Coach to try a ‘softer’ line

Press, 3 September 1984, Page 21

Coach to try a ‘softer’ line

As out of character as it may seem, the Canterbury rugby , coach, Alex Wyllie, intends to ease up on his players. He has called only one training run this week, on Wednesday night, although there will be the usual light workout when the side assembles on Friday evening, before Saturday’s Ranfurly Shield challenge by Wairarapa-Bush. Mr Wyllie feels that a degree of “battle fatigue” has overtaken the players. “They are playing like a tired team, and running them into the ground this

week would achieve nothing,” he said. Mr Wyßie said it, was not only the All Blacks ,in , the team who had been under a lot of pressure in the last two months. “The others, too, have been under a lot of strain in trying to keep the winning streak going, and winning without playing well has made things no less difficult. On top of this there have been the demands of club rugby,” Mr Wyllie said. Mr Wyllie is hopeful that Saturday’s loss can be turned to Canterbury’s advantage as it moves into the

harder part of its Shield programme.

“If you lose,, and. learn something.,it is hot, a catastrophe — and there were plenty of lessons to be learnt on Saturday. Some of the players had never been in a losing Canterbury side before, and for the others it was so long ago they can hardly remember it. “Now they all know what defeat is like, and it was possibly better to lose like we did than miss by a few points. Even the top players know that they are going to have to do better.”

Mr Wyllie said he planned

no major changes to the side as a result of Saturday’s “The, players are there; it is getting them going that is the problem,” he said. Mr Wyllie said that one benefit of the defeat was that no longer would the side have to live with a long, unbeaten run. “It was always being commented on, and the players were always conscious of it. Also, everyone has been expecting the side to play like it did last year. Maybe there has been too much looking back.”

These sentiments are also

shared by the players. In spite of its loss, the side was in a surprisingly jolly .mood on , Saturday, night, even when it was forced to spend an extra 10 hours in Auckland because of the closing of Christchurch Airport.

As one senior player said, “The team is more relaxed than it has been for ages. No longer are we something special. Now the critics will emerge and give us something to prove. If that doesn’t get us going nothing will.” The proof of this will come at Lancaster Park on Saturday.