Champion coach looks to future

The magnificent 16-14 win secured by Wairarapa-Bush over Wanganui in the grand final of the Heartland rugby championship at Wanganui last Saturday signalled the end of a hugely successful era. Under the coaching of PETER RUSSELL Wairarapa-Bush finished runners-up and then winners of the NPC third division competition before reaching even dizzier heights with their Heartland title. But master mind Russell has decided that it's now time for a change, both for himself and for Wairarapa-Bush. He is looking further afield to advance his own coaching ambitions and therefore Wairarapa-Bush will be looking for a new coach for the 2007 season. Yesterday Wairarapa Times-Age sports editor GARY CAFFELL took the opportunity to have a chat with Russell over his four years at the helm, with special emphasis on their memorable Heartland campaign.
CAFFELL: Peter, when you took charge of Wairarapa-Bush four years ago did you ever think in your wildest dreams that you'd place second and then first in the NPC third division competition and then cap that off by winning the inaugural Heartland championship.
RUSSELL: Well, I guess there was always the hope that we would achieve a good measure of success but, no, I think it's fair to say we exceeded expectations.The focus was always on being competitive though, we always stressed the importance of that.
CAFFELL: You are a strong adherent of goal setting, aren't you?
RUSSELL: Yes, very much so. And we did that very early on each season?..setting goals which we felt were achievable and then working towards achieving them.
CAFFELL: Was it difficult to get the players to buy into that?
RUSSELL: Well, we did have some problems in the first year with players who weren't prepared to do the hard yards, and they simply dropped by the wayside. If you are going to set goals then it has to be a team effort, if you have two or three who aren't pulling their weight then the whole thing falls over.
CAFFELL: Many of the players who were with you this season were there four years ago???.was that deliberate?
RUSSELL: I've always felt continuity is a very important part of the selection process. Constantly chopping and changing players just makes it more difficult to get teamwork going, and it makes it tougher for the players too. They need to know that they are not there just to make up the numbers, that they are considered the best available and that they will be given every chance to prove themselves.
CAFFELL: But you haven't shied away from using imported players if the need arises.
RUSSELL: We always had the policy of giving local players ample opportunity to show they could handle a higher level of play, and if there were obvious deficiencies we looked further afield. This year was an example, we lacked a little bit in pace out wide, so we brought in players from Wellington who we thought could strengthen that area.
CAFFELL: You have often talked about the importance of the players themselves taking responsibility for their own actions, both on and off the field. How does that pan out?
RUSSELL: Rugby is a team sport and to be successful it is has to be a team effort. Coaches can only do so much, often the players have to make decisions which can be crucial to the end result, and we encouraged them to take that responsibility. As each season has gone on the number of senior players in the squad has grown and we've looked on them to lead the way. They set the standards and the others follow.
CAFFELL: You also place considerable emphasis on team spirit, don't you?
RUSSELL: Absolutely, the best teams are invariably those where the players are working for each other as much as they are working for themselves. Our team this season was a great example, we had a lot of different cultures represented there, yet the players developed a very close bond. They enjoyed each other's company, and that's a huge plus.
CAFFELL: Let's concentrate now on the Heartland championship. I recall you saying right at the start of this season that a top placing there was well within the capabilities of your side.
RUSSELL: Yes I really did think that. We were coming off the back of winning the NPC third division title and the confidence within the squad had grown to the point where everybody-not just the management-believed we could be right up there.
CAFFELL: The planning process was quite a lengthy one, wasn't it?
RUSSELL: We actually started planning for this season just one week after we had won the third division title. The Heartland concept was an exciting a new challenge for us and we wanted to ensure all the necessary systems were in place to make something special happen.
CAFFELL: The results in the pre-Heartland games were just average, including that huge thumping from Canterbury in the Ranfurly Shield challenge. That must have dented the confidence surely.
RUSSELL: The whole emphasis was on performing well in the Heartland games, so the earlier results were always viewed in that context. And that Canterbury game was actually the making of us to a large extent, despite the size of the loss. It gave us a great insight of just how clinical they were, and the message given to the team afterwards was that to win the Heartland title we would need to become clinical too, we had to play just like Canterbury had against us. It was a big learning curve in that respect.
CAFFELL: At what stage of the Heartland campaign did you start to think that, hey, we could win this thing.
RUSSELL: The pool game against North Otago, which we won by just the one point, gave the confidence a decent boost. All the talk after the game was about how they had blown several scoring chances, but from our point of view we had been put under tremendous pressure and handled it well. A lesser team would have folded and we certainly grew from that.
CAFFELL: There must have been disappointment though when you lost the top six play-off game to Wanganui, and therefore any real chance of hosting the grand final.
RUSSELL: Well when you haven't lost a championship game at home since 2003 it would have been nice to know the final would be there too, but honestly it didn't worry us too much. Wanganui were elated about their win, but we knew we had "bombed" a few scoring chances and only lost by six points, so really it didn't damage the confidence at all. Looking back, Wanganui probably felt the final was in the bag after that win, and that was in our favour too. They might have been a bit cocky on the day .
CAFFELL: It seems like the final went pretty much as planned??score enough points in the first half to stave them off in the second.
RUSSELL: Yes, I suppose you could say that. I thought we clearly had the better of the game for probably the first 60 minutes, and then it was a case of hanging on as they threw everything at us. There might have been only two points in it at the end, but we deserved it???we had done enough to win.
CAFFELL: For what seemed like the umpteenth time this season it was the tightness of the defence which highlighted that performance. Obviously a lot of hard work went into that facet of the game.
RUSSELL: Yes, we prided ourselves on being able to defend our own line no matter what sort of pressure we were under. It was all a matter of developing strategies and trusting in them. A lot of it came down to self belief??players believing in their own ability to make the tackle, and not worrying about what those inside or outside them were doing. And we had to be aggressive enough to give ourselves a chance of turning over ball?.and that happened a lot during the course of the season.
CAFFELL: Attacking-wise we probably didn't score as many tries as we would have liked, did we?
RUSSELL: The numbers mightn't have been quite as good as we expected, but we did score some excellent tries, and at vital times too. We also had to counter opposing defences which concentrated on knocking over our midfield backs and with a new back three it took a little while to work out how best we could do that. It's probably fair to say too that the game is more defensive-orientated now, so tries aren't going to come in such numbers as before anyway.
CAFFELL: The Heartland win is a hard act to follow, isn't it, especially with a new management team needed for next season, and probably six or seven of the current squad missing as well.
RUSSELL: No, I think Wairarapa-Bush can be very positive about the future. We have a big nucleus of players coming back, and that's a huge assist to any new coaching outfit in that they know exactly what is required to succeed at this level. And there are also a number of promising youngsters coming through from the lower grades??.there is no reason why we shouldn't make a strong challenge for the Heartland title again.
CAFFELL: But what if all the talk about Heartland teams being allowed to comprise only players who play club rugby in the union they represent is true. Will that hamper us?
RUSSELL: Not if the union and clubs start working right now to ensure that the weak spots are covered before the club season actually gets under way. Success breeds success and there will be talented players from outside the area who are starting to look seriously at joining up with us. We have to actively encourage them to be part of Wairarapa-Bush rugby???not in a few months time but now!