Otago Rugby Union eNewsletter

Editorial

Good afternoon Otago supporters & welcome to our weekly newsletter

There has been a buzz in the ORFU offices with Season Memberships kicking off at the start of the week! We couldn't be happier to see our Season Members walking back through our doors. Members have one more week to lock in their seats for the All Blacks vs South Africa Test be sure to lock in your seats by 1 July 2021. Membership forms can be located on our website here.

We have been delighted to see the response to our "For the Love of Club" initiative! Otago supporters can begin purchasing tickets to all 5 Otago home games as of this Monday 28 June on Ticketek. When purchasing be sure to enter the promo code for your club or the Otago Referees Association. A list of all clubs and referees promo codes can be found at the bottom of the page here see more on how much will be contributed and how to make your purchase below!

Well done to the Pirates Wahine who took out the 2021 Women's Premier Championship after a hard battle at Hancock Park! Check out the article below for more on this...

Congratulations to our 3 Otago players, Josh Dickson, Josh Hohneck and Josh Ioane who have been selected in the Maori All Blacks Squad for the two match series against Manu Samoa. Special mention to Dickson, who will make his debut for the side.

Next up our Otago boy George Bower! The ORFU is very proud to see your name listed in the All Blacks announcement last week. All the very best for the upcoming season, all of Otago are behind you and look forward to seeing you get on that pitch!

George was called into the All Blacks squad last year in 2020 as injury cover. He is yet to make his first cap.

Our Website has had a makeover and we couldn't be happier about it! Go check it out for yourself, for all things Otago Rugby click here.

Interesting Reads from Otago Daily Times:

Michael Collins is sadly leaving us and embarking on an overseas stint play for for Ospreys Rugby Club in Wales. Collins qualifies as a local player in the Welsh side through relations who were born in the United Kingdom. He will join Irishman Jack Regan, who played for Otago with Collins in 2020.

He is one of the most experienced players in the Otago line-up and has played 71 games for Otago, having made his debut in 2012, his first year out of school.

Michael bleeds blue & gold, and has represented the Golden O in such a way over the years that has inspired others to follow in his footsteps

Thank you MC for your time and loyalty to Otago Rugby. You really made your mark here as a player and as a Captain. You're a natural born leader, both on and off the field, and your absence will be felt this year mate.

However, of course we are pumped to see what this next chapter has in store for him. He knows he can always call Otago Rugby home.

Photos courtesy of Caswell Images Sport

Metro Match of the Round - Upper Clutha Rams vs Maniototo Maggots

Central Otago’s new competition format comes into sharp focus this weekend. The two top sides from the regular rounds progress automatically into semi finals but for the Upper Clutha Rams and the Maniototo Maggots it’s sudden death this weekend. The Rams have home advantage due to their higher placing in the regular competition. Home advantage isn’t normally such a big deal except when you talk about the Maggots, who are renowned for being a different side at home. They will have to overcome their predilection for the ‘toto’ and bring their ‘Á’ game to the big smoke of Wanaka.

The Rams will go into this game as favourites with a stronger all-round game. The Maggots will need to shut down the Rams continuity game and they have the loose forward trio to do this. Nath Huddleston, Ollie McLelland and Pete O’Malley are the key to the Maggots success, on attack and defence. Matt Sullivan makes a welcome return to the Maggots forward pack via the bench. The weather may also assist the bigger Maniototo forward pack with steady rain predicted for several days.

In the backs, the interest will be in the clash between two of Central Otago’s most exciting outside backs, Rams, Henry Schikker and young gun Maggot, Doug Smith.

Metro Match of the Round - Green Island vs Kaikorai

3 trophies on the line, Speights Jug Final, 100 years at Miller Park, Ben Smiths 50th Match for the Grizzlies – everybody take a breath.

People will be parking their cars as far as Kaikorai Valley Road on Saturday as Miller Park plays host to a mammoth Speights Jug final clash between Green Island and Kaikorai. Green Island are an unbeaten side in the Gallaway Trophy this year sitting 7 points clear of second place Kaikorai who have rightfully earned their place in the Jug final. It’s the star studded backline for Green Island that have been scoring points aplenty for them this year and no doubt that will be the plan for them again this Saturday looking to score some silky tries in front of a packed out Green Island crowd. Dunedin’s worst kept secret was confirmed this morning with the favourite Miller Park son returning for his 50th Match in Green Island colours a special occasion for the Green Island Rugby Community and for Bender going back to where the legend all began. Kaikorai will look to spoil the party on Saturday and they certainly have the firepower to do so in the form of inspirational captain Knapp and in-form loosies McDowall, Russ and Lio-Willie who will look to gee up their fellow Demons. With plenty on the line there is only one place to be tomorrow afternoon but get there nice and early to get yourself a good spot to watch the festivities unfold.

Women's Final

Pirates Wahine vs University Bookworms

Celebration time for the Pirates Wahine!

In a classic Women’s Club Rugby final Pirates Wahine got up in the last play play of the game to win 29-26 over the weekend (Saturday 19th June).

A fantastic supportive crowd turned out to watch the women’s final at Hancock Park. University held the advantage for most of the game and always threatened when they spread the ball wide. Pirates stayed in touch and with time almost up Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali found the ball pop into her hands following a tackle and with the line only 5 metres away scored the winning try, much to the big crowds delight. University can be proud of their young team who played some great running rugby.

They will no doubt be a force again in 2022.

Round 11 Snapshot

West Taieri vs Clutha

West Taieri are in a downward spiral of form after losing their second match in a row to Crescent at the weekend. West T now sit in third place only one point ahead of Heriot. Clutha moved past West Taieri into second place after their strong win over Clinton last weekend. Clutha are three points ahead of West Taieri and will be confident of getting a positive result. West Taieri do have some key players returning from injury which will bolster their side.

Clinton vs Clutha Valley

It is Clinton’s Club Day this weekend as they host the unbeaten Clutha Valley. Clinton was beaten reasonably well by Clutha last weekend but still showed some promise, especially at set piece. Valley had they bye last weekend which gave them four points for free, those four points are all that separates them from second placed Clutha. Valley will be strong favourites to win this one and will be ready and firing after their rest week.

Toko vs Owaka

Toko host Owaka in what will be a battle of attrition. Both sides have numerous injury concerns and naming a full squad will be truly difficult. Toko were beaten well by Heriot last weekend although management said the took plenty of positives out of the match. Owaka managed to scrape past Roxburgh without a bonus point, losing four more players in the process. The Reg Phillips Memorial is on the line with Toko the holders after a last-minute penalty in round one.

Crescent vs Heriot

Crescent were the toast of the town last weekend after their final minute win over West Taieri at Outram. Crescent caught up with the top four and sit just the two points behind fourth placed Heriot. Heriot were convincing winners at home over Toko last weekend which will also bring confidence into this clash. With other top four matches being played this weekend the winner of this tie will cement themselves nicely in the top four leaving the loser with plenty of work to do.

Drills, Drills, Drills and… More Drills

What is the number one thing coaches ask for when they come to coaching courses?

There is a unanimous winner to this question… Drills!!!

In 2016 I was invited to watch the All Blacks train in Dunedin before their test against Wales. Awesome! What a great opportunity to upskill and see the latest drills being put into action. There I was pen and paper ready to go, I did not want to miss the opportunity to get these magic drills that make us one of the best teams in the world.

Well, fast forward to the end of the session and I had nothing written on my paper. The session structure looked like any session you might see around the province on a Tuesday and Thursday night. The difference was in the intensity, accuracy and speed.

Yes, there was a few more coaches floating around and the session was being videoed but the way the fundamental skills were being practiced was exactly the same. No fancy wonder drills!

Post session Wayne Smith did a Q & A, guess what the first questions was… Where do you get your drills from?

Answer… He didn’t have any go to drills, he just made them up depending on what he was trying to work on. From there he explained that he had done 4 hours prep for his twenty-minute defence block.

I know what you are thinking, that is great if you’re a professional coach, but I have not got 4 hours to prep my session.

What about if we could come up with a simple framework that allows you to make up an unlimited number of drills that are specific to your team’s needs?

First, we need to decide what our work-ons are.

Rugby is a very chaotic game. Having a template to view the game through can be helpful when it comes to making decisions around what you need to work on.

For attack, it could be something simple like

How good was our set piece?
What was our go forward like?
Did we build pressure?

Maybe you give each phase of the game a score out of 10, from there you can add detail. A good tool to use is the 5 levels of Why.

As an example, lets say we struggled to build pressure.

Why? We did not have any continuity.

Why? We turned over a lot of ball at the breakdown.

Why? Our support play was slow.

Why? Because the ball carrier was not dominating the carry. Giving time for support to arrive.

Why? Ball carrier body height was too high. Ball carrier was slow to get to ground and not going forward. Therefore, easy for defence to get on the ball.

So, our work on is contact body height.

Before we think about designing our session there is probably value in deciding, what are the three coaching points that you want to drive? What does ideal look like?

In this instance maybe you decide you want your players making contact between nipple and hip, staying square and getting a good leg drive.

From there you can apply a couple of key principles to come up with your drill.

It should look like the game. There should be defenders and attackers. You should have to make decisions.

As the number of players goes down, the less decisions have to be made and as a result less stress is involved.

This is important to consider from a learning point of view. We need to find that goldilocks spot of learning, enough of a challenge to get improvement but not so much that we’re too stressed to learn.

As a starting point you might decide to play some 4 v 4.

Keep the channel narrow to guarantee contact and defence are close. Attacking team can pass or carry. Defence is not allowed to contest breakdown and the attacking team do not need to send players in to secure ball.

As a coach, give the rules of the game and nothing else, then step back and observe. This serves as your baseline.

After a couple of minutes bring players in and discuss what you have seen and ask their thoughts.

Maybe there is an opportunity to go over one or two of your main coaching points.

You may tweak rules this time and say it will be a turnover if body height is not between nipple and hip height to bring an element of consequence.

If you are not seeing the desired change then you tweak. You could reduce numbers, maybe you go one on one for a few reps. You could have the ball carrier start on their belly to force them to at least start low. If that is looking alright then you could go two defenders on one ball carrier.

Then back into our baseline game to see if there has been learning. This process can be applied to all aspects of the game.

Think about how you could manipulate field size, intensity, team numbers, where players start, what position they start in and rules to work specific areas of the game. You could also manipulate the defence or attack, for example you could tell the defence to push up hard or to leave space to see how the attack adapts.

You could even look to test mental toughness or develop leadership skills. Have a quiet word to a player and tell them to keep breaking the rules, then watch how teammates or opposition react.

Here we get a high degree of transfer over to game day. From a learning point of view, we are ticking the box for a key concept of repetition without repetition.

What does this mean?

We want each rep to be slightly different in an environment that means we must make decisions.

i.e. Do this at this cone, and this, at cone two etc etc.

This process can also be used for defence. When looking at defence I would also consider how you could work in some fatigue…

To summarise, you must start with a clear understanding of what you want to work on and why.

Then think big picture. What does that look like in the game, then work backwards. Establish a baseline then try something. Did it get better, worse or stay the same? All valuable bits of information, then if needed, tweak.

Let me know if there are any specific questions you’d like answered on the coaching front at aaron.callaghan@orfu.co.nz

Keep up the great work!!!

Cheers, Azza

PLAYER SIGNING ANNOUNCEMENT

Kayne Hammington - Halfback ✔️ Zingari Richmond - Dragons. James Lentjes - Loose Forward ✔️ The Taieri Rugby ...

Otago Rugby Football Union is proud to announce the 2021 Farah Palmer Cup Otago Spirit Squad.

Otago Spirit Coach Scott Manson said, “As a coaching group, we are delighted to have had a competitive club competition to choose our squad from. Clearly, we have lost some quality players over the off season but have also gained some exciting new talent. We have five players returning to the side who were not in the squad last year in the form of Greer Muir, Sheree Hume, Jordyn Tereu, Samarra Soper and Nicole Kennedy. These ladies bring a great deal of maturity to our side. For us, it's our maiden trip into the Premiership of the Farah Palmer Cup. We are aware that it won't all be plain sailing, but we are confident this group will be able to take the wind out of some the big team's sails and upset a few.”

The Farah Palmer Cup is set to begin 16th July. The Otago Spirit play their first away game against Wellington on Sunday 18th July. To view the full 2021 FPC draw Click here

For the first time ever, all Farah Palmer Cup games presented by Bunnings Warehouse will be broadcast live and available and on Sky Sport in 2021. This is exciting news that we are sure the families and friends of our players will be especially thrilled about.

2021 Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Scott Manson
Assistant Coach: Tumua Ioane
Assistant Coach: John Sherratt
S & C Coach: Bennett Jones
Physio: John Kieu
Manager: Rowena Duncum

This week we have a huge contributor to community rugby featured as our referee of the week. Tim Guthrie, has only recently signed up to be a referee but he has fully jumped in and we appreciate his efforts. He is originally from Lawrence, did his schooling at Kings High School and played his rugby for a few clubs in Dunedin. As well as refereeing he also gives up his time as the the President of the Taieri Junior Rugby Football Club. Last week Tim clocked up some miles as he did a junior game in the morning and then was in control of a senior game in the afternoon. Get out and support Tim and all our referees this weekend. OUR Game, OUR Referees.

During the last few months the committee of the Sassenachs RFC has given great thought to the future of the Club. Formed back in 1973 the Club members are rugby people who have given great service to the game either as players or administrators primarily in Otago

In recent years it has provided support and opportunities to many young players especially in the Country areas and the Otago Country Board have agreed to now continue supporting this area.

However for a variety of reasons it has become increasingly difficult to attract new Committee members and many of the current members are heavily involved in other areas of rugby administration.

As a result the Committee have called a Special General Meeting on Sunday July 11th at the Southern Rugby Club at 10.30am at which a Notice of Motion will be tabled that the club be wound up and the Club Funds be transferred to the Otago Rugby Football Union to be utilised for projects considered appropriate, in conjunction with two current Sassenach Committee members.

A notice calling the meeting will appear in the Otago Daily Times next week and all Sassenach members are urged to attend. Any enquiries should be direct to the President Eion Willis on 021 873 106

Roy Daniels

ORFU President

Sassenachs Secretary

OTAGO RUGBY & HIGHLANDERS U16 & U18 DEVELOPMENT COMBINE - METRO

Sunday week was another great day of development for our young talent. We hosted one of our four Development Combines...

Match Day Programme - Metro, Central & Southern Region

Secondary Schools First XV Match Day Programme

2021 Otago Spirit Squad Announcement