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Team Selection Challenges

Team selection is a huge part of success at top-level rugby, with coaches decisions around their own style as well as the strengths of their opposition. In this video, Premiership coaches discuss the challenges of selection

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And to be perfectly honest the hardest part probably about job is getting that selection. Right but more importantly how we manage the players post this election. So how you let people know they're not playing and you know players players cray feedback. So you need to sit down with him properly explain selection. And if there's a rotation system behind it explain why the rotation system and if it's form, you know, making sure that the reason you you potentially have dropped a player gets across to him. Not just the fact that he's dropped but also how he's going to improve and what he needs to do to get back in the side. You know, I think the squad Dynamic is is huge and a lot of that base on on who's playing and who's not, you know, you need to recruit players that suit the way you want to play I think oh friends he did it mean with England and 66 of people like Nobby Stiles guys like that. They weren't necessarily the best players in their positions, but they suited the way that he wanted to play. So you need to develop your own style and how you want to play and then you stick with it, you know, if you've got different players in the squad. It means you changing your whole game plan literally foreplay or two players. So what we try to do is get a certain type of player and we want to play a way that that will bring out his best qualities all good teams know who their best 15 are or best 11 in football or best 11 Cricket. You always know who you're you know, what team you ideally want to put on the pitch if you have clarity about how you want your game to look how do you want to play you should therefore have Clarity who in your squad is best able to deliver that game? So what do you want from your props? Some people simply just want to scrummage? That's fine. If that's how you want to play the game. Then you pick the best grudging prot, others want a compromise between good scrimmage, but also I want people who can run our feeling and make X number of tackles and carry the ball. So that will give you a different type of selection. If you have all those players available to you people who can do that and that well, what do you want your game to look like that will guide you as to which guy takes precedence over who now, obviously it gets compromised because of injuries, but then, you know you then relying on the rest of the squad and that's where the coaching days like this are so important that is your coach all players. Not just your best 15 so that when they have to step in it should be seamless too many between those three teams. You're playing against I think there's a compromise between worrying about the opposition to worry about yourselves. Remember I said, what is the game that you're trying to play? That is the overarching? So it's about you or us right? I know how I want the game to be played for England or for Quinn's therefore. I pick players who can deliver that and the reason I think our game should be played that way if because I think you'll get successful against whoever because if you start changing right this week with planes and we drop those five and you playing some you get no continuity. Nobody's quite sure what they're supposed to be doing. You might say it right we're playing this like who we know are going to boot it up. I'm gonna pick a so I'm gonna pick up my crown whose get you'll never drop one in the air. You might make the odd tweak, but you wouldn't want to change the way you play in my view. Anyway, you've got to really focus on what is your your strengths? What is your vision of how the game should be played? It's a bit different for them. You know, we've got you've got a 40 week period where you've got games to potentially try things and get, you know, get a few things, right, you know Stuart's got four weeks. He doesn't have a massive amount with Beforehand so they don't know they can't lay the same sort of detail that we put on potentially over a preseason an early season games. So they've got to turn up almost on day one and get it right, you know, they're judged by results and if he sort of loses three from four but feels that the Stars progressing, you know, I'm sure that he has to have a lot different conversations in what we used to have. I think they love unstructured attack. I I really enjoyed the three-match series where England went out there, you know, people say you can't play the All Blacks at that game where it gets massively destruction from kicks multi-phase. And if anything I thought you know England looked good. I know the results didn't go their way, but for me, I was really encouraged to see England actually attacking New Zealand ball in hand in destruction attack. So, you know for me, I think England got a kick really. Well, I'm to make sure they give them, you know as few destruction attack opportunities as possible. But I think England I got to keep playing, you know, I'd love to see him to keep playing. I think they've said they stole our to do that. They did a New Zealand it maybe wasn't as successful as some people would have wanted. So, you know, the Temptation is to come straight back to a scrum and drive Focus. I hope they stay positive. I'm sure they will do and continue to attack them because are genuinely Jenny think that's the way forward.