Coach’s Corner | Hong Kong passed ‘chemistry test’ with flying colours
Sometimes as a coach, you know even before taking the field that you have a special group. It’s not something that is easy to measure or articulate, you just know. And it probably has more to do with chemistry than ability.
Sometimes as a coach, you know even before taking the field that you have a special group. It’s not something that is easy to measure or articulate – you just know. It probably has more to do with chemistry than ability. There are players on every team who can make things happen, but I think with a special group it is more about how much they are prepared to give in order to make it happen.
And from the start of last Saturday, I had a good feeling about what was going to unfold.
It began with the normal urine samples and pool recovery session at the team hotel before breakfast. When I say urine samples, I mean from both a realistic and figurative perspective. The actual testing is to ensure they are not dehydrated going into the game, and the metaphorical piss-take, something that’s always evident among a tight and special group of players.
Now it’s onwards and upwards to Japan, where we will travel with confidence and hope
Then following breakfast the group assembled for our first “spotters” meeting of game day. For those less informed rugby pundits, players (and coaches) like to cross the i’s and dot the t’s the morning of a big game just to ensure the game plan is well and truly honed in. Our group was no exception, keen to get out of the hotel and implement some final but very important small details.
With the feeling as good as it was, intuition suggested that the players, under the charge of captain Nick Hewson and other senior players – Pale Tauti, James Cooper, et al – should be trusted in running this critical part of the day. By doing so, we displayed a huge show of faith from the coaching team in letting the players know we thought they were ready for battle, and we really had little left to contribute.
Following a hearty lunch and some personal down time, the group regrouped for the jersey presentation before departing to the game. This has become an important ritual, with key members of the rugby public invited in to present the jerseys and offer a few motivational words.
For a special game, we needed a special person as they’ve been known to add that vital one or two per cent during that final phase in the build-up for the game. Enter stage right, Stephen “Horse” Nolan, the ideal man for the job. A man renowned for not using five words when four will do, but someone who when he does speak, commands respect from others.
