By Whaley Shark
November 30 2011

I'd heard a bit about the 'Year Zero' DVD so I couldn't resist the opportunity to see what it was actually like. I certainly wasn't disappointed....

I hadn’t seen ‘Year Zero’ before, unlike many present. It was certainly blunt, pointing out the greater threats in this season’s Premiership, and setting out a number of goals clearly. Many were concerned with preparation (we will be the fittest side in the AP), support (we will have the best medical backup in the AP) and approach (we will not lie down), and the expectation is that they will translate into success on the field (we will win most of our home games). At the moment, they haven’t, and Dimes’s take on this was interesting. He feels that the off-field part is going very well, but the World Cup returnees haven’t yet developed the attitude of the players who were here pre-season, and who played so successfully during the World Cup period. He was quite candid that this integration has been much harder than he expected. Aside from the players who’ve brought their families from elsewhere, and are having to settle in, even those who were already with the club have been away for several months and have to readjust. There’s no compromise though-it’s Dimes’s way or the highway. There are not yet any specific targets for the season. They will be set in the New Year.

Dimes then took questions from the floor-

The scrum. Dimes was positive about the players we have but he did say the scrum is very technical. Never having worn a number lower than 4, the front row is all a closed book to me, but it was Dimes’s natural habitat for a long time, so I have to trust him. He discussed the recent leavers, specifically Neil Briggs and Aston Croall, and said that he’d been content for them to leave because he hadn’t been able to offer them game time. He was complimentary about Tony Buckley and Tommy Taylor in particular. To me, that says he thinks we have the raw material he needs. 

Development. We are a young side and that is a risk. We need to become more streetwise, both in how we handle referees and how we manage games. For example, he suggested that in a situation like the Exeter game, where the opposition are gaining momentum, a good fight is an excellent way to to take the heat out of the match..... He also emphasised the need for the coaches to help prevent the players from getting stuck in a rut, and not learning the subtleties of the game, and highlighted some examples from the Exeter match. Interestingly, for all we see hordes of ‘water boys’ running on and off the pitch, he felt the coaches had very little real influence on the course of a match. He’s worried by discipline at the moment. He also said the coaches have to learn lessons too, and picked out inappropriate substitutions in the Exeter match as an example.

Other bits and pieces-

We have moved financially from a loss of £ 1.5 million per year last season to the point where we will break even this year

Dimes knows nothing about a move to Barton. That would be above his pay grade, but the players like EP, not least because the opposition don’t.

He has made one other high profile signing (a forward), but that is unlikely to be announced until New Year

Joe Ward’s injury was a freak, and pretty gruesome, but he expects to be back in a couple of weeks

The Carrington training facilities are excellent. This is a long term arrangement and the club’s administration and management is likely to move there from EP.

 

After a break, the players took questions

 Axe (Onosa’i Auva’a) gave a very full description of preparation and training in the runup to a match. If he plays with half the dynamism of his answer, he’ll be a Hell of a player! I gave up trying to take notes but, suffice to say, it is a very structured programme. Food seemed to feature prominently in his version of preparation.

Sam tackled the difference between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere styles. Conditions here are poorer, colder and wetter. The game is slower and less open, with more impacts. Tony Buckley chipped in with a comparison of the Magners with the AP. He feels the AP is tougher- longer and more physical, with higher quality and more depth. There are no games when you can coast.

One other snippet- Fourie expects to be back early to mid-January

Finally, one thing that did strike me was the spirit. The players came over as a lively, intelligent, confident group, with a good relationship between them and the coaches.

So a big thank you to SSSC for organising, Dimes, Steve Scott and Tony Hanks for turning up, and an excellent turnout of players- Sam, Johnny Leota, Axe, Scott Mathie, Vadim Cobilas, Andrei Ostrikov, Tony Buckley, Hendre Fourie, Scott Mathie and Joaquin Tuculet