Rugby: Development boss goes for the gap in Portuguese rugby

The New Zealand Rugby Football Union's development manager leaves his job comfortable in the knowledge that his system is not turning out a succession of clones.

Evan Crawford becomes Portugal's rugby technical adviser in about a month, and the coach of their national team in a year, for a two-year term.

He was first offered the job a few months ago as a result of a recommendation from Lee Smith, his predecessor at the rugby union, but turned it down because he was too busy with projects such as the Rugby Academy in Palmerston North.

But it was re-offered in a chance meeting with the Portuguese Rugby Union's president when he and Smith were walking behind a Twickenham grandstand a few minutes after the All Blacks lost their World Cup semifinal to France.

Crawford, the 1993-95 national secondary schools coach, has long wanted to return to full-time coaching. He hopes to return later in New Zealand.

Some believe that rugby union coaching programmes in recent years, with the Massey University coaching certificate prominent, could lead to a clone-like system.

Crawford rejects the idea, saying an individual streak is heavily encouraged.

"If that is a criticism, I don't go with it. It's one that people use who perhaps haven't been through the courses," he said.

"It's better to have people who have been through, and have got an understanding of the coaching methodology, than none at all.

"We've got so many different things now in our coaching resources that coaches can take out bits of what they want to. They can take a bit of this and a bit of that - at no time do we want to take away the individual's ability.

"We've done a lot of work in revamping and redeveloping a whole lot of coaching resources. But it's very important for people to understand that just because you walk around with a certificate in your hand it doesn't necessarily mean you're a good coach."

Conversely, people were wrong to think they could coach at a high level just based on their own experience when they were players.

"A lot of our top coaches who may have been a little bit cynical of our courses have had a complete change of mind when they've attended a course."

Crawford says the system presents a win-win situation to all.

"A coach who has ability with people and can communicate in that area, we can make him a better coach by putting him through our courses."

He says there has been a move in recent years to make courses more user-friendly and less theoretical.

All Black coach Wayne Smith has recently been critical of the skill level of New Zealand players at all levels, especially about the tendency to seek confrontation in back play rather than the gap.

Crawford says it is something coaching has to be mindful of.

"That's a trait that's come in New Zealand rugby, in the last two to three years. That way of coaching confrontational back-play, where they run at tacklers rather than run at gaps, is an easy way to coach.

"Coaching is difficult. The easy way to coach a team is to tell people to run at the opposition, fall to the ground quickly, then win the ball again.

"That's fine in some circumstances, but all you do is encourage young people to run at their opposition. "

The thinking coaches were now starting to realise that you had to do more than that in back play, he said.

Three years ago teams found they could smash into people and dominate them. Now they found the tactic was not working because of extremely good defensive patterns. The rest of the world had caught up.

Crawford says seeking to run at a "human target" is not the way coaches are taught in New Zealand.

The words "setting a target" are a pet hate.

"You won't see those words written in any New Zealand coaching resource. Any target, hopefully, is a gap between two people."

Crawford says there are many coaches in New Zealand prepared to push the boundaries and think outside the square.

- NZPA