Why Dempsey will be taking Bath ‘back to basics’ first
To see Leinster ripping through the best defences in Europe as if they were running a training drill unopposed, one would assume they had some kind of magic formula. Those slick strike moves, those sneaky trick plays off the back of concrete set-piece. But when Girvan Dempsey – the Irish province’s backs coach when they won last season’s Pro14 and Champions Cup double – is asked for the secret, he says there is no silver bullet. For a man who can craft such intricate but devastating attacking play, his philosophy is simple. Now the attack coach at Bath Rugby, Dempsey is determined to turn the Blue, Black and White into a collective, try-scoring force. So what is his philosophy? “The foundation is in the fundamental basics,” he says. “You can’t get away from the importance of being able to catch, pass, run straight and make good decisions under pressure.” It sounds too simple to be true, but when you watch Leinster, or double reigning Super Rugby champions Crusaders, or the double World Cup-winning All Blacks, you can see it in action – precision, timing and a clarity of thought in pressure situations. “Make smart decisions and adapt,” Dempsey adds. “We don’t want to be seen as a one-trick pony. We don’t want to be seen as a rigid, structured side. “From my point of view we want to be a challenging, attacking team who can play a different style of game depending on the opposition we face, and the conditions.” The element of surprise... An inability to adapt was evident too many times for Bath last season. When they were failing to break teams down, it was not necessarily followed by a change of tack. Not an obvious one, anyway. Leinster certainly had the element of surprise to go with a very effective Plan A as they conquered all before them last year. The likes of Exeter Chiefs, Montpelier, Saracens and Stade Francais were all vanquished on their way to their fourth European crown. Just when defences thought they might have figured them out, the rug was pulled from under them and Leinster had scored yet another try. That is what Dempsey wants Bath to do, but in terms of any new moves or strategies he’s already put in place, he kept his powder dry. “I’m not going to give too much away, but definitely,” he says. “Defences are very well organised in the modern game. You have to be smart.” After a couple of weeks’ living in a cottage on the grounds of Farleigh House, Dempsey, wife Anne-marie and sons Peter, eight, and Patrick, six, have found a place to call “home” and are settling in nicely. But why would you want to leave Leinster for a club which hasn’t won a senior trophy for ten years and hasn’t won a league title since 1996? “one reason was family,” the former Ireland full-back explains. “We felt the timing was right. Myself and Anne-marie had travelled, but we’d never had the opportunity to live abroad. “We felt the time was right for the boys. There were opportunities on the horizon and this was one of them. “I met the guys here and was really excited about the direction of the club, where they wanted to take it and the playing group and new signings. “I’d been at Leinster a long time. I think as a coach you do need to challenge yourself and test yourself and experience different environments, clubs and competitions.” Dempsey wasn’t given carte blanche to rip up Bath’s attack and start again when he arrived. Besides, he didn’t want that. He aims to take the best of what he learned at Leinster, the best of what was here already and is also willing to listen to the players if they have ideas. The 42-year-old added: “Players showing ownership is a big one for me, and their leadership qualities. “I’m certainly not a dictator. I was very conscious when I came in that I didn’t just want to say: ‘We’re doing this’. “I want players to be involved in the gameplan, the whole process and feel that they have a voice. “If they do that they’ll have greater energy and enthusiasm to play the game that you want them to play. “You see what’s there. You get a feel for the players and get to know them on a one-on-one basis. “You have good conversations – good rugby conversations with them. There are some very smart players here and some players with a huge wealth of experience who understand the game. “There are certain things players have mentioned to me that I haven’t done before, but they have and they’ve had good success. “We’ve worked through that in training and now it’s fitted into our game. It’s a very connected approach. “We’ve got some very exciting
players and not just in the backline, in the pack as well. “We will look to use their strengths within the game we want to play.” Dempsey wants to achieve “success” at Bath. To do that he knows performances need to not just be consistent, but to be consistently good. Over the last three years the number of complete 80-minute performances backed up by another can be counted on one hand. Dempsey admitted it took Leinster several years to get it right and not without lots of hard work across the board. He said: “For me, ultimately success looks like us putting ourselves in position where we can compete for silverware. “Getting to the knockout stages of competitions, getting yourself into those special days. “You have hopes and aspirations that it can be done this season, but we will face challenges. “every team is recruiting, looking to grow, developing, changing their game and getting better. “We’ve got to look to excel beyond that. It may be a longer-term process, but we feel if we can implement our systems and structures in attack and defence, and play the game we want to play, we can build that culture. “That’s what happened in Leinster. It’s that winning culture and winning does become a habit. “You actually get to a stage when you forget what it feels like to lose a match and when you’re in those high pressure situations you find a way to win. “What I’m looking for is growth and to develop that consistency in performance, so we have a benchmark and we consistently perform to that. “Leinster would have had that problem a number of years ago. They gained that over the years. “Two years ago was an almost season – two semi-finals – but we learnt the lessons of those and last year was testament to that. “Here in Bath it’s about getting to a stage where we can get consistency of performance, learn and grow together.” The quest for consistency... How do you get consistency? “From the fundamentals of our game. Basic skill-set,” he adds. “That’s where the top teams are excelling – their basics and decision-making under pressure and the durability of their skill-set under pressure. “People think of the Crusaders as this amazing thing, but if you actually breakdown their game and analyse it they don’t do anything massively special. “They do what they do very effectively. You look at exeter and sarries, they have a certain way of playing but they do that extremely well and that’s what we’re hoping to achieve here.” In terms of talent within the squad, he likes what he sees. And as a man who coached Leinster’s Academy before becoming a first-team coach, he has a keen eye on the young talent at Bath, some of whom have already impressed him in the long hot summer at Farleigh House. “There’s huge potential here,” he added. “There’s a core group of players who are very strong and some very exciting academy players on the horizon. “The club is in a good place. That will definitely lend itself to us being successful.”