Grimes taking flight with Falcons
Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:18
Having become the latest addition to Newcastle's coaching team, former Scotland lock Stuart Grimes believes the signs are positive as the Falcons complete their second full week of pre-season training.
The 34-year-old has returned to Kingston Park after a glittering playing career which saw him make 139 appearances for the club between 1999 and 2006, as well as winning 71 Scotland caps and playing in two World Cups.
Now at the helm as an assistant coach under director of rugby Steve Bates, Grimes eventually called time on his playing days with one last campaign at Italian club Petrarca Padova.
"I always knew that would be my last season and I was very sad to be leaving rugby completely, because I'd planned to go in to the property industry as a surveyor," he says, having completed his Masters degree in real estate management during his first stint at Kingston Park.
"I hadn't turned my back on rugby, I was always willing to listen if the right offer came along, and when Steve Bates phoned me a few weeks before the end of the Italian season it sounded like an opportunity that would really excite me."
Revealing his final moments as a professional player, he says: "My last ever competitive game was the semi-final of the Italian Championship, away at Calvisano, and we were unlucky to lose narrowly to the team which eventually went on to lift the league title.
"After the game in the changing room I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be, because I knew I still had this role at Newcastle to come in to, but in the proper rugby tradition I hung my boots on the peg, took a photo of them and just left them there.
"I'm keeping myself fit doing some training with Alan Tait and the players in the gym, and I will still play a few invitational games, but in terms of my professional playing career that's definitely it finished now. If I'd wanted to continue as a player I would have stayed over in Italy, so other than a few invitational and charity games you won't be seeing me in a scrum cap again!"
One game still on Grimes' schedule, however, is a special match to mark the coronation of King George Tupou V, as he and a host of fellow greats line up against a Tongan national XV in the capital, Nuku'alofa on July 31.
"Epi Taione called me in January and said he was arranging a team to play against Tonga to mark the coronation of the new King over there, and it was a great honour to be asked," he says.
"Those are the sorts of invites you often receive but can never take up as a professional player, because your first duty is with your club, but it will be a great experience to be part of and I'm really looking forward to it. Playing the game just for enjoyment is always good, although having 15 Tongans trying to take my head off might change that somewhat!"
Now installed in his office at Kingston Park, Grimes says of the new-look coaching set-up: "I've worked under Steve Bates and Alan Tait before, so I know what great coaches they are, and then obviously I've been in the same side as Ian Peel many times for Newcastle and I'm looking forward to this new coaching team really coming together."
Asked the dynamic of the new group, he says: "Job titles are just job titles, but basically Steve Bates is the director of rugby, Alan Tait is his assistant and then myself and Ian Peel are essentially technical coaches.
"Peely will take the scrums and I will do the line outs, then with regards to the other aspects of forward play we will both have an input and work together. Obviously we will tie that in with Alan's defensive work and how Steve wants the team to play, but in practical terms that is how it will work.
"It's not just a case of saying, you're the forwards coach and you're the backs coach, as has maybe happened in the past. Time will tell I suppose, but everyone knows their role and we have a very clear idea of what is expected of us and how it will work in practice."
Having sampled rugby in both Scotland and Italy after his departure as a player from Kingston Park two years ago, Grimes says: "The forward play in the Magners League follows principles very similar to the Guinness Premiership, so that wasn't a major change, and then in Italy I think the biggest battle was trying not to get in to bad habits.
"Padova was a great from a life experience point of view, moving overseas for a year with my wife Trish, speaking another language and all those sorts of things.
"I had always wanted to play abroad and I knew it was an opportunity I'd never get again, but I'll admit I did find it frustrating at times from a rugby point of view. We did well in reaching the semi-finals and only narrowly losing to the eventual winners, but in terms of rugby sense and game awareness there were still big improvements to be made.
"As a senior player in the second row you are generally expected to run the line outs, and two weeks after getting there I was organising and calling the line outs in a foreign language with inexperienced players who didn't really know me or what I was talking about. It was very challenging, but then that's what the game is all about and it was a great learning experience just to go over there and give it a go."
Having returned to Newcastle for the beginning of the new rugby year, he reveals: "The most noticeable thing from my point of view is that the boys have come back for the start of pre-season in absolutely fantastic shape.
"I think the game has changed so much in such a short space of time, that gone are the days where you would spend the first three weeks of pre-season getting beasted just to get rid of the weight you'd put on during your summer holidays.
"The guys all have programmes they follow even when they're in the off-season, and I have to say all credit to them because they've returned in sensational nick for the start of pre-season. That says a lot to me about their commitment as players, and it's a great base from which we can now build.
"My job won't really take hold properly for another two or three weeks when we get stuck in to more rugby training rather than gym stuff, but the work has already begun behind the scenes with myself and the other coaches sitting down to discuss where we are and where we're going as a team.
"I've already met with the senior players on a number of occasions, just to get them thinking about how we are going to play this season and what changes we are implementing, then as we go on through the month we will make that more formal and really nail down the tactics we will use during the season.
"Our first game is against Western Force on August 8, which is much earlier than usual. What that means is that from a rugby point of view we will be a bit under-done with the majority of training prior to that match being in the gym. But the Force game is a month before the first Guinness Premiership weekend, and that gives us a great opportunity to gradually build up."
With the rugby laws having undergone somewhat of a summer makeover, Grimes has wasted no time in emphasising the importance of the changes.
"Explaining the new laws to the players, and how it will affect the game, is a huge part of this pre-season," he says.
"From a line out standpoint there are huge fundamental changes, probably more than in other area of play.
"As a coach it makes it really interesting, because you are going in to uncharted waters. The biggest change, in my opinion, is being able to pull down mauls, because so many clubs in the Guinness Premiership have the driving maul firmly ingrained as a part of their playing culture.
"Not having to match up numbers in defence and attack is another change, I believe a less significant one than the maul defence, but all of these will cause some teams a lot of problems. It will be good for the league as a whole, and for the fans during the winter months, because rather than seeing the ball disappear for five minutes at a time in the middle of a maul they will actually get much more open rugby.
"For many teams it will mean a complete change in strategy, but I actually believe the new laws will suit us down to the ground with the players we have in our squad, and the work that is already well underway to cope with them.
"It has been really interesting watching the Currie Cup games from South Africa. In the first week the players were getting away with certain things unpenalised, then in the second week the referees clamped right down on those same things.
"The whole process around these new laws just seems to be evolving week by week as the players and refs both get used to it, and with the Air New Zealand Cup starting on the first weekend of August it will be interesting to see what dominant trends develop there. For example some defending teams seem to be putting very few players in to the actual line out, basically letting the opposition win the ball but then having a huge midfield defensive line smashing in to the first ruck to put massive pressure on that phase. That is one approach, but there are also others and we are discussing them as we go along behind the scenes.
"We have plenty of opportunity to watch games under the new laws from the southern hemisphere, but by playing Western Force so early we will be one of the first teams to actually play a game under them. That then gives us plenty of time to assess how our approach has worked, and what we need to change before our subsequent pre-season games and the start of the competitive matches."
Aware that a summer of change has seen certain quarters question the Falcons' ability to compete on the Guinness Premiership stage, Grimes says: "In terms of where we're going to finish, some people on the outside obviously have their views which they will no doubt express as the season draws closer, but from within the club we believe the signs are very positive and that the players are totally committed to making the season a success.
"Many teams have these bulky packs with big mauling specialists, but they're not going to have that weapon in their armoury any more with defences able to collapse them, which will have a massive impact.
"Also I believe we will be much less affected than many other teams during the international windows, and the consistency of personnel available for selection each week will be much greater than last season, when we basically lost the heart of our back line for great chunks at a time."
