I heard about a video clip from Eddie Jones doing the rounds last week in which he talked about the balance between skill and physicality. Now I'm not one who often finds myself agreeing with the England head coach, but ‘mate' you are spot on! If you check it out on Twitter you'll see just how many people, including ex-internationals are backing the man that so many of them love to hate. He certainly hit the sweet-spot on this occasion.
“In the northern hemisphere they've allowed physicality to become too important. The easy part is the physical, the hardest part is skill – the catch, the pass and the decision making. You have to spend more time on those areas.
“The gym part is the easy part. It's easy to get fit and it's easy to get stronger. New Zealand have a beautiful balance between athleticism and skill and that's why they are the best team in the world.”
He talked about a young, exciting player he knew who had been told by his club that the first thing he needed to do was put on 7kgs in weight. It has become the mantra of so many directors of rugby and S&C coaches in our part of the world.
The only point I would take issue on with Eddie is that the way in which his England teams have played for much of his time in charge has been based on the physical.
He loves nothing more than seeing his biggest players running the hardest and shortest of lines. So, are we going to see a change in style from his side in the upcoming Six Nations? We've seen some incredibly expansive and high scoring games in recent weeks in the Gallagher Premiership, but there weren't too many signs of that approach sifting through into the England side that won the Autumn Nations Cup.
Maybe he has had an epiphany.
But whatever has, or is going, to happen to his England teams, he is damn right. Nobody knows more than me how difficult it can be to play in the modern international arena as someone who is between 12 and 13 stones soaking wet. For me to have survived in the games I played for the Ospreys, Wales and the British & Irish Lions, I had to rely on a completely different sort of physicality to the one that seems to be demanded by so many current coaches.
I never bulked up. I never tried to compete on the weights. I never tried to eat my way to success. I worked on my pace and my power. I could never bench press against the likes of Gethin Jenkins or Sam Warburton, but our power-weight ratios were still the same. And I was a lot quicker and trickier.
While some players loved working on the weights, building up their muscles, I preferred to build up my core strength. You can't tell me that a player like Cheslin Kolbe suffers for weighing only 12st 8lb (80kg) and standing a mere 5ft 7in tall. Funnily enough, those were my exact playing measurements.
You won't see a front row forward capable of doing a standing back somersault. That is a classic exerthe cise for someone who has real power and control over his own body weight. I'm sure Cheslin could do it. I did my last one at the age of 43 recently when I was demonstrating to my daughter ahead of her gymnastic class.
I did six years of gymnastics at school. I won't ever be doing that sort of trick again given the way I felt for a day afterwards! Walking on your hands, climbing ropes and moving smaller weights at speed are as significant as pushing 100+ kgs once or twice in a bench press session.
The approaches will be different for players in different positions, but when it comes down to skill work then it should be a level playing field.
Every player needs to be able to pass, catch and kick and everyone needs to be flexible, pliable and have a good range of movement. Power comes from a wide range of movements based around the core, not merely from pumping iron in a single direction.
Look at a player like Dane Coles exerthe All Blacks hooker, and see what he gets through in a game. His scrummaging is as good as it needs to be, but his all-round skills in the tackle, at the breakdown, out wide poaching tries and in passing movements show that he can do a bit of everything. Ardie Savea is another exceptional athlete who possesses pace, power and skill.
If I had had to face Jonah Lomu it would have been deemed a mismatch.
There would have been nothing I could have done to have bulked up to meet such a physical challenge.
But I would have gone away and worked on my tackle technique, made sure I didn't give him an inch and then do everything I could to get out the bloody way of him when I had the ball. That would have meant working on running lines, sharpening the side step and ensuring I was at top speed.
They say a good big ‘un will always beat a good little ‘un, but David slayed Goliath, didn't he? Jonah would have had to catch me first to use his physical advantage in a one-on-one contest… and I would never have allowed that to happen! I help with a little bit of coaching at my old club, Amman United, where my son, Carter, plays in the Under 12s. The training sessions are all based on skill, technique and enjoyment.
It's much the same as most clubs around the UK at that age. Our biggest player is at centre and the smallest is a flanker. That's because those are the positions they want to play in right now. Too often size determines position in rugby, which plays into what Eddie was saying.
What should be the determining factor is how skilful you are to meet the requirements of the position in which you want to play. And if you haven't got the full set, then go away and work on them.
Eddie Jones is right, the physical route is the easy one to take. But if you invest in skills you will be able to match, and then potentially outscore, even the biggest and most powerful of opponents.
