Anyone who comes up with a method to enable a person to regain their best form in a sporting context would end up richer than Croesus. In the meantime, one of the core requirements in that pursuit is perseverance.
You must stay strong mentally while searching for the physical solution. It’s a testing period but successfully emerging from the process is a badge of honour.
You appreciate that it is possible to fight through the tough times; the scars act as a reminder when you’re faced with the same proposition on multiple occasions in a career.
The size and nature of the challenge differs from person to person but can be commonly applied across sports. I read that Rory McIlroy briefly struggled with his driver set-up and that it was accompanied by a temporary dip in performance terms.
You don’t reach the top one per cent in your field by allowing things like that to fester. McIlroy worked out the puzzle, fought through the issue, while still being able to manage a high level of performance. That’s what great sports people do, find solutions without letting their form drop off a cliff.
The flip side for those who are less robust mentally is that when levels drop, they take longer to get back; some never do.
In late 2011 Joe Schmidt called me into his office to inform me that he wasn’t happy with my performances, that I wouldn’t be starting the next match and that I was fortunate to be on the bench.
Hindsight made his decision easier to accept but at the time I wasn’t that receptive. I knew I wasn’t at my best but felt that he was being a little heavy-handed in punishing my dip in form. The difference between what he and I thought was that his was the only opinion that mattered in a practical sense.
Before I left his office I asked him what he wanted to see from me and he was typically precise and forthright. Things hadn’t been happening for me in games and, with every player that is a little short on confidence, you look to reduce the errors and end up stopping doing the things that make you stand out in a positive vein.
Instead of taking the half gap, you pass or run a support line, finding sanctuary in responsibility in not making an error. Coaches don’t want players to hide in matches, especially those with the capacity to positively affect the outcome when at their best. You only get a certain amount of time to languish in the ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’ category.
The timing of Joe’s intervention was perfect for me. I had become introverted in match situations, and he moved quickly to address it, so it never became a full-blown crisis of confidence. He restored the fire and my game returned quickly.
It was astute management on his part. He knew me as a person, knew what buttons to push and at what point to stand back. Joe also knew that if he didn’t get the response he expected from me, then he wouldn’t need to have a second conversation.
It got me thinking about selection and the discrepancy in opinion between the national coaching group led by Andy Farrell and some of their provincial counterparts when it comes to player assessment. Harmony is not a prerequisite for an effective system and a little tension is not always a bad thing.
Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning squad was a happy bunch, a message that was uniform from coaches and players alike and there was also an obvious mutual respect. That’s a perfect environment to facilitate top-quality displays, where the common goal supersedes personal interests.
In several cases Farrell took a player who had been struggling a little for form at provincial level and returned them in better shape. Conor Murray and Jack Conan are two prime examples.
In Murray’s case, Munster head coach Graham Rowntree and Farrell had different requirements based on diverse game plans.
Last Saturday in Durban, Craig Casey started at scrumhalf for Munster but was not able to capitalise on the opportunity. Murray came on and immediately brought more composed direction and offered a more balanced foil for Jack Crowley.
Murray took on a little bit more of the game management role, thereby lightening the load for his young outhalf, who enjoyed that additional freedom.
I watched Leinster number eight Jack Conan deliver a huge performance on Saturday evening at the Aviva Stadium during which he rediscovered what makes him a very special player.
His timing, his movement, his power – all harnessed in unison – made him conspicuously difficult for Ulster defenders to stop. Ryan Baird’s brilliance perhaps the only contribution that threatened to top that of his team-mate.
Farrell kept faith with Conan as a matchday-23 player for the most part and was rewarded towards the end of the tournament while Leo Cullen also backed his player to come good. Leinster needed big performances from key players to navigate a potentially tricky encounter; and they got them. Ulster didn’t to the same extent.
Ulster left wing Jacob Stockdale had moments that reminded everyone of his undoubted talent and that perseverance that I spoke about earlier is relevant when weighing up his contribution. He is a big game player that produced in a big game.
David McCann, Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen, and James Hume stood up, but it wasn’t enough to stymie their hosts. Leinster showed up in greater numbers and individual and collective superiority eventually wore Ulster down.
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland jokingly referred to Leinster as Ireland in his post-match interview, before correcting the tongue-in-cheek aside to make the point that they are the majority shareholders in personnel terms when it came to the Grand Slam success. It begs the question, where does that leave the other provinces?
There was a clamour from some supporters that the Irish squad was too Leinster-centric but after watching the Champions Cup matches over the weekend it’s hard to argue for much if any change to the pecking order.
Munster endured a tough afternoon against the Sharks in the Durban heat and their season, whether they can make the URC playoffs and qualify for next season’s Champions Cup, will come down to how they fare on a return visit to the shores of the Indian Ocean as well as a visit to Cape Town and a game against the Stormers, the defending league champions.
They’ll probably need four points to guarantee a route into the URC playoffs and next year’s premier European competition. At times on Saturday, they looked like a team running on fumes.
They have created a sense of positivity with what they are trying to do, especially in the quality of some of the tries they scored, and that was evident again in Durban. But the road ahead is very steep, and Rowntree will know a lot more about his squad when they get to their final destination, wherever that may be.
It is not beyond them to prolong the season but, whatever transpires, they need to plug a few holes in their squad and recruit shrewdly. There is a tendency to focus on Leinster’s wider squad to fill those gaps in other provinces.
Sam Prendergast is arguably top of the wishlist for the other provinces, all of whom are looking to provide a persuasive argument that they can give him the game time to fast-track his development. Leinster are busy colouring in a gigantic ‘hands off’ poster.
The Leinster production line doesn’t deliver enough talent to underpin four provinces or make up for the shortfall in some of the other academies. David Nucifora and the IRFU needed to address that fundamental issue several years ago.
If they had they would be sitting back enjoying the fruits of their labours, sound in the knowledge that the developmental pathway is in rude health across all the four provinces.
We are spoiled by the fact that we have a fantastic group of players and an excellent coaching set-up across the system. But the concentration of players from Leinster is alarming.
The short-term focus is on next Friday night as Leinster try to find a way past the Leicester Tigers with more familiar foes awaiting if they can manage that task; and they should. The bigger picture concerns not just one province but four.
The Irish system, while admirable in many respects, needs to evolve, more so now than any time in the past. One into four is not a mathematical equation that will solve future problems or satisfy demand.
