A big thanks to Dawn, ‘H’ and Nigel at Battleground and if you put Ben Patston into youtube, it should give you an rough idea of what we got up to.
The camp was followed by a couple of days off for the boys and two whole days of ‘admin’ for me. I think ‘admin’ is becoming a hobby for me now, although the constant lists on paper, napkins and the back of my left hand are getting to be ridiculous. I am looking forward to waking up one day with no list and a day with the family. I suspect Amy and Fred are similarly hoping that that may happen sooner rather than later. I think we all know it never will.
And so to last weekend where we played Pirates at home in Cornwall. I can assure you that getting in my car and driving hundreds of miles is not that high up on my ‘to do’ list but the weather in Birmingham had once again beaten us and Rod Coward and the Pirates team did a great job in getting a game on at such short notice. And what a game it was!
One of the best referees in the world refereed the best game I have seen this season (which is quite a lot once you factor in analysis). Both teams looking to play rugby and score tries seems to make a difference. The breakdown was expertly managed by Wayne Barnes and the crowd got what they wanted. Well not quite! A late Will Lawson try and touchline conversion from an inspired Ben Patston levelled things up at 31-31.
Predictably, everyone presses reset on Teletext. It must be wrong. Bees drew at Pirates? I think I even pressed Teletext a couple of times but we still drew by all accounts. The reason? A lot of hard work by 20 players who had played for us already, together with one ex-Pirate who had spent thirty minutes with us on Wednesday night and a prop playing in Yorkshire 1 until a week ago? How about the desire of 22 individuals to play for each other and push the boundaries in attack?
It was clearly a resounding no to both of the above. Having been down to eighteen in a match day squad (including a 43 year old coach who had not played in 5 years) and watched our friends leave one by one until fifteen had been taken away from us by other clubs, we were certainly on our last legs. One Friday I even had to ring Mark Linnett to see if he still had some boots and would he play… ‘Sumo’ said yes of course but fortunately for him the game was called off.
Three and a half months without pay is a pretty tricky one to explain to the family when you have bills to pay and other offers. Even more so when your mates are leaving and telling you how happy they are. When you live in Doncaster like Eugene and it costs you significant sums to even get to training, you are not even treading water.
Unfortunately, you cannot finish a season in the Championship with eighteen players so we had to recruit a few more. To be fair to Richard Smith, he has put an incredible spin on the players we got in. The reality of it is he could have said a prop playing in Yorkshire 1, an English prop playing in NZ, a second rower who played for Moseley 2nds, a second rower playing in Holland, a back rower working in the city, a centre playing in National 3 North, a player without a club, 2 ex-players who promised to return, a back-rower who has been unable to play recently due to a heart defect, a winger who works in the city, a back returning from a back operation in National 2 North and two loan players.
Great work by the way Rich! Must have been that.
13th October 2009 - Russell Earnshaw
It's a good job I'm reading Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search For Meaning' as it puts everything into perspective. His struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps really does help explain the oft-used statement 'it could be worse’ and puts into perspective much of what we are going through at the moment.
He quotes Dostoevsky who said: "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings". A little deep maybe but to me it simply says that you will find out a lot more about people when the chips are down and things are going against you. When we talk about our values and our culture as a team it tests what you claim to be to the limit. Do you live your values when you have not been paid for two months? Well at Birmingham you can find out! It is a great social experiment that I would not wish upon my worst enemy but the data from it is fascinating. I am learning a huge amount about myself and all the other people who are part of my 'Bees life'.
Off the field, the support of the fans has been crucial. Our own fans helping out in all aspects - from paying for the team bus to Bedford, to collecting on a match-day to putting up me and Eugene and feeding us on a regular basis (thanks Sue) - has been very humbling. Indeed, the support we have received from the majority of other clubs, their fans and their players has also been fantastic for the boys. The only exception to this has been two Championship clubs who vetoed us having a small amount of our RFU money paid now to help the players and staff out…I play rugby because it is a ‘family’ game and I strongly disagree with this kind of behaviour. I have taken time out to pass on my feelings to the two clubs involved…as I said though, you find out a lot about people when the chips are down…
On the field, it is easy to focus on the negatives...we have conceded a LOT of points, we scored no points against Rotherham and we have yet to win a game. Turn that around and we have scored 3 tries per game against Nottingham, Bristol and Bedford who will all be there or thereabouts come May-time (…it is a shame there’s no bonus point for 3 tries or more)! We have ‘blooded’ a lot of young players and players who have not played anywhere near this level before…the likes of Dale Garner, Jimmy Williams, George Thomas, Ken Dowding, Sam Brown, Ryan Tomlinson and Will Martin are all ‘virgins’ at this level who have all acquitted themselves well and now need to back up these performances week in week out, as the Championship is all about consistency as we know. Finally, we are still playing every Saturday…the fact that we even get to 3pm is a credit to the players and everyone who works for and helps out the club.
People keep asking me ‘why we are still playing?’, we have lost most of our ‘senior’ players for a variety of reasons and every week we are huge underdogs not only because we are depleted but also because of the uncertainty off the field. Try asking someone like Jack, Hunty or Cam, it’s not easy but we all love playing for the club and we believe we will come through this stronger and in better shape than when we were put in on a ‘heavily soiled’ wash.
I also get asked ‘will we get through this?’, in addition to being an eternal optimist (much to my partner Amy’s annoyance at times!), I am also a realist. I have never hidden away from the fact that it is going to be tough and that you should leave if you are not able to live an unstable life in the short term. With this in mind, I have no issue with players that have left us and wish them all the best…some teams have got some good players and some great blokes off us and I know they will all add value to their new clubs. However, with the current work being done to move the club forward through people already connected with the club and one or two new faces, I am very confident of a positive outcome and a new start for the club. I cannot say more than that as we have dealt too long at this club in ‘if only…’ and ‘but when…’ and I am only willing to deal in fact. I am not sure how I would fill my days then…maybe a bit of coaching would be nice.
Over the last month we have lost several players and for completeness I will mention them all here.
Mark Woodrow has gone to Viadana for European rugby and should play against Leicester at home this weekend. I know Woody has always dreamed of playing at this level and wish him the best of luck on his journey.
Craig Voisey has gone to Rotherham - Voisey was the keenest trainer ever and had come a long way since I first met him when I used to drink in Belfast.
Reece Spee has gone to Moseley and they are very lucky! He is an incredibly talented and professional player and with a family to look after it was a tough decision as he is also incredibly loyal.
Dan Seal has gone to Bedford - for me, one of the best props in National One for the last few years and a back-rower trapped in a props jersey. He will also be missed greatly by Ricky, Will and Darren.
Shaun Pammenter (AKA the WAG’s favourite) came over and could not defend. He can now and is a fantastic club-man who will be a great asset to the Pirates.
Toby Freeman has returned to Exeter. I hope for Toby’s sake he gets some action there and not just the odd game as he needs to play to improve. I am not holding my breath on this.
Ben Phillips is on trial with Gloucester, Chris Brightwell is also going through the same process (I helped facilitate this and would never stop a player from improving himself). Having made himself unavailable for selection for the past two weeks I subsequently terminated Ben’s contract.
Tal Selley has also left and is currently unattached. In addition to being a fantastic player, Tal is one of the most positive team men I have ever met and I can see how important he must have been in Wales’ World Cup 7’s victory.
I think that is it! As you can see, it has been a tough few weeks. It has also been incredibly emotional at times as I consider us very close as a team. Unfortunately, this is the nature of professional sport and we cannot look back and must move on as a club. With this in mind, I am offering anyone the opportunity to come down and train with us over the next few weeks. If you are an aspirational rugby player with ambitions to play in the Championship and beyond, I would love you to contact me by email (russellearnshaw@hotmail.com) or phone (07900 056556).
20th August 2009 - Russell Earnshaw
How has pre-season training gone? It's gone really quickly. Am pleased, we've seen huge increases in fitness and strength levels which will allow us to play rugby as we want.
What did you take from the Glamorgan and Worcester games? Really pleased with what we learned from the game and the match fitness we gained. Tuesday's opposed session against Worcester at Sixways was the perfect place to put into practice what we agreed as a group to take forward from Saturday's game. I really think that the new guys (and some of the old ones!) are beginning to achieve clarity on how we want to play in attack and our various defensive systems.
Despite personally having played at Premiership level previously, I was still incredibly excited about training with Worcester, as were the rest of the squad, apart from Chris Kemp who was Chief Sapper for the day!
It was also an incredible learning opportunity for us as individuals and as a team...it's not every day that Dale Garner gets to scrum down against an international prop and hold his own...he will take more from that experience than any scrum session I can provide him with. Unfortunately however Worcester suffered three injuries during the session itself so Dale may not get the chance to do that again for a while!
Thoughts on the Carmarthen fixture this weekend? Excited about playing at home again. It's a fantastic opportunity for us to build on both the Glamorgan game and Worcester session. With five guys returning from the Middlesex Sevens tournament too competition for places should also begin to hot up and it gives myself and Eugene a chance to look at several combinations in a match situation rather than opposed training.
What are you hoping for from this season? Don't really want to look too far ahead as you are bound to trip up. My only focus really is on the weekend and putting in a performance. I am currently reading Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning'. He states that as long as you have a 'why', you can find a 'how'... I am currently working on the latter!
END