BR - no quitter

By Cherry Picker
October 21 2009

When a rugby man starts a career as a coach he needs to be put in charge of a team which has been struggling so the only way is up, or a ready-made team already in the habit of playing consistently and winning regularly. Bryan Redpath got neither when he took over from Dean Ryan at Gloucester, and now he’s paying the penalty. Ryan's reignb ended in  tears, of course, and results and performances have not been good so far this season, though of course Redpath has not been helped by the sort of injury list that would cripple many a team.
But he is clearly determined to fight on, and it’s to be hoped that his players will follow his example to get together in a concerted effort to get the season back on track and make something of it.
What Gloucester need now is the sort of “us against the rest” attitude that will help strengthen the team spirit and create an atmosphere to help get a run of results together.
After the summer Glaws had, few people will have expected the team to challenge for honours this season, and there should be no danger of them finishing at the foot of the table either.
But there is pride at stake if nothing else, and Redpath needs to lead the team in a campaign to at least recover that.
He says he will never quit the job and is currently trying to solve the problem of errors which have cost his team points.
He told the Citizen: “If you make an individual mistake I can't solve it. It's as clear as that.
"It's not how we're training, it's not how we're preparing. If someone makes an individual error you can't change it.
"If it was a team structure thing I'm quite happy to take criticism. I've never been one to bury my head. I won't blame others. But we're making mistakes that are killing us.
"I've never been a quitter. I will not quit or push the buck to someone else. I'm happy to discuss anything with anyone.
"I'll be open with the players and listen to what they want. If it is a team structure thing I'm happy to accept that. But at the moment we're making individual errors."
Hopefully all that is not a case of Redpath diverting the blame to the players, but it’s down to the team to cut out the errors he mentions.
However, there’s more to it than a combination of unforced errors and injuries, and that is where Redpath comes in.
Saturday’s Guinness Premiership game against Wasps at Kingsholm provides Glaws with their next chance of an improvement, but it won’t be easy against a side in third place with four wins out of five.
But it’s a home game for Jake Boer after his try-scoring return to the team in last weekend’s thumping at Biarritz, and he’s sure to get a rapturous Kingsholm reception.
A win would make his day. 

Redpath continues search for Glaws winning formula

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 21/10/2009 11:40

Shedloads
21/10/2009 11:40

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cheerycherry
21/10/2009 14:02

The problem is the injury list is not only crippling Glaws but it is injuries to key players (Brown, Tinds and Morgan). The squad does look threadbare in certain positions and you end up with players in positions they are not comfortable with. For example it is painfully obvious Voyce is no fullback. Credit to him for putting his hand up and playing there because he cant be enjoying it but in a key position he is being exposed defensively time and time again. Sinbad is another example. Undeniably a very fine winger but he has never had a good game at centre (that I can recall) and he doesnt look happy playing there, in fact his pass is only slightly better than Tinds'! Okay, Glaws have been very unlucky with injuries to E F-S, Spencer, Tinds and Trinder all at roughly the same time but Molenaar is a genuine Centre so play him dont have him sat on the bench whilst the best winger at the club is wasted at centre. If he gets injured/tired then move Sinbad to Centre as a stopgap but Molenaar was reportedly one of the best players in Nat. league 1 so he should be playing. I have no doubt that if/when Glaws can get their best XV out on a regular basis then results will improve but the problem is will that happen soon enough to salvage this season?

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Two Sheds
22/10/2009 14:57

Depends what you mean by salvage - we won't go down anyway, but it's probably too late even now to win anything, so mid-table is all we can hope for. Is that salvage?

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cheerycherry
23/10/2009 01:20

I would settle for top 6 and HEC qualification right now! It is to be hoped Glaws will improve but it is not good to hear that BR is shutting the gameplan down and will be looking to play ''positional'' Rugby i.e 10 man Rugby against Wasps on Saturday.
Hmm.. aimless kicking possession away, allowing teams to run at us, pointless box kicks.... where have I seen and heard that before?.....

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Two Sheds
23/10/2009 15:15

Yes ... panfully familiar. I thought we'd got rid of those tactics.

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