A coach was recently telling me how his Colts side prepared for a big match. Both sides were unbeaten all season, but the other team were quite strong favourites.
A couple of days before the match his colleagues advised him that some light training would be best, but he insisted on a full contact session. His team went on to win the match 10 -9. The opposition had a long period of play just a few metres from the line, but time and time again the tackles were made to prevent them crossing for a try.
Obviously a balance needs to be struck. You need to give the players a chance to recover from a previous match, and you don’t want them exhausted because they’ve over-trained. But as a general principle, practice should be in some respects at least as difficult, if not harder, than playing a match.
So if you’re wondering why England failed to win the Grand Slam in Dublin, and were completely outplayed and outfought by Ireland, then maybe you need to know just one thing: England had only light training all week.
David Donner
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