Big names from rugby and the wider world of sport have gathered in France this weekend for the 16th annual Guinness Six Nations coaching development conference.
The event sees the likes of Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards, Leinster coaches Stuart Lancaster and Leo Cullen as well as Gloucester Rugby and Chelsea FC sport psychologist Dave Collins share their experiences on the pressures, expectations, setbacks and learnings of high-performance coaching.
Over the weekend a range of talks, activities and Q&A’s will delve into the experience of coaching at the highest level with coaches from all six unions in attendance.
Analytics has a huge part to play in modern coaching and World Rugby game analyst consultant Corris Thomas reflected on this at the event as well as delivering some of his findings from the 2019 Guinness Six Nations.
He said: “No game changes as rapidly as rugby. 35 years ago there were 35 rucks in a game, there are now 190. In those days, there were 35 scrums a game and 50 lineouts and there are now 12 scrums and 26 lineouts.
“The game has totally changed. The shape bears no relation to what it was in the past.
“We found that the clear trends from the 2019 Six Nations were that Wales had a hugely defensive game which was very successful. England played a different style to Wales, they scored two and a half times more tries than Wales and Wales couldn’t manage that but they didn’t lose a game.
“Ireland always had more possession than their opponents in every single game, they gave away fewer penalties than their opponents in every single game and that characterises their style now.â€
The Guinness Six Nations coaching development conference concept originated in April 2002 with the remit of developing coaches who are working with international players and potential international players.
It also looks to develop coaches who have the potential to become national coaches both at senior and age grade level and/or professional coaches at club level alongside challenging the high-performance coaches in the Guinness Six Nations to think across borders and cultures.
The conference additionally provides a vehicle for the interchange of technical expertise between Guinness Six Nations member unions and the encouragement of this outside the competitive parameters while providing a forum for research and the future development of the game within the Guinness Six Nations membership group.
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Source: 6 Nations