Glenn Delaney, defence coach and soon-to-be head coach of the Scarlets, has unique experience from having coached in five different leagues. Here, he offers NEALE HARVEY his thoughts on the game.
How have you enjoyed your first eight months at Scarlets?
Loved it! The decision to come here was considered heavily and it’s turned out to be much better than I’d ever hoped. We’ve got a fabulous playing group, a really energising group of backroom staff and a club that has unbelievable history with some wonderful characters. Put all that together and it’s a real rugby club that represents the region and people like to see us playing in an exciting way.
See similarities with your old Canterbury Crusaders organisation?
The history organisationally is there and the desire to play the game in an attractive, expansive way is there in terms of the philosophy.
The thing that you can also connect up is that the Canterbury and Scarlets’ environments have a desire to play rugby their way and embrace the game for everything it’s worth. The belief that the game is there as a provider to society and enables people to be at their very best, those two things we both share heavily in common.
You’re assessment of Scarlets’ campaign to date?
The good news is that as we stand, we’re in the PRO14 play-offs and are in a quarter-final in Europe. We want to win something so we’re in a position to do that, which is all you could ask at this stage of the season. We can be proud of some of our performances and what we’ve managed to do is ensure we have a winning environment.
The challenge comes with away games, though, because most PRO14 teams have good home records and there are many variables involved in that.
Which Scarlets players have pleased you most?
They’re all characters in their own way and when you’ve had so many players away at the World Cup and Six Nations, it gives others an opportunity to play week-in, week-out. If you look at Josh Macleod at openside, who’s stolen most ball in the PRO14 this season, he’s had a real chance to shine, and centre Steff Hughes, our captain in the absence of Ken Owens, has been absolutely outstanding and is the glue that’s kept the team in track. You don’t like singling people out because everyone’s contributed in their own way, but there are lots of people who’ve shown their future is bright.
What have you made of the PRO14 compared to other leagues you’ve been involved in?
They’re all different and if you look at us, we have a much bigger squad by nature of the fact we have so many international players. There’s a lot of call on their time so you go from stages of the season where it might be like playing a full Test match against, say, Leinster, to other games where you’re playing more of a developing, emerging side where guys are learning the game. Underpinned by a good performance programme, though, it means everyone’s got an opportunity to get better and this season someone like Ryan Conbeer, at 21, has popped through and done very well as a dynamic winger. There’s a lot of collaboration with the national side and we’re across all of that.
It’s quite a coaching journey you’ve been on, first with Nottingham before spells at London Irish, Canterbury, Highlanders and now Scarlets. Can’t be many people who’ve coached in five different leagues like you have?
It’s been very positive and I’ve been really fortunate to have been able to go to the places I have. I’ve loved every environment I’ve been in, they’re all unique and they’ve all taught me a lot. The foundation was eight years at Nottingham which gave me a lot of time to learn and I was really well supported by a fabulous board, latterly headed by Alistair Bow, and some external mentors like Derek Brewer (then-Nottingham CCC), Nottingham Forest CEO Mark Arthur, Geoff Huckstep at the National Ice Centre and Mark Doleman, from Deloittes. These guys gave me so much of their time and enabled me to not only become my own man as a coach, but gave me a safety blanket as well. That, along with doing my Level 4 coaching qualification with the RFU, gave me the chance to learn about working with people and I’ve taken that into my subsequent roles. I often refer back to those lessons now.
Given your Nottingham experience, how dismayed are you at the RFU’s recent treatment of the Championship?
It looks incredibly challenging for the Championship clubs at the moment and the opportunity the competition gave me and a lot of players to kick-start their careers should never be underestimated.
There’s a tremendous number of examples of guys playing for England and the British & Irish Lions who’ve developed in that league. The best example for me is Tom Youngs, who learnt a new position at Nottingham as a hooker and three years later played for the Lions in Australia. The journey that a lot of people have got out of playing hard, rugged rugby at Championship level has stood the game in good stead and the sad thing will be if people don’t have that opportunity going forward.
It will be a huge loss because with the experience and time it gives you to prepare to play at the highest level, there’s no better breeding ground. I know there’s a lot of top players who say the same and a lot have been active on social media. The reaction you’ve seen tells you how important it has been and you can only hope it’s listened to. There’s a lot to lose if that league is not nurtured.
What did you make of RFU boss Bill Sweeney’s remarks that the Championship is no longer seen as a major pathway?
The thing I’d be asking is: what are you basing that on? What evidence have you got that it’s not a good pathway? The message that came out of the RFU was pretty hard and a lot of people are feeling bruised and disappointed by that, given the development potential of the competition. The response to Bill Sweeney was pretty clear-cut, though, and I’d like to think they’ll find a way to keep talking about it because in my experience there’s massive value in the Championship.
Back to Scarlets, how excited are you to be taking the head coach’s job when Brad Mooar moves on to join the All Blacks this summer?
Really delighted. I came here to support Brad and we have a fantastic staff. They’re an unbelievably dynamic group and Brad’s led that brilliantly, so it’s good news that he’s getting the All Blacks attack job. An opportunity arose here from that and, after a considered process, I was happy to accept the job. It’s great to get the chance to continue the work he’s started.
Do you expect much transition in terms of recruitment etc?
That’s ongoing but there’s not vast amounts to do. We’ve got a pretty well stocked squad so there’ll not be too much change as we want to continue the journey we’re on. There’ll be a little hiatus now with the coronavirus issue, but we were starting to get into the groove and with the internationals we have, along with guys we’ve already added like Liam Williams, Sam Lousi and Tevita Ratuva, it’s all about seeing how far that journey can take us now. It’s got to be fun, it’s got to be enjoyable and, hopefully, there are a lot of outstanding younger players to come through here as well. One thing Scarlets have always done is produce young players and we want to create opportunities for them as well.
Leinster seem to be unassailable in the PRO14 right now, can you close that gap?
Leinster do seem to be out in front and they’re doing a lot of things really well. I think they’d used 58 players by Christmas and still won every game so they’ve got a hell of a squad, the talent there is amazing and they’re very well coached by guys like Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster. But if you look at where we are now, we’re comparable with Ulster and Munster and flirting with that play-off picture. We want to ensure we are one of those challenging teams moving forwards and I believe we’re not a million miles away.
With your proud Kiwi hat on, watching New Zealand being beaten by England at the World Cup must have been a bitter pill to swallow?
Thanks for reminding me! I’m reasonably balanced on these things, though, because I’ve probably spent more time in the northern hemisphere than the south and you could see how good England had become. The best team won that game and the standard of their play went through the roof. The irony, of course, is that nobody really spoke much about South Africa but they came through and were the best team in the end. The All Blacks would have been disappointed to finish in that 3rd/4rd place game but that’s the nature of rugby, it can’t all be one way. It shows the game’s evolving and that’s what we want. We need more teams to be competing at that level.
With Ian Foster and Brad Mooar leading a new All Blacks coaching team, how do you rate those guys?
They’re wonderful guys. I’ve known ‘Fozzie’ for a long time and during his tenure with the All Blacks I’ve been fortunate to be in and out of that New Zealand environment when I was with Canterbury and the Highlanders, so I know that he’s someone who’s a really deep thinker and very generous with his time.
He’ll create an environment where there’ll be differences from Steve Hansen, but he’s very well-schooled, knows the game really well and knows what he wants to get out of it. Brad Mooar will bring a lot of energy to the programme through his huge positivity.
He’s always been a positive guy, right from his schooldays, and he’s certainly endeared himself to the Scarlets supporter group here, so he has that infectious ability to improve and drive people while having that competitive edge to be successful.
It’ll be a hell of a coaching combination and if you look at other guys in the All Blacks’ backroom team, John Plumtree’s got a lot of edge to him to drive that forward pack and Scott McLeod brings big defensive strengths as well. New Zealand are in good hands.
Do New Zealand have the playing depth to bounce back?
There’s always good depth in New Zealand rugby and when you look at a lad like Crusaders’ centre/wing Braydon Ennor, there’s an example of a 22-year-old guy who’s come through the Canterbury system and is taking Super Rugby by storm. He’ll find his way into the All Blacks’ environment now, as guys like Jack Goodhue and Sevu Reece have, and they’ll always have players who are well coached, have a good skillset and can play the game at a high level. Scott Barrett is a mainstay of the pack they’ll probably build around now and there’s enough experienced guys like Nepo Laulala, Joe Moody, Codie Taylor, Dane Coles, Sam Cane and Aaron Smith to ensure a pretty seamless transition. There’ll be some exuberance about that New Zealand team now.
Close to home, what did you learn from a somewhat truncated Six Nations?
As usually happens after a World Cup, it was a feeling-out process for most teams but if you looked at France, with their new coaching team, they went with youth and it paid off for them.
Okay, they didn’t win in Scotland and that can happen to a young team, but they’ve taken to international rugby and by investing in those guys after their huge success in winning two U20s World Cups, they’ve now got a generation coming through that could be very special by 2023.
As for England, they’re always going to be very consistent physically, but they now seem to be adding to the academic side of their rugby and they’ve got some pretty sharp generals running the team really well.
They’ll continue to grow and I can see Ireland evolving under Andy Farrell. Scotland will be pleased to have turned their campaign around and Wales will have been frustrated that their last game was called off because I believe they were ready to show what they were about under Wayne Pivac (below).
How do you expect Wales will go under Wayne in future?
You can see the style of play evolving and it was very successful when Scarlets won the PRO12 in 2017. It definitely works, they’ll keep driving that more open style and Wayne’s got a great man alongside him in Stephen Jones. They’ll continue to grow. It will work and the supporters will stay 100 per cent behind Wales.
Finally, what changes in the game would you like to see to make it better?
We’ve got to start by finding a way to get on top of things like caterpillar rucks, the time taken on exit plays and the carry-on around scrums.
With scrums, we need to get to a point where the clocks are off until the ball is back in play so we don’t lose game time. If we did that, I’m sure the process would straighten up because I guarantee you that front rows would not constantly want to be resetting.
There are other areas too where the laws need to be more stringently adhered to. There’s a player and coach element to that but the basic premise of players being onside needs to be policed better because that gap is what ultimately creates a more attacking game.
Offside lines need to be adhered to and even simple things like men in front of the ball at kick-offs needs attention. Those few metres stolen make all the difference and we shouldn’t be seeing it because, ultimately, spectators want to see a product that is an attacking game and competitive challenge.
