Building relationships
PROUDFOOT: SPEAKING TO ENGLAND PLAYERS TO GET PERSONAL INSIGHT
After watching the South African pack demolish England in last year’s Rugby World Cup final, coach Eddie Jon es’ next step was obvious – get the coaching brains behind the Springbok scrum, Matt Proudfoot, to jump ship and head to Twickenham.
The deal was done in January but it has not quite been the first four months in the job he would have been expecting. After the initial excitement of the Six Nations, Proudfoot now finds himself locked down back in Cape Town.
However, like many coaches deprived of endless sessions and matches to watch, he has made the most analytical dive of his entire coaching career and taken time to talk to players.
“As someone new to the England set up and new to forming relationships with these players, speaking to them in their home environment gives me a different insight,” Proudfoot told a teleconference this week.
“Getting to meet their kids, their wives, building relationships from a home perspective rather than a camp environment or having to do a club visit.
“I’ve tried to make the best of the time and to take stock from what I’ve learnt in the past year.”
Proudfoot is not new to British rugby, having played for Edinburgh and Glasgow and won four Scotland caps through a grandparental qualification.
He then moved on to coach in South Africa and Japan but said, on his return, how he was struck by the similarities.
“Wherever you are in the world they (forwards) tend to be the same type of people so that’s something I’ve enjoyed,” said the former prop.
“A Joe Marler and a Steven Kitshoff, a Lood de Jager and a Maro Itoje, tend to be similar types of people, and that surprised me.
“But what has been very different is the way Eddie produces his system. Eddie wants to build the best rugby environment.
“He pushes every part of the department to be the best they can be, whereas maybe the Springbok environment was about really preserving the Springbok identity.”
Having worked under Rassie Erasmus at the World Cup, Proudfoot faces a different challenge with Jones. Many have wilted under the Australian’s famously demanding regime but Proudfoot is revelling in it.
“Eddie has tried to pull a whole lot of different perspectives into the English model and tried to really make it the best,” he said. “That has required me to grow, requires the players to grow, staff members to grow and to be outside your comfort zone and that has been a very big difference.” – Reuters