Brian Ashton and the art of creative rugby
For most of his roller-coaster career – one that included being part of an England set-up that reached consecutive World Cup finals – Brian Ashton has been held up as the embodiment of the enlightened rugby coach.
Say what you like about the mild-mannered Lancastrian or his management of the 2007 Webb Ellis campaign but he could never be accused of asking his teams to play anything other than intelligent, heads-up rugby.
Typically that would mean his sides would go out with the intention of moving the ball with ambition and flair and with an emphasis on imaginative threequarter play.
But similarly they might also be required to kick the corners or pick and drive. In short, Plan A would be complemented by Plans B and C and probably D, E and F as well.
And – here comes the revolutionary bit – under Ashton, the decision to switch between strategies is not the preserve of any one individual, least of all an ageing balding bloke sat on the sidelines.
Indeed, the 63-year-old has long spoken of empowering players to make calls on a situational basis and to that degree he is viewed as the arch-moderniser – and has been for the past 30 years.
The former England, Ireland and Bath mastermind was due to explain some of his principles at a coaching conference in Kidderminster on Sunday, but that has now been postponed due to the weather.
Ashton had been briefed to talk about how to develop “Highly Skilled Players”, a subject that has been close to his heart ever since he worked with legendary French play-maker Pierre Villepreux in Italy in the 1970s.
“One of the things I am constantly fighting against is the dreaded word ‘gameplan’,” Ashton lamented. “That’s where everything is prescribed from phase one through to phase six or seven.
“By doing that, no one ever learns to understand the way the game is played – the way one aspect impacts upon another.”
It is a failing Ashton has found not only at the bottom of the game but at the top, and not only in this country but around the world.
The former school teacher worked in New Zealand, Italy, France and the United States in 2009 and everywhere he went he found like minds concerned about the routinisation of what used to be a sport that cherished its improvisors.
But wherever you look these days, there are creative players lambasted for chancing their arm.
