New Zealand were crowned champions of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and lauded as worthy winners thanks to the entertaining, attacking style of rugby that other sides simply couldn’t live with.
Indeed, they and fellow finalists Australia set the pace throughout the tournament with their ability to score tries. This has led to plenty of introspection in the Northern Hemisphere, with scores of fans and pundits alike asking if their sides should be switching focus to play a more expansive game to match that of the Southern Hemisphere.
One man is not sold on the idea. Leicester Tigers head coach Richard Cockerill insists English sides – including the national team – should stick to what they are good at, and what has brought them (relative) success in the past.
“I’m an Englishman and from that point of view, I think we have to play to our strengths,” said Cockerill at this morning’s European Rugby Champions Cup launch in London.
“I don’t want to play like New Zealand because we can’t. New Zealanders get born and they are given a rugby ball. English people get born and they are given a football. We start to learn rugby [at a later age] – it’s not our first love, and that’s just the nature of it.”
It will come as little surprise to those familiar with the Tigers’ traditional style of play that Cockerill is an advocate of sticking to the power game that has been a strength of English rugby in the past.
“In England we have good forward packs, we have a very attritional mindset, we are bloody-minded about what we do, and personally I think we spend too much time wanting the promised land of how other people do stuff,” said the Leicester coach.
“We can compete – we’ve shown it – by playing differently to the Southern Hemisphere sides. Clive Woodward’s side that went away from home before the [2003] World Cup and beat New Zealand and then did it in the World Cup – they weren’t playing a fancy, all court game; they did what English teams do well and played to their strengths. England can and should do that.
“Look at the first test last summer. England played a mixed team and just got stuck into the All Blacks, and probably should have won. How did they do it? Good set piece, hard at the breakdown, made New Zealand struggle for every possession. Then the two weeks after that, we decided to play them at their own game and got beaten. I don’t see why we always try to chase the holy grail of being like another side. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
The Tigers, of course, are adjusting to life with Aaron Mauger in their coaching ranks. Mauger, a former All Black himself, was brought in to add a bit of sparkle to a Tigers game that badly stagnated in the absence of Matt O’Connor last season.
And while Cockerill’s comments suggest Mauger will have to work hard to convince him to instigate a bit of Kiwi magic into the gameplan, the Leicester top dog was still full of praise for his new number two.
“The Northern Hemisphere spend their entire lives trying to find out what sides like the Chiefs and Crusaders do to be successful, and we’ve got one of those guys [Mauger] running our environment. He’s had a good All Blacks career and has played in the Premiership – which is important.
“He sees the game differently, which is great, but he understands the environment and the culture of Leicester. It’s a good balance with myself and the other coaches, and we’re starting to strike a really good rapport.
“His mindset for how we set up, and how we encourage the players to play across the field from front to back, has been different. I’m a forward and a pragmatist by nature, and he’s a back and an optimist by nature, so the balance is really good. He relates to the backs really well. He’s a little bit more nurturing with them than I am!”
Anyone who saw the Tigers beat Wasps last Sunday will attest to the fact that they are trusting themselves to use the ball a bit more than in previous seasons. That can only be Mauger’s influence, but as Cockerill noted repeatedly this morning, he is first and foremost a pragmatist. Don’t expect them – or English rugby in general – to reinvent the wheel any time soon.
“Sides get relegated in the Premiership; they don’t in the Super 15,” he added. “It’s all about winning today and planning for tomorrow.”
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
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Hmmm – not convinced that Cockers has ever over thought these things. Let’s play to our strengths – good scrum. It may have escaped his notice that we were beaten all ends up in the scrum with our first choice pack including Cole and Youngs in the front row. And as for the breakdown – we were just so successful at that!
What we need is a coach who has a plan (whatever that may be) that suits the players that we have and who can pick players to play to that plan. I have long been a critic of Gatland for being too conservative with the amazing Welsh backline, but to be fair to him, he has a game plan and he picks the players that are going to work in that plan and it hasn’t worked out too bad for them.
I have an ongoing issue with tigers. They seem to change their entire team every year and I’ve got no idea who the majority of them are or their background anymore.
Most teams sign a few players each year and lose one or two.
Tigers seem to be like a bucket with holes at the bottom. Everyone jumps in but don’t stay long.
Just my 2 cents.
The only Prem team, last season, to score fewer tries than Tiggers was London Welsh.
The Cookers approach turned out fine. :(
“I don’t want to play like New Zealand because we can’t. New Zealanders get born and they are given a rugby ball. English people get born and they are given a football. We start to learn rugby [at a later age] – it’s not our first love, and that’s just the nature of it.”
Hmm, right. This argument that sides cannot adapt and play in a more expansive way is kind of blown out of the water by Argentina’s evolution in a mere 4 years. It also conveniently forgets England c.2000 to 2003, when we regularly competed and at times bested the southern hemisphere hegemony.
As Tony Taff’s notes above, Cockerill is one to talk. A mediocre DoR at best who has squandered the ample resources at his disposal. Bullying weak packs and weak referees at Welford Road will achieve a play off slot but will not lead to success on the European or international stage. Seeing Tigers trying to milk scrum penalties at the weekend does not fill me with confidence and Tigers England representatives have hardly inspired, maybe Tuilagi and B Youngs on occasion, but Cole, T Youngs, Parling et al rarely demonstrate their domestic dominance on the international stage.
England and the PRL need coaches with vision and ambition and who can build teams that are greater than the sum of their parts. Too many are satisfied with being a big fish in a small and every polluted pool.
The problems with English Rugby have less to do with a rugby ball not been given to us at birth, more to do with unimaginative, backwards thinking coaching, where scrums are seen as a lottery to win a penalty, and gym monkeys are developed at the expense of athletes. Step forward the chief advocate for sticking our heads in the sand, Richard Cockerill.
He really ought to look up Einsteins definition of madness.
BS from Cockers
A solid scrum that wins clean ball. A lineout that does likewise. At least two ball carriers in the forwards that make yards per game. An openside that makes a difference at the breakdown. Half backs that make good decisions and a plan B and C if plan A does not work. A regular centre partnership which is not just about stopping the other team going forward. The back three are reasonably ok:-) A wish list for the RFU to ponder over and reappoint SL as coach!
What a load of rubbish.
If you want to see the difference between a team that has a good scrum/breakdown but limited back play; see Argentina pre-Rugby Championship. Now compare that to a team that has a good scrum and breakdown that can also handle the ball.
It isn’t enough just to bully packs and win games that way, as South Africa are also finding out. Rugby has evolved over the past 5-10 years in particular, and England have been left behind.
What a numpty. Hes just another forward who can’t coach advanced skills because as a player he had limited skills and ability.
Not entirely sure why you can’t have a good set piece, be hard at the breakdown and make teams struggle for every possession AND have forwards and backs with the basic ability to spot gaps, draw their man and pass the ball. Rather than look for the nearest point of contact and fall over.
As everyone points out, Argentina are the perfect example
Plus go back and watch England in 2001/2002/2003 and tell me they didn’t play an all court game
Sure they tightened up in the World Cup but previously to that they destroyed teams across the park, not just by sticking the ball up their collective jumpers.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c2USK9DolxU Does help to have world class players mind.
Thanks for the link Mark. I had almost forgotten there was a short period in England’s history when we were as good at playing Southern Hemisphere style as the best of them. Could this have been because Woodward was a back? Who knows? All we know is our players today do not have half these skills or vision. Probably because numptys such as Cockerill took over the coaching and made us into robots following their preplanned pedantic style and robbinbg us of any chance of thinking for ourselves. It will take us many years to catch up, but if we try we can do it. I am encouraged watching some Aviva teams try to play with more adventure. It must surely start here because it is impossible to instinctively use this style for the first time at international level where the pace is so much faster. I believe we have exceptional talent in England and UK. Heck just look at how Cotter and Schmidt have transformed such small pools/countries into teams punching way above their weight.