Eddie is visiting his friend Desmond Tuiavii – IN THE NETHERLANDS!
An unique opportunity to meet and talk to this elite coach who has these incredible experiences and, as it turned out, is willing to share his ideas with you. Des was player at the Brumbies when Eddie Jones was coach and they stayed in touch since. Finally Eddie had time for a short visit to the Netherlands.
Takeaways
A lot of good questions during the Q&A we sat up and talk about interesting tactics. Great to hear that of fellow country man Frans Bosch was part of the “How to beat South Africa” plan that Eddie set up for RWC2015. A lot of information, this is what stood out for me:
- Support the ball carrier, react to his actions (very much like the French approach with Contact / Duel)
- 70% of our possession is from unstructured play – why have structured exercises in our practises?
- Adjust the intensity of your training to your matchplay
- Passing does not give you tries – running with the ball is!
- This is rugby too: he was his coach, now he is his friend
Love for our rugby sport
You might think that when coaching at the highest level your interest is at game plan, team and performance management, player selection and I am sure Eddie Jones is very good at all that. But he just as much enjoyed working with Des his rugby start up group who now play their rugby for 10 months.
Sometimes we seem to get lost into all the stuff we coaches think is important and we forget that getting the ball and attack the defence in front of you is exciting and fun. How fantastic to see a coach of that stature still appreciating this.
Eddie Jones and Rugby
Want to read more on Eddie Jones then you will like his book:
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