Planning to win

Plan to win, but think differently

Someone once said, “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.” Now as we sit in the off-season and put our feet up and watch the delights of what the summer has to offer, there is no doubt that we are casting our minds to next year, and to how we are going to have that elusive success with our sides. Having observed the advent of true professionalism it’s clear that many people think that the more you practice, the more likely you are to succeed.

True this may be, but practice time alone will not guarantee success. Success will be as a result of the whole process you put in place for your team/school/club’s success. Having recently read Jim Collin’s Good to Great, after having heard Paul Treu cite this book as his inspiration for the turnaround in the 7s side’s fortunes, I thought I would put down what I learnt from this in terms of how to run your team or your club/school system.

The first key concept here is getting the right people on the bus, and in the right positions. Which is more important is debateable, but my suggestion is that if you’ve got the right people involved in your team, management staff or all-round structure, getting them in the right positions becomes easier. This means analyzing where weaknesses lie, and getting the best people involved to counteract those. It also means being stringent in who you select and being clear in exactly what you are looking for in people. It also means, getting the best people involved that can work together. It’s no use putting, Jake White, Peter De Villiers and Nick Mallet in the same coaching team, and then getting the bulls pack with the sharks backline and saying that this team will be invincible. The combinations must be correct in terms of how they work together and dove-tail off each other.

The second key concept and one that takes some time to work out for you as a team or organization, is the Hedgehog concept. This is the overall concept by which you run your structure. The difficulty comes in finding out exactly what the best hedgehog concept is for you, and then having the discipline to stick to it, bearing in mind the people you have got on ‘your bus’. I won’t go into the details of why it’s called the hedgehog concept, but it has to do with the fact that hedgehogs use one particular method of survival in defending themselves against foxes(curling up into a little ball), that works 100 % of the time, and that they stick rigidly to this method whilst foxes try lots of different methods of eating them, all unsuccessfully . But this is a long story! Essentially, you need to find out three things ad ensure a balance between them to begin to see true success.

1. Identify what you are passionate about- This looks at taking your team and finding out exactly what it is that you are all passionate about. Your team may love to physically bully people, they pride themselves on it, and they are passionate about it. If this is so, then this must be used to your advantage. Once you have found what you are ALL passionate about, then write that down and find ways to use it. Working on areas that you are not passionate about is a drain on all resources and is more than likely going to produce sub-standard results, as the motivation and energy levels will be low.

2. Identify what you can be ‘the best in the world at’.
This essentially means what can you be the best at in comparison to all your opposition. Often a coach or director of rugby has a passion for a certain area, or has key knowledge of an area that leads to emphasis being placed on this area. This doesn’t always have to be a problem, but is that area necessarily the one that you can be the best in the world at? Is this the area that you truly can outdo the rest in according to the facts? Even if this requires a major shift in culture, style, or personnel, there is no use persevering with an emphasis on something you cannot excel at. No one wants to be second best, so find yourself an area, however small, that you can be the best at, and revolve your approach around that, and figure out ways to translate that into wins. It could be anything from skillfulness, to physicality, to having the best practice facilities. The skill comes in identifying this area and then working with it to produce the desired results.

3. Identify your measure of success
Yes, I know we all want wins, and generally that is how we measure success. But sometimes a 100 % win record is unrealistic, so my question to you is, what are you measuring? Are you measuring something that you can achieve that will eventually lead to an enhanced win ratio, or are you just measuring wins? If you as a school, measured yourself purely on set-piece success, because that is what you were really passionate about, and thought you could be the absolute best at, would this not lead to victories in the end? The debate can go on, but the essence is, find out what the best measure of success is, and work towards excellence in that area.

The balance needs to be found between these concepts and you cannot place emphasis on one and ignore the others and then expect success. In my endeavour to be succinct, I have aimed not to over-elaborate on the concepts but I urge you to give this book a read, as I believe there is a lot to be learnt from this in the world of sport. I would also be very happy to discuss my thoughts further should you wish to e-mail me.

All the best with the planning, and start today to get your hedgehog concept in place, by asking around and using all your resources to find out EXACTLY what it is that you are passionate about, what you can best at, and how you plan to measure success.

Jake White and I

Thanks to Global Trading for their generous sponsorship, five of the High School coaches attended the Jake White’s Winning Ways Coaches Academy. The academy held at Paul Roos in Stellenbosch over three days and nights was the first of a number of courses being held around the country for the coaches of rugby. The lectures included Dr Sherylle Calder two time World Cup medal holder on visual performances, former springbok physiotherapist Clint Readhead, Balie Swart on scrumming techniques ,Dr Henning Gericke on the psychology of the game, Prof Derik Coetzee on all aspects of players’ conditioning, also Discovery and nutrition. Then drills, skills and lectures by the experts Eddie Jones and Jake White rounded off each night.

The lectures included practical demonstrations with question and answer time from all present. Balie Swart making use of our coaches Tim Rawbone and Brad van der Westhuizen in a scrum coaching demonstration.


Congratulations and our best wishes go to the three players that made the Western Province Academy team, Rajn Smid as lock, Joel Carew as loosehead prop and Justin Filies as left wing. Once again our school has also produced a Craven Week player with hooker Gary Topkin representing Western Province in the Craven week being held in East London in July. Gary scored his first try against the Boland Craven side on Tuesday in a friendly warm-up match which saw province run out victorious by over 50 points. The players will be training and playing matches for their province leading up to the weeks and will therefore be unavailable for selection for their school sides against Bishops 20 June 11:20 , and the Cape Schools week being played at SACS against Grey 27 June 12:00 , Selbourne 29 June 09:00 and Muir 1 July 12:00.

Although this is a blow to the team, we are pleased that they have been recognised by the province. This also offers opportunities for players who have been on the edge of 1st Xv rugby getting an opportunity to play at the highest level.

As we hit the mid season break, it is good to look back at the performances of our teams and revisit areas that we feel need attention. The senior teams have performed well and have shown their strength against all opposition, our u16 and 15 age groups battled flu and injury to maintain a winning edge and will have the coaches working extra hard to produce positive growth and winning skills with the players available come the new term.

The sponsorship of a new scrumming machine by old boy Denis Nic will ease the load on the larger machine and can be used on fields as a teaching device as it is designed to ski on the grass rather than dig into the turf. Teams can now practice running their backlines off the machine as well as teaching the eighth-man, flanks and scrum-half how to work the hinge or vacuum area around the scrum.

Once again the Impact Concussion programme has shown its worth over the high school’s examination period as doctors were able to have data to assist their diagnosis of player’s concussion in games. Player’s exam scripts and marks are carefully analysed by staff in the case of a boy suffering from concussion.

A gentle request from the coaches is that the parents watching the games comment about their own son’s performance and refrain from negative comments and shouting at the players from the side-line. We ask that parents watch their own child and when they come off the field win or lose, comment on their own performance, stressing and emphasising their positive play. The game is hard enough without parents slating a player’s poor performance.