Feature It’s Reds for go under Ed’s watch
JON NEWCOMBE talks to Jersey backs coach Ed Robinson about his approach to the game and how he has been influenced by his father, Andy
EVEN before the halfway point of the Championship season had been reached, 21 members of the Jersey Reds squad had signed up for more of the same in 2019/2020.
While the Channel Islands above average sunshine hours and glorious beaches are obviously part of the attraction, so too is a coaching environment that allows players to express themselves.
Auguy Slowik’s breathtaking length-of-the-field, injury-time try that helped the Reds end London Irish’s unbeaten run back in November typified the give-it-a-go culture engendered by director of rugby Harvey Biljon and his latest right-hand man, Ed Robinson.
Other than the fact he is the son of former England flanker and boss Andy, Robinson’s arrival in St Peter, following a season in the Championship with Rotherham Titans, received little attention.
However, the 25-year-old has quickly established himself as one of the brightest young coaching prospects in the English game.
Despite coming from such rich rugby heritage – brother Olly plays professionally for Cardiff Blues and sister Charlotte is an England touch rugby international – Ed has his own way of thinking, and Jersey’s players are lapping it up.
“When Harvey spoke to me, we clicked in terms of wanting to push the boundaries,” Robinson told The Rugby Paper. “We didn’t want to do things in the way they’d always been done, we wanted to find a better way to do things. He has allowed me to go out and coach and bring my ideas to the table and made me better.
“We’re definitely pushing the boundaries. We’re trying to make these players better and to help their understanding of the game, so they are able to respond among immense stress and immense chaos and work their way out of it.
“In practice, everything looks like it does on a pitch: there is always fatigue, there is always chaos … things happening that you don’t expect.”
Irish certainly didn’t expect Jersey to go from behind their own try line and put together 16 phases and 141 seconds of rugby when the sides met back in November but, according to seasoned observers at Jersey’s Santander Stadium, Slowik’s score was not in splendid isolation.
Other tries have been equally spectacular and indicative of the joie de vivre that nods to their nearby Gallic influence.
“We try and make things as enjoyable as possible,” said Robinson. “Earlier in the season we started every meeting with a joke. Mark Best did one with an elephant impression which was pretty funny. Now we’re on to ‘Show and Tell’, where players bring in things to show to the other players. Our last meeting was probably our best yet and started with Aaron’s (Penberthy) dog doing five minutes of tricks.
“Things like that help the learning environment, it enables people to feel free to share things and learn about each other.
“We feel we’ve created an environment that young rugby players want to come to and improve themselves and get onto the Premiership, PRO14 or international rugby.”
Ed, a fly-half, and flanker Olly, 27, trained a lot together growing up and played school rugby together at Prior Park in Bath, reaching the Rosslyn Park schools Sevens quarter-finals. And the pair looked destined to be top-level players together, but the effects of multiple concussions ended Ed’s dreams in his early 20s whilst at Loughborough University. He still suffers from some of the symptoms – headaches and nausea – to this day.
“My biggest triggers are exercise, loud music and flashing lights but I have learned to control my symptoms much better. I’ve also got a pair of glasses that help although the lads tell me I look like an elderly person going down to the shops when I have them on,” he said.
“It (coaching) wasn’t where I saw myself going so it was a different path for me. But, as Harvey and I often say to each other, it is the second-best job in the world, the best obviously being a player.
“I am very lucky to do what I do now, and there are people in much worse situations than me.”
In terms of mentors, few are better placed than Ed.
“I grew up living with one of the best coaches in the world and seeing how he operates. Dad has obviously worked with some amazing teams and built some amazing teams and he has won every competition there is to win, almost. So I definitely bounce my ideas off him and he challenges me to make my ideas better.
“This is what I’ve chosen to do, he’s not pushed me into anything. We talk like any father and son do, but it just helps he is an expert in this field, and the advice he gives me has definitely improved me as a coach.”
“I grew up living with one of the best coaches in the world and seeing how he operates”