Mike Ford puts his focus on reviving up Bath attack
But now newly-promoted Bath coach Mike Ford is looking forward to playing the attack strategist at The Rec.
And his message for his young backline is clear: “The shackles are off.”
Ford, who has been made head coach at the club as a result of Gary Gold moving to director of rugby, believes his understanding of what makes defences tick will help him inject fresh potency into Bath’s attack.
The former League half-back says he is ready to take the lid off what he terms his young Bath “Jack-in-the-boxes” for the 2013-14 campaign – a backline that boasts young English talent including new arrivals Jonathan Joseph and Anthony Watson, as well as Kyle Eastmond and Ollie Devoto.
“Having been a defence coach at international level for nine-and-a-half years you feel like you understand what you don’t want coming at you,” Ford told The Rugby Paper. “I fear the Matt Giteaus, I fear the Quade Coopers and the people who are Jack-in-the-boxes. When we played against Jason Robinson, I used to fear him too.
“Those players are not coached. No matter what system is in front of them, they have this ability to create something and beat a man. We’ve recruited and got players from last year who can do that.
“There’s no point signing who we’ve signed if you’re putting shackles on them.
“If you have too much structure in attack then opposition coaches will suss that structure out. If you keep more relaxed and have a freedom within a structure, then you’re harder to work out. That’s because we don’t know what we’re doing as an attacking side until the situation presents itself – so how can the defending side?”
A year ago, Bath’s newly arrived coaching team was delivering a more conservative message, with Gold stressing the need for his team to “earn the right to play rugby”. And while Ford will continue to place an emphasis on ball retention and a powerful set-piece, players will have a licence to play with ambition.
“To help us achieve what we want to achieve, the mindset that we go into games with and the environment we have at training is going to be different,” added Ford, whose son George – another new youngster in the Bath backline – could well be orchestrating matters from fly-half.
“We will be giving players triggers and pointers, but ultimately we want them to make the decision on the field.
“When you analyse the best teams in the world, every team will have the fundamentals in place – the set-piece, the breakdown, a good defence and a tremendous goal-kicker. Towards the end of last season, we went a long way to achieving those characteristics. But what sets apart teams that win silverware is that they have star dust sprinkled on top.
“We are never going to go away from the fundamentals. We have got to give ourselves a foothold in every game.
“But I truly believe the kids that we’ve got are good enough. We say kids, but Jonathan Joseph and Kyle are internationals now, George has played since he was four, Tom Heathcote’s an international too and Ollie Devoto has a Junior World Championship winner’s medal.
“As a team we’ve got to create an environment that lets these kids flourish.”
TOM BRADSHAW
