ROOM 101

BRISTOL BEARS’ DEFENCE COACH REVEALS HIS PET HATES FROM THE RUGBY WORLD AND BEYOND

1. Blaming players

When I do seminars and consult around the world during my off-time from Bristol, it really irritates me when the coach blames the players for poor performances, saying they haven’t got any balls and are crap in defence, that they are a poor group etc. It is the coach’s job to develop players and exhaust all the possibilities before writing them off. They don’t give their players the time and confidence to develop them in the way they should.

TRP VERDICT: We’re glad you dug-out this coach complaint, it’s going in.

2. Call centres

It really breaks me when you have to contact the local water board, ring up for car insurance or whatever and you get a myriad of options that only lead to a dead end. It is so frustrating when you finally get to the bit where they ask you to state the nature of your call and the voice recognition system doesn’t understand a word you say. Twenty minutes of your life gone, wasted, and you’re still no nearer to resolving the issue you rang up about in the first place!

TRP VERDICT: #greatshout.

3. Moving home

As someone who has coached all around the world, moving home is part and parcel of the job. Just recently I moved from Cheltenham to Bristol. You’d think I’d be used to it by now but I’m not. I hate the business of packing up and unpacking and having boxes everywhere. It’s not a strength of mine at all, and I don’t enjoy it.

TRP VERDICT: You can gladly stash all your rubbish in Room 101.