Olympic loss to Fiji inspires Laidlaw
Clark Laidlaw has made a perfect start to life as Hurricanes coach, leading the only unbeaten Super Rugby side after seven rounds.
Players have repeatedly stated their early success comes from the work they’ve done to deal with high-pressure situations since the start of pre-season, under Laidlaw’s guidance.
“We’ve been doing things in the heat chamber here around problem-solving, under fatigue and giving us various scenarios out on the field,” said No.8 Brayden Iose.
“It might be in team meetings where players are asked to step up and do things outside of their comfort zone,” said halfback TJ Perenara.
“When it comes to game time and we’re under pressure, it’s not comfortable, but it’s a familiar feeling.”
And it’s past emotions that have been the inspiration for Laidlaw. The former All Blacks Sevens coach admitted the gold medal defeat to Fiji at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has shaped the way he sees coaching.
“Losing an Olympic final — we hadn’t prepared well enough. Fiji did a couple of things we hadn’t prepared for and it cost us an Olympic final,” Laidlaw said. “That’s quite tough, isn’t it? Five years of work. We were good enough to win and so my reflection on that as a coach is that’s on us. It’s our job to prepare the men for things they don’t see coming. “It’s easy to create edge and pressure in a bad way— old school shouting, consequences for making a skill error. We’ve all seen the negative side to that.” The Scotsman said he shapes his meetings in a way that makes players “present what you talk about in a week, what you put into training today and around what type of scenarios we’ve put together to help them think. “Once you start getting a bit more experienced you realise it’s not the stuff you think you want to plan for it’s often the other stuff.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re thinking through a week and working hard in that side of the game,” Laidlaw said.
He added: “That’s often the difference — how you think under pressure and deal with it, what decision do you make, what way do you call, how do you deal with the referee.”