Lam has plan off-pat

Pat Lam's cunning rugby plan is just that. Cunning.

Which is hardly surprising, given that he's only just escaped from the very heart of Planning Central - English rugby.

As the English forward-turned-journalist Paul Ackford noted, England relied on mainly "manufactured" players rather than naturally gifted ones to win the World Cup, but win the World Cup they did.

Clive Woodward only has to flick his fingers, says Lam, and his wish is everyone's command. And money, of which there is plenty in England, does talk.

Auckland rugby may not have anything like the cash that floats around the English game, but it does have plenty of talent, brain power, and a video machine. And that's where much rugby success and failure occurs these days.

In a nutshell, the old saying that you're only as good as you're last game is just that. An old saying, which doesn't hold a hell of a lot of weight anymore.

It's keeping ahead of the game, week-by-week, that counts and where coaches earn their money.

The All Blacks are a prime example, says Lam. Fresh from their glorious victory over the Springboks in the World Cup quarter-final last year, they somehow conspired the next week to impersonate a hotel doorman gladly letting in guests in the hope of a decent tip as they allowed Stirling Mortlock, Stephen Larkham etc to rampage past them in the semifinal.

Lam, who was one of Scotland coach Ian McGeechan's assistants at the tournament, believes the All Blacks lost the game primarily through their failure to prepare properly on defensive lineouts.

Scotland, who bordered on woeful for much of the tournament and had vastly inferior players to Australia, gave the hosts a surprisingly hard test in the quarter-finals.

Lam says the Scots had analysed Australia's game and decided all their moves and momentum came from lineouts. They never drove the ball, but took the ball "straight off the top" to set their backs away.

So Scotland aimed a huge part of their preparation at disrupting and attacking the Australian lineout, and to good effect.

"New Zealand didn't even contest their lineout. The All Blacks' lineout defence structure was not flexible enough," says Lam.

As he stated earlier in the week, after his appointment as Auckland coach, a big part of his plan will be to improve some of the traditional forward roles.

English forwards pride themselves on doing the nitty gritty, he says, and it's an attitude that wouldn't go amiss in New Zealand.

"Forwards win you the games,' says Lam. "It's easier to stop back moves, it's much harder to stop very strong, technically efficient forwards.

"As players we've all been up against teams like that and the stress levels go up, you get very uncomfortable. And of course it gives backs quality ball."

Lam, a schoolteacher, wants Auckland rugby to increase its promotion of the game in schools below secondary level.

He says it is appropriate that he will share an office at Eden Park with Auckland rugby development manager Geoff Moon.

And as the NPC moves towards the day, in 2006, when current All Blacks will no longer be involved, he says it is increasingly important that young talent not only be identified, but also know that they are under observation.

"Otherwise you lose them."

His representative career began in style in 1990 for an All Black-laden Auckland team in a Super 10 game in Brisbane, where he won the man of the match award. But he struggled to make an impact in such a quality side and moved to North Harbour in the mid-1990s, before heading to England.

His last game was in 2002, when he captained the Barbarians against Wales in Cardiff, and Lam proudly recounts that the great Welsh halfback Gareth Edwards presented him with his final playing jersey.

In a fine career captaining Samoa, Northampton and a Newcastle side including Jonny Wilkinson, there is one obvious blip. His All Black career lasted just 32 minutes, ended by broken ribs when Lam - who had flown in as a replacement - was carted out of the All Blacks 40-17 defeat against Sydney in 1992.

"I think I might hold a record for being the only person to play for the All Blacks and never train with the All Blacks."

As he knows, those are all matters for the history book now as he embarks on his first head coaching assignment.