Fitter WP players see to attacking style of play

THE evolution of Western Province’s (WP’s) style of play is gathering pace as players become fitter and more accustomed to the physical demands of a ball-in-hand approach. Recently, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer bemoaned the fitness levels of South African players, arguing that to produce a more expansive and attacking style, players need to be fitter.

WP have been working at the change with their brutal “red” sessions at practice, which has seen the team’s intensity increase and their transition from defence to attack gain pace.

“We’ve changed the way we train, which has changed the way we play,” coach Allister Coetzee said. “You can’t play how we are if you’re not fit, which is why guys like Rynhardt Elstadt were slightly off the pace last weekend (WP beat the Bulls 41-17).

“If you miss a week of training here you fall behind in your physical endurance. We have what we call ‘red’ sessions in the week and the players know that it’s going to be tough. The intensity of these sessions takes them to a place they have never been. Those sessions are structured so that they’re tougher than any 80 minutes of rugby they’ll play.”

Coetzee said that the change has been happening for months, suggesting it started even before director of rugby Gert Smal was appointed, but that they were only starting to reap the rewards now.

“Our training is more integrated so instead of doing attack one day, defence the next and set pieces on another, we’re doing them all at high intensity in every session,” Coetzee said. “It forces the players to think on their feet because their training (sessions) are like real games. The fairly recent use of GPS systems is also helping us to monitor their physical progress much more accurately and manage the players more effectively.

“In a nutshell the better fitness has seen us transition from defence to attack and vice versa, far more effectively,” the WP coach said.

“Heyneke Meyer has been saying that the national players are not conditioned well enough to play the type of attacking game plan he has in mind and we are mindful of that. In an average game of rugby, the ball is in play for about 30-35 minutes. Our ‘red’ sessions are about 50 minutes long and we will play at a high intensity rugby nonstop to mirror game time,” Coetzee said.

“Our vision to change the way we play inspired our change in training. It’s easy to play kick-and-chase because the forwards just stand in the middle and wait,” he said.

“If we attack from deep, forwards need to be there to clean at the breakdown and have to do it over and over. That requires them to be much fitter than they were.”