BEES COACHES CORNER

Bringing you the latest from Bees’ Director of Rugby, Russell Earnshaw and Assistant Coach, Eugene Martin.

03rd April 2011 - Russell Earnshaw

Realism and positivity

Having just emerged from the grumpiest weekend of my rugby career, I am approaching the next two games with both realism and positivity. Friday night's defeat and Moseley's victory at Esher took our destiny out of our hands and put some of it in Plymouth's. We cannot blame anyone else but ourselves for this situation and we know that two 5 pointers are a must and that in both games we must deny our opponents any bonus points. At the same time, we need to hope that Graham Dawe will decide to field his strongest side and that those players are self-motivated enough to put their bodies on the line.

As for our side of the bargain, I truly believe this is possible with this group of players. If we get the mental game right, we know we can replicate Doncaster at home or Bristol away. Before every game, the players decide on the team's goals for that game and we know that if we achieve these (usually three) goals then we will put ourselves in a great position to win the game. The goals are within our control and simplify the thought process in attack and defence. We are currently not achieving these goals and it is no coincidence that we have lost three out of four games so far. It is about us focusing on the process despite the interferences.

The interferences are many... we have players who have signed for other clubs, some of our players try too hard, the press and some fans will try and distract you, the list goes on. We must concentrate on what we do well as a group and that is playing with clarity and passion for the shirt and understanding what this club means to the people who support and run it. That starts with this week's preparation for Moseley who will be turning up on Sunday looking to relegate their fiercest rivals and I can assure you we will be doing everything in our power as a group to ensure that Sunday sees us replicate our victory at Billesley Common a fortnight ago. Make sure you get down to support the boys for the Birmingham derby.

25th February 2011 - Russell Earnshaw

Coaching...

Last week as part of my Level 4 course, Peter Moores ex-England Cricket Coach was invited to deliver on his coaching experiences. It made for a great day and provided me with some useful insights ahead of the upcoming weeks.

Reflecting on his public falling out with Kevin Pietersen, we discussed Peter’s definition of a team and that you ‘give some of yourself to the team’ and make the necessary ‘choices’ to allow that (not sacrifices as many call them). The next few weeks will definitely guage how much of themselves our players, management and their families are willing to give to the team.

Peter also discussed one of his major influences being Sir Alex Ferguson. Sir Alex signed players based upon two characteristics, their bravery and their skill. The apparent emotional and physical pressures of the next two months will test our bravery and our skill. Are we brave enough to play the kind of rugby we have played over the last few weeks, notably against Doncaster, Worcester and Bristol and can we execute under pressure. I am hoping that come the end of April, Sir Alex will have his cheque book out ready to sign up a few of the boys.

In terms of his own coaching philosophy, he talked about his hatred of ‘Sat Nav Coaching’. Your Sat Nav gets you to your destination in an efficient and timely manner but can you remember the route? If someone else is always leading you, you can never find your own way if you happen to get lost and you always have someone else to blame if that happens anyway. The players know that the Sat Nav was turned off several months ago now and they have to find their own way to April 16th in one piece and on time. I look forward to the annoying voice telling us we have reached our destination.

And finally…. some good news! It appears that most our injured players are back in the next 2 weeks. A late night call from Jack Preece telling me he would play tomorrow if he had to (not sure if they let you on the pitch with crutches!) cheered me up and a similar call from Danny Wright this morning left me well and truly delighted. Indeed, even Dan Oselton and Alex Ball are now running and could feature over the next few weeks for us… happy days indeed!

31st January 2011 - Russell Earnshaw

Going forward...

The challenges of a coach are challenging to say the least. Saturday’s result was a huge wake up call for all involved and, as I bear ultimate responsibility for our on field performance, me in particular. After the high of Doncaster came what I can best describe as the ‘shock’ of yesterday and proof, if ever it were needed, that improvement is not linear.

As part of our preparation in the week, the players came up with what Moseley would be saying about the game:

• They would back themselves to be more physical than us
• They would make the breakdown a s***fight
• They would punish our mistakes
• They would test our discipline

In the aftermath of the game, it was clear that they were certainly more physical than us as a team.

The breakdown was certainly hotly contested and they turned us over three times more than I would like. Safe to say, and it was the players we had talked about in the week and that Jack Bentall, Ben Barkley and Semisi had imitated in training.

They certainly punished our mistakes and the two crucial tries midway through the second half cam from us making basic errors in our own 22. We never recovered from this and rather than getting tighter as a team and focusing back on the game plan, our unconscious minds took over and we went off as individuals and tried to win the game on our own. Trust me, that never works!
Finally, they tested our discipline and we were far too nice. When Adrian was taken out off a kick off, not a single one of our players reacted. Adrian is a popular member of the squad if you are in any doubt. Very few people actually hate him, yet when one of their players took him out in mid-air, we were happy to watch and let this go. We didn’t do that against Doncaster when Mike Denbee was pushed from behind and I do not expect that to happen again.

On watching the game live and then the DVD, it was like we had revised for a big test, got the first few questions right then had a complete memory blank and panicked. In particular, those that drive the side from key positions did not have the ability to reflect, relax and get us back on plan. It is well known that your physiological state depends heavily on your mental state (Lance Armstrong actually had a 35 chance of surviving cancer and went on to win 7 Tour de Frances) and that in certain states it is impossible to perform at your best. Once you are into the realms of frustration and anger you can kiss a performance goodbye. You need to remain positive, focused and on task. Easier said than done but necessary for success.

So how can a team that beat Doncaster and had the belief to come from behind away at Bristol be six points up with twenty to go and then be lucky to concede less than fifty? Clive Woodward talked about TCUP or ‘Thinking Clearly Under Pressure’and won a World Cup based upon that behaviour. Moseley had a game plan that they stuck to and they thought very clearly under pressure. In particular, when I saw Dan Robson’s name on the team sheet I left our players in no doubt as to his capabilities and ability to TCUP despite his youth. He was the best player on the pitch by a country mile and(at just 18) the youngest by an even bigger margin. Indeed, age and an associated lack of fear are often an antidote to pressure (ask any child).

So how do we move on from here? Playing together and shared experiences over the next few weeks will play a big part but our main goal is to remain positive, do not be tempted to blame others or look for excuses and to work harder than we already are. Learning from this experience is crucial (after all, it is just a (bad) ‘experience’ at the moment). We can then look to build sustainable confidence and belief so that one-off performances like Bristol and Doncaster become consigned to the past. Maybe then we can start living in the present and I can sleep a little better at night!

16th November 2010 - Russell Earnshaw

That all important “C” Word

Consistency is definitely word of the day at the moment. Everyone is frustrated that we can beat Esher so comprehensively at home and play for ninety minutes to beat Bristol away yet can concede seven tries away at Nottingham or surrender a ten point lead against Bedford with such ease.

The Championship is a relentless league with no ‘easy’ games and the matches come thick and fast week on week allowing you little time for recovery and highlighting the importance of injured players working harder than everyone else to get themselves back in contention to help the team. It also highlights how important the top few inches are in preparing for a physical battle week on week whilst understanding your role in the game plan and having the ability and desire to execute that role.

Teams will work you out during the season and you constantly have to reinvent yourself to stay ahead of the game. You may have a niggle or two but that is part of the job description and you build a reputation on playing well week after week, season after season and not by performing inconsistently and blaming others for errors. You can lose that reputation in an instant. Everyone in the squad must buy into this and I read a great quote today on a T-shirt… “Sport does not build character, it reveals it”. The past few weeks have been pretty revealing!

Four weeks ago, one of the main reasons we were losing games was due to missed one-on-one tackles. To put it in perspective, we missed 30 against Moseley and have now got that down to 10 against Nottingham and still lost. It needs to be single figures. It has become a huge part of our selection process and we have had some outstanding tackle stats such as Mike Denbee and Jack Preece who made 49 (one third of the entire team’s) and missed 1 between them against Bedford.

Similarly, if you miss tackles you are likely to find your shirt under threat as the maths is pretty compelling… if everyone in the squad misses one tackle, you will miss 22 as a team and have next to no chance of winning. This selection criteria is completely transparent to the players and so we have had a little chopping and changing in certain positions where I would love consistency of selection but cannot justify that without consistency of performance. It is a little like the chicken and the egg but we are insisting that the chicken makes all its tackles!

In many positions, the players have proved that by working hard on your basics and understanding your role in the team, it will lead to outstanding personal performances as illustrated by some of our players. Several need to be fitter than they are but I can assure you we are working very hard on achieving this.

As most of the pack are currently injured, this is a little tricky for the guys playing week after week but we should see the return of Ross Noonan, Matt Long, Leo, Mark Hopley, Ben Gerry and myself in the next 4 weeks with Alex Ball due back in the new year after a successful operation on his back and Dan Oselton making good progress following the repair to his Achilles. In the meantime, we are hoping to have a new second rower joining us soon to provide a little more competition in that area.

Whilst on the subject of missing players, we have seen a fair turnaround over the last few weeks with Anthony Elliott returning to Bristol, Greg Sammons signing for a club in Italy, George Crook forced into retirement and John Holtby struggling with a potentially career-ending injury. It doesn’t rain but it pours! The arrival of Ross McMillan and Jack ‘Mental’ Bentall combined with the return of ‘Woody’ have, in my opinion, strengthened us significantly.

With all of this going on and two of our players selected again for the first leg of this year’s IRB World Sevens Series in Dubai and George, consistency has to be word of the day for us all for the remainder of the season. We are all working hard on it so that we can all stop being frustrated!

Rusty

 

24th September 2010 - Russell Earnshaw

SEPTEMBER AWARDS
Well with September almost over and winter drawing in the time has come for Monthly Awards.

Player of Month
1st (by a long way) Jack Preece

2nd Semisi,
3rd Ollie Gove

Best On Field Moment
1st Penalty try versus Nottingham (been a long time coming!)
2nd Ngalu's intercept in the same game
3rd Jack's sidestep versus Worcester

Best Tackle
Ollie Grove on Miles Benjamin in the corner versus Worcester.

Off-field...
The spirit in the camp remains extremely high so mentions for Mike Denbee going to the toilet in his pants during a fitness test, Greg Sammons falling asleep on the bus and falling down the stairs next to the toilet (sober!), George Crook's toothbrush OCD (he wraps in 2 bags and then puts in a wardrobe to avoid 'smell' particles in the bathroom... naturally the boys stole it and videoed it absorbing said smell particles), Leo winning the bench press challenge at the Village Hotel.

But the clear winner for “Off-field” is Adrian for a complete lack of clarity at all times and becoming flustered whenever I ask him a question.

Look forward to seeing you all at Damson Park on Sunday to help us on against Plymouth.

14th September 2010 - Russell Earnshaw

After three rounds of what promises to be an incredible exciting Championship season, I thought I would sit down and reflect on our progress so far.

It has been an incredibly steep learning curve for us as a team. We failed to take our chances at Worcester and did not respect the ball enough… and were punished accordingly. The following week and our first taste of Damson Parkway was a game where 28 points for should have been sufficient to ensure victory but for individual defensive errors. Last weekend at London Welsh, having competed for 65 minutes against a strong Welsh side, we faded in the last 15 minutes and managed to end the game with 6 front row forwards playing in the pack. As Mauro ran on to play second row, I realised the extent of the injury list when we were throwing to Jack in the lineout. No disrespect to Jack who has been the outstanding player of the season so far but I think we won the lineout due to the surprise element more than anything else!

Going into round 4 and an exciting game away at Pirates, the current injury crisis (Oselton, Sanderson, Ball, Denbee, Clayton, Connolly, Noonan, Williams, Crook, Ridgers and Holby) is starting to improve and we may see a few guys returning to play and getting some much-needed match fitness on Sunday. On a personal note, the shoulder is improving but I am hoping not to be required to take the field of play in a hurry!

This weekend, we are hoping to take build on the belief from a very good second half against Nottingham and a good first half at Welsh. I still feel we need to piece together good bits from all our games and come up with a more complete performance for the full 80 minutes, still retaining that desire to play the ‘Bees Way’ (as Ed Binham describes it). I think the improved scrum and ball carriers has somewhat muddied this philosophy as we are struggling to harness the power of the forwards and the attacking intent of the backs into a package that flows. In my mind’s eye, I want us to be play like the current Australian side. They create and play to space better than any side in the world with a side packed with young players with no concept of fear, playing with a contagious youthful exuberance.

To achieve this, there is only one answer… we need to play together. Nothing will ever match the deep learning of competitive games but we are trying to increase our decision- making capabilities under pressure by creating scenarios in training and taking part in opposed sessions. As it stands, we only have 1 player at the club with over 100 games. No prizes for guessing! After Mash, we have Rod, Leo, Mitch, Jack, Rob, Hunty and myself but no one else is near 100. That means we have, at best, half a side who have played a significant amount of rugby together. In a team sport such as rugby, the ability to form an order out of the chaos (by knowing what your team mate is about to do) is critical and we are still going through that learning process. In short, please bear with us… it will come!

 

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, Nikki 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 agreement 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 Park 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.