Scotland on Sunday reveals


SRU propose pro stint for club coaches
Published: 30 June 2012


SCOTLAND has always produced world-class sports coaches and the discipline of rugby is no exception. From the thoughtful nous of Derrick Grant to the hard-edged steel of Jim Telfer and the scholarly brilliance of Sir Ian McGeechan, there is a proud lineage of successful Scottish rugby coaches. Men who cut their teeth in the club rugby cauldrons of Hawick, Melrose and Headingley respectively before progressing through the ranks to the pinnacle of their coaching careers with Scotland and, in the case of the latter two, the British and Irish Lions.


However, the current national and professional coaching teams in Scotland include only one coach, Shade Munro at Glasgow Warriors, who has ever coached at amateur level, ten years ago.

There was the dismay surrounding the perceived ‘fast-tracking’ of Gregor Townsend’s coaching career which parachuted him into the head coach role at Glasgow Warriors despite having no previous club coaching experience.

Frustration among amateur coaches at this situation recently reached boiling point with the declaration by current Peebles and Scotland U20s coach, Peter Wright, that the route from amateur club coaching to professional coaching is dead.

Timely response from the SRU has come in the form of a motion on the agenda of their AGM today to discuss proposals for an, as yet unfinished, CPD programme for club coaches involving the potential for a two-year placement with a professional rugby team.

Graham Lowe, SRU Director of Performance Rugby and the man behind the proposals, said: “We see the CPD role as, effectively, a bridge between all the work that’s done and all the learning that’s done in the amateur game and then that transition from where you’re working with part-time players to that full-time environment, where you might go from three to four sessions a week to 14-15, where you have the whole performance support structure around it, in terms of strength and conditioning and sports science. We see our responsibility is to create a bridging opportunity and this is what we see the CPD role as. It’s an opportunity for these coaches to step up, to be connected from a daytime perspective to the realities of professional rugby, day in day out, session after session, back to back.”

Many believe, Peter Wright included, that the gap between club coaching and professional coaching is not as wide as is suggested, but Lowe is keen to stress that, while it is not an unbridgeable gap, there is perhaps more to it that just coaching skills.

He added: “There are responsibilities day in day out about working with full-time players and their expectations of you as a technical coach and as a person manager. The combination of those two skills is critical. There are some fantastic coaches who can manage their groups, manage their dynamics .

“You do that in the club environment as well, but it’s the consistency of not just managing the player group but dealing full-time with their expectations and being part of a management group. In the end, a head coach has an over-arching role across the best part of 45-50 people. So it’s not just a coaching role, it’s a management role as well. Out of that forms expectations and responsibilities. It is definitely a step that can be taken.”

It still begs the question of how many will take that step? And perhaps crucially how many will be able?

Lowe remains positive.:“I hope people would be motivated and excited by the opportunity. One of the things we’ve been challenged with is the question ‘How do we get through?’ We want to take on that responsibility and give people that opportunity.

“We need to create a two-year opportunity that absolutely maximises the chances of those coaches coming out the other end and getting success, roles and opportunities. Ideally we’d like those roles and opportunities to be within Scotland.”

This article was originally posted on 1-Jul-2012, 06:42 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 1-Jul-2012, 07:36.