Selection & Rugby

If you, as the coach, always do the same thing then your results will also be the same.....

You are responsible for developing the team and yourself. You should always be more ambitious then your team (and be frustrated by this). This part of the site will give you some ideas on the fundamentals for developing the team and how to select players. Points covered:

• Your accountability.
• Your role as coach as one aspect of player preparation.
• The requirement to know yourself, to know your players, to know the game.
• Improvement can only be achieved by advancement in three areas:
  • Superior fitness.
  • Superior technical competence - including the mental components of relaxation, goal setting, visualisation, concentration. These combining to give overall confidence.
  • Superior strategy.
    
• You will be responsible for creating a task-oriented environment within which the players and the team can achieve their full potential. You should program and organise events to facilitate that improvement.
• You will need to have a policy on:
  • Recruitment (filling gaps in the team for what you think is lacking in skill, size and future requirements)
  • Training - planning and preparation
  • Coaching - improving techniques and skills all the time
• You will need to work with all levels within your club to make sure you get support in all these areas.

Selection
Most of us will have to work with the players they have but I have also worked with selections and had to re-work the selection process. The paragraph is based on a paper that has been prepared by Geoff Cooke, the former England Team Manager and I added my own experiences.

Selection = gathering, recording and assessing information

Having identified your objectives, your next step is to gather as much information on players as possible, to give you a sound basis for making your value judgments. This information gathering falls into two broad categories:

a) first-hand,
b) second-hand.

First-hand information is gathered by watching matches and by watching training sessions. Second-hand information is gathered by talking to performers, coaches, referees, spectators, etc. You have to perhaps built a network of rugby friends who are willing to help you with this. If you have set-up a system with Selectors then assessing is also part of this. The way in which we record information is a matter of personal preference, but methods include appraisal sheets, statistical analysis, subjective evaluation grids, tests and measurements and subjective impressions. Whichever methods you choose, it is important not to rely solely on one system in developing your player profiles. Geoff Cooke used a combination of all these methods in differing degrees according to need. He believes that game analysis should be focused on monitoring the development of the team. So built a flexible system. An example:

Possession/ Continuity: Geoff saw (analysis proved it) England lost a lot of ball in contact situations. Set up a training program to develop individual skills and support options. Set up a game analysis program to monitor this development.

However much information you have collected and recorded, it is largely valueless unless you interpret it effectively. In assessing your information, there are a number of factors to be considered:

• Source of the information, method of communication, priorities, transfer of performance, previous history, environmental factors, match context, team context, etc.
• Selection - principles, policies, strategies and techniques. There are certain principles, which I believe are essential for sound selection:
  • Selectors must understand the game the performers are playing.
  • Selectors must have very clear objectives and must understand the game you want to be playing.
  • Remember, the ‘Perfect Player’ does not exist.
  • Beware of asking or expecting performers to achieve things, which are outside their normal parameters.
  • Concentrate on positive qualities.
  • Judge on facts - not myth and legend.
  • Do not select unseen!
  • There must be consistency, continuity and stability.
  • There must be good communication, organisation and ‘public relations’.

Your selection policy will largely be determined by your objectives and the context within which you are selecting. The strategy options I can identify are:

• Determine your playing strategy and select performers to carry this out.
• Select the best performers available, then determine your playing strategy.
• Assess the merits of a nucleus of key (outstanding) performers. Decide how these performers will shape your strategy then select others to fill the remaining places.

When you think that in any rugby team this nucleus is roughly built around these players......

• Hooker
• No. 8
• Scrum-half
• Fly-half
• Center
• Full-back

.....then you know what to do: selecting in this case becomes more selecting players for these key positions. Because of this, my preferred option is definitely the third: work around the best players available. Make sure they are fit, focused and happy. They will raise the rest of the team. On a totally different scale (Youth Coach in the Netherlands for example) you are happy if you have enough players to fill a team......

Another stage in the process of building your team is to sort out a selection strategy or framework. Geoff Cook believes we must select:

• Players who are fully committed and will give 100%
• Players who are fully fit (easy: do some fitness testing)
• Players who will not be intimidated by the opposition or the event - physically or mentally
• Leadership and experience
• Ball winners, decision makers, creators, destroyers, scorers, and workers

Finally, there are a number of specific selection techniques. Like all techniques, some are basic essentials, some are tools of the trade, but all should be utilised and developed according to needs.

• Thorough preparation - report sheets
• Specific objectives - know what you are going to look for
• Pre-match consultation (coaches, selectors etc) - zoom in
• Avoid distractions
• Watch off the ball
• Vary viewing position - I like to watch from behind the post
• Be aware of cause and effect
• Record observations on the spot or immediately after
• Post match consultations (coaches, selectors, referee, spectators) - review your stuff

At the end of the day however, whatever policies, processes, or scientific methods of analysis you will employ, selection will remain essentially a matter of opinion. Be ready to discuss the outcome of your decision!

Related topics

• Developing a strategy - building the gameplan
• Translation to work on the field - how to implement the gameplan into training exercises
• Role of the Captain
• Developing Decision Making
• Set Plays - why I am not too happy about this
• Geoff Cook's original document (the "uncensored" version of this page)
  

Last updated on 15-04-06