posted Jun 27, 2008

Hmm, lets have a think, Wells, done s8d all b ut who did he play for? Rwontree, never the best scrummager that England had but who did he play for. Do you know, I'm trying to think of any club sides that Brian Smith player for. Can anyoe help? And as for Jonno, did'nt he play for Leicester? Can anyone see a theme here?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 27, 2008

Up until the NZ tour Mike Ford's record as defensive coach was quite good. We certainly didn't get to a world cup final playing attacking rugby! But this is a new era. There are some exciting attacking players out there if only we can mould them into team. Brian Smith may be just the person to do that. He played for my local team and it was the most exciting season we had!(Mind you the back line did include the likes of David Kirk and Ian Williams.) Maybe he won't get some of the others to change their minds over tactics but perhaps MJ will. It will be interesting to see what MJ makes of this summer's tours when he selects his squad.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 27, 2008

For you those of you unfamiliar with Brian Smith’s work he has transformed London Irish in the three years he has been there, to an attacking team capable of scoring plenty of tries. He was responsible for bringing Mike Catt into the squad and has developed several academy players such as Topsy Ojo, Delon Armitage and Shane Geraghty. He has inspired backs to play the game in front them and deliver tries.
Wikipedia quotes Smiths playing days as : Smith is a former Ireland international, gaining 9 caps in the halves between 1989 and 1991. He had previously been capped 6 times by Australia in 1987.
As a player he played rugby union for the Queensland Reds. Smith later played rugby league for Balmain Tigers and Eastern Suburbs in the NSWRL competition. He played mainly as a five-eighth and also as a halfback.
Sadly if he does become a member of the England setup it will be London Irish’s loss however I’m sure we will be pleased to have Mike Catt as head coach. England will be better with Brian Smith in the set up.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 27, 2008

It may surprise people who don't take that much interest in club rugby to know that just a few years ago, before Smith joined the club, Irish were known as a boring and one-dimensional team who struggled to score tries.

Despite having some quality players in the backs, like Paul Sackey.

The transformation has been startling.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 27, 2008

>>> Johnson should have shifted them out the door when he had the chance, like Ashton should have done. <<<

My guess is that neither he nor Ashton has had the chance.

Wells and Ford came in after the RFU-inspired clear-out of all the coaches bar Robinson.

As a result of buying out all those contracts, Barron actually explicitly stated that Johnson does not have an open chequebook, and that he doesn't expect him to revolutionise the current set-up, just to add to it. Basically telling him that he's not sacking anyone - he's got to work with what he's got.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 27, 2008

>>> Woodward was head coach (with an unspoken responsibility for the backs) and Andy Robinson was his assistant (with an unspoken responsibility for the forwards). Then we had Phil Larder, Dave Alred etc in charge of specific skills. <<<


Not quite.

England amployed backs coaches as well.

The hierarchy was:
Clive Woodward - England Manager
Andy Robinson - Assistant Coach and Forwards Coach
Phil Larder - Backs coach and Defence Coach
Various Specialist Coaches


Pretty much the same set up now. Theoretically, Rob Andrew has nothing to do with the running of the England team.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jun 27, 2008

All these specialist coaches need to work with the whole squad - you never know when a winger finds themselves having to ruck, or a prop finds themselves on the wing. A 15 st centre should be able to ruck and a 17st foreward should be able to pass 10 yards out of a tackle. To be world class England needs to have all players know how to play in any position the flow of the game dictates.

The other issue is how you react at turn over ball (either way). Do we have so many people coaching that the key issue of coherence and unity of objectives is not addressed?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jul 1, 2008

In short I think that this is a smart move, Irish have in a short while become one of "the" teams to whatch and Smith has to be credited with a lot of this turnaround.

Of the coaches in the premiership that I would have liked to see linked with England Smith and Ryan of Gloucester are the 2 at the top of my list as both these teams always pose problems in attack.

Also as a Cherry and Whites fan Smith is the easier of the 2 for me to get behind as it means we keep Ryan at Kingholm

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jul 14, 2008

So who is the Head Coach?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jul 14, 2008

think this is fantastic! great move all round!

dont think everyone should get too caught up in titles!

Johnno is in overall charge and will do some forward coaching.

i'm hoping brian smith with have pretty much overall charge of the training sessions and the direction england are going to take as a team - basically the way we're going to play. he is johnno's right hand man.

lets give Ford and wells one more chance (does the AIs count as a whole chance? or do they need the 6N as well? hmmm...!)

Roundtree should stay i believe - altho bringing back Phil Keith-Roach wouldnt be a bad call, our scrum was fantastic when he coached it.

callard - is he right? im not too sure, our kicking out of hand is still pretty woeful.....maybe a return of Aldred? JW and DC both still work for him and what is said he is still the pre-eminent kicking coach in the UK. plus very very few of the players left from the RWC 03 have worked with either before, so its hardly going to be going back to old sessions for most of the squad.

good luck Johnno and Smith - i hope you get enough time to really get us going again - ie a cpl of years to see a full and proper improvement!

add comment | complain about this comment