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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:02:22:13:19:23 by Powick Eastander.

Sadly I can't be there but following our abject performance at Irish it is very timely to have the coaches to question. They are closer to the players that Dean Ryan - or they should be.

Our scrum has improved over the last few weeks but everything else has gone to pot. We kick away possession aimlessly, fail to follow up or cover and seem to have lost the ability to think and the desire to win.

Perhaps Carl Hogg could explain what he is doing to avoid a swift return to the Championship.

Thanks to all who organised this evening's interesting meeting - and thanks to to the coaches for their contributions.

It was quite clear that the coaching staff would accept all the criticism about the game at London Irish that we have seen on this board. Indeed the emphasis this week seems to have been on solving the problems of last Sunday. Apparently last week's training went very well but especially in the first half, the energy and intensity required was just not on the pitch. Up to the game in Reading, the squad was all about fighting for each other but for some reason that was missing on Sunday. The players had let themselves down.

In short, the coaches had no explanation for what happened . The interesting thing is what will happen this coming Saturday.

I have made a few notes on the evening and would be happy to write them up but, if I heard it correctly, the evening was videoed and this will be made available in due course.

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Thanks to all who organised this evening's interesting meeting - and thanks to to the coaches for their contributions.

I'll echo that, but somebody has to say it, so I will. There was a lot of technical BS which nobody understood, and a lot of self-congratulation. What was missing was an explanation of what they are doing to remedy the current situation. I hate negativity, and still believe we will stay up, but for me the evening was a disappointment. I asked a question about defending the rolling maul, and Hoggy (Mefin deferred the question to him) gave a straightforward and helpful answer, but apart from that, we didn't really learn anything, other than that we employ a sports psychologist. Was he on holiday last week?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016:02:10:23:08:50 by Patgadd.

Well if the coaches don't know here is no chance of supporters knowing. Maybe they just didn't want to say?

Maybe it was another PR exercise of demonstrating what they "say" they do.

Saturday will show us how good they are at getting the teams Mojo back

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A very well attended event, and clearly the content had been carefully chosen.

As I drove home, my overall impression of what I'd just been told could be summarised thus....

We have facilities, infrastructure, planning and detailed operational procedures equal to, or even exceeding, best practice in the world of professional rugby.

We have a plan, and it does not involve "panic" buying of overly expensive end of career players to prop up short term holes in our capabilities. Really?

There was a tacit admission that our players, overall, were possibly not quite good enough. (Yet?) There was a very open discussion , following a direct question, about the ability of Tom Heathcote, and the general line from the coaches was that he is a very talented player, but not yet the "real deal" , which he will be, in time. What this says for me is that, right now, he is not good enough, but we're sticking with him.

Picking up on what Patgadd says, the first part of the evening, individual presentations by each coach of their own speciality, backedwith slick video graphics, were indeed a tad self-congratulatory. For me, coming off a run of losing games culminating in what they all admitted was a thoroughly unacceptable performance at Oirish, sitting there being told just how very smart all our coaching planning and processes are just didn't wash. Serious mistake in setting the tone of the evening. And the last bit, essentially a Sam Vesty "what a wag I am" was in danger of getting close to embarrassing. I don't pay my season ticket money year after year to be shown video clips of Sam playing in a pop group. I came along for a hard nosed examination of how we got to where we are, and how we are proposing to halt the slide. I'm left, possibly wrongly, with feeling that I've just been told "more of the same, because what we're doing and the way we're doing it, is just fine"

The second half Q&A session, was much better. as mentioned above there will be a video of the entire evening available soon, so I won't try and report on the detail from memory.

The closing few minutes were a COYW call to arms, JP you would have loved it, and Vesty redeemed himself a little by pointing out very vigorously how loud support from the stands was recognised and appreciated by the players.

Finally, I got to put faces and real names to a couple more regular contributors to this board, thanks for your company.

I failed in my attempt to get close enough to Bradders to ask him to persuade Reggie to come forward, and I didn't hear the "Arrgghh" word all evening, but there was a suspicious puddle in the ground floor gent's on my way out, so maybe he did make it after all.

I would have loved to be there but sometimes husbandly duties take precedence. I think I owe a few from over the last 40 years

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It might at times have been better for your blood pressure to have not been there.

Link to the video (or whatever it's called these days):-
[www.youtube.com]