What Boyd can bring to the Highlanders
At first glance, Chris Boyd and the Highlanders appear to be a very good fit. The Highlanders announced yesterday that Boyd would join in a mentoring role next year, to help first-year head coach Clarke Dermody and his team.
By approaching Boyd, the Highlanders have recognised that not only would Dermody benefit from having a high-quality mentor, but that they are open to having a fresh perspective from outside the region after several years of frustrating inconsistency.
By the same token, Boyd is clearly a man with an inquisitive and open mind. In a 30-minute Zoom call yesterday, he spoke not only of what he has learnt in the UK with Northampton, but also of valuable trips to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA and, intriguingly, the Cirque du Soleil in Montreal.
‘‘It was an absolute drop dead moment for me when I watched the people at Cirque du Soleil,’’ Boyd said of a trip organised by Bruce Blair, NZ Rugby’s highperformance coach development manager. ‘‘There were two real parts of their training. One was bloody-minded repetition of the core basics. And then when you wanted to add your tricks into it, that was what they called ‘jouer’, which was play.
‘‘I sat there and went, ‘When do we allow our players [in rugby] to practise in a free space where if they make mistakes, doesn’t matter?’’
Boyd was so impressed with that format that he introduced a version of it at Northampton. As a result, the Highlanders may well be encouraged to express themselves once they have nailed down their fundamentals.
The other thing that stood out about Boyd was his candour. With Dermody also on the call, you might have expected Boyd to paint an unrealistically rosy picture of the Highlanders, complete with bold predictions of what they might achieve.
But he came across as far too grounded for that. Yes, he sees potential for significant improvement but he’s also aware of the challenges faced in the Deep South.
‘‘The Highlanders probably have the smallest pool of players to call from,’’ Boyd said. ‘‘In terms of human resources, financial resources . . . the facilities are obviously pretty decent, but they’re not like the Blues or perhaps even the Hurricanes, which had a pretty decent pool of players to call from.
‘‘One of the things that Clarke and I have talked about is that with the cattle, all the players that we’ve got, we’ve got to wring way more performance out of them than some of the other provinces need to get out of the players. So, we’re going to have to get a lot of blood out of the stone.’’
That will particularly be true in 2023, when the Highlanders will largely have the same group of players as this year.
Beyond that, there is significant change coming. Five young NZ under-20s players from within the region have been signed on long-term deals. Boyd lauded that longer-term vision was ‘‘fantastic’’ but said the art of coaching was constantly adapting to the current players in the squad.
‘‘I think the really interesting thing for coaches, is it’s not about satisfying the need of them, it’s about what they need to bring to develop the group that they’ve got,’’ he said. ‘‘So, I’ve got a reasonably good idea already speaking to ‘Derms’ about what things are going to be good challenges for him and what things are already bedded in place that he can crack on with.’’