Believing yourself

2nd season for Suntory and this year and he is here to take the team to the new level. We are here to ask Andy Friend, a head coach of Suntory Sungoliath about their big challenges ahead. (Interviewed on：06/07/2015)

◆4 key points

—— So this is your 2nd year as a head coach, what do you think about your roles and responsibilities for the season ahead?

My role is to manage, support and to ensure that we play our rugby style that's in our DNA.

In supporting players, I need to encourage them and be the best they can be. Also supporting the staff that they believe is the right thing to do in their respective areas.

My style is I'm not going to tell them what to do in your area, and have some parameters and ask how you think you can get that done.

—— As a head coach role, you might need to have a big picture of the goal and deliver that message to the players, what do you think about this?

As a team, I think it's all about the style. So it's the Aggressive Attacking Rugby style. The 2 key words came out of last year was fighting spirits which is link to the company's motto "Yatte minahare" (Go for it!!) spirits and aggressive attacking rugby spirits.

My big lesson from last year, if we don't follow those 2 things, aggressive attacking rugby approach, I don't believe we get the buy in here from the players

—— Although we've had our "Aggressive Attacking Rugby" style hold up last season but we didn't score much, why do you think this is?

We introduced some new things and took us away from the things that made the aggressive attacking rugby what it is. Just by making small tweak there which we thought was a right thing to do and add some variety the way games have been played. It then took away the power of aggressive attacking rugby. That then led to stage 1 and stage 2 performances.

And also didn't go to the hard of what aggressive attacking rugby is all about which is our shape, work rate, fighting spirits, gain line, all of that things make our rugby what it is. The change that we tried to put in there worked against those.

—— What changes are you thinking to put in place this season?

I think firstly we want to get all on the same page earlier on. So the end of last season during Japan Cup, we started to play what now we call Aggressive Attacking Rugby. Whole thing at the moment is let's get back in doing that.

Within that, let's work on skills that work better. So let's work on specific about ball carrier, break down, set piece and defence like tackle technic. They are the 4 things that we are focusing on.

So it's the Aggressive Attacking Rugby everyone knows but we are going to focus on those key areas.

—— SO compare it with league games and Japan Cup it was better at those key points?

Yes definitely.

◆Thinking deep

—— In the last few years Suntory has conceded many penalties against oppositions and I do believe this has improved last season.

Yes, we are lot better in that area, our discipline is lot better. But that's an underline foundation we want to keep. I believe we've made the mind change for the players. Some of the thing we brought in last year we definitely going to keep it, like discipline, fitness was good last year and the way boys trained was also good and minimal injuries last year so the medical staff worked really well. Lot of things that we are able to manage but the big disconnection was in the things we tried to bring in a variety that didn't much up with the image of Aggressive Attacking Rugby.

So this year we've leant that we have this aggressive attacking base here, we take that and we just need it to be better. So let's focus on the fine line skills and all these other things we introduced last year they worked as well, discipline, systems, medical, recovery, fitness, and we need to keep it going.

—— Suntory played really good rugby though to Japan Cup semifinal last season but felt like losing the scrum battle in the final.

Yes that's the massive thing we need to get better, last year against Yamaha, 2 big scrums that really matter, we lost them. The year before against Toshiba, when we needed in semifinal, we got smashed.

So we are going to focus lot more time and energy on our scrum and we are already doing that. Last year in fairness we probably spent max of 20 minutes per week on scrum. Already this year we are spending longer hours on scrum. And we are going to make it very simple, everyone got a specific task and role and our eight men scrum as one.

Scrummaging is not something you can't just turn up and scrum. It's a culture built through the year and you've got a commit a time to it. You got a give them a clear plan. You've got a get the players to buy in to that. When we talk about set piece what we need to improve that's a big area.

—— Do you think you can built a strong scrum pack which can pack against like Yamaha before the opening match?

Yes that will be great. That's going to be a big challenge for us. Because last year's 2 starting tight head is off with Japan squad. But we have Nakamura (Jumbo) come in, Park and Ike who is working really hard with Jumbo and Park and they are getting better on a weekly base. That's going to be a great test in a preseason comp.

◆Kaki, Ishihara, Morikawa, Ozawa, Kitade･･･

—— You have picked lot of young rookies last season but are you thinking to use them again this year?

At the end of the day you try to pick your best fifteen. But to me the younger guys give you the energy. They can add the little bit of X-factor. Experience players will give you the calmness when you need it. I think getting the balance of those is really important. You need some youth and you need some senior and now we put it together and I think that is really important.

—— Which rookie players do you want to see more this year?

Last year we had kaki as our rookie member, he showed us real energy. Hatake is Japan's starting prop but he pulled him out, it was great. We've got this year Ishihara and this is his year to step up because Morikawa is sitting right behind him. His style is totally fits our style. In the hooking role, we have Ozawa played whole stage1, he is a young hooker and then Aoki who is the senior player. This year we also have Kitade who is another again fit Suntory rugby. I will call Tsuji a young lock because he needs to step up this year. Also we have Sone, Nishi, they've got a step up too.

9 is a difficult position as we have Fourie, Hiwasa and everything we are hearing about Hiwasa he is fitter than he's ever been and quicker than he's ever been. We want to play off the speed of the ball so it's really great for us. Then we have Nagare coming in and he was in Japan squad too.

Ryoto came through last year, so he's back but we didn't see much Taro last year with his injury. He's 10 at the moment but he can play 12. You have then Zuru in outside backs, he played most of the stage 1and 2 and missed out in Japan Cup but he will be better this year. Emi is brand new and stick him on the wing, he's got the ability. Hopefully he's going to become the best finishers in Japan. And we have Tsuka whose this is his 3rd year here, he had great first year and couple of injuries start of the last year but he has come back bigger and stronger. We also have Matsu, they are the players that we want them to push through and they need to be taking big steps and take on the new challenge.

◆Energy

—— What's the most important things for the young rookies to focus to get better every year?

It's hard to stay up the whole time with the young players and we see it in Super Rugby, Premiership Rugby in UK, it's hard for a young player to keep doing that. For example, we have Yasu (Veteran Player) who didn't play much rugby last year because Zuru was selected ahead of him. We gave Yasu a challenge so Yasu puts everything he got, he now plays high level because Zuru pushed him.

That's a beauty of having the rookies coming though they bring the energy into the group. We want to keep them up there as long as we can, but reality is there is fatigue and they do get mentally and physically tired, occasionally there is a drop. So for them too, we need to give the other players a chance and they perform well and the whole team is keeps going up.

So you want people to be answering the call, you want them to be taking on those challenges the whole way through. My job is also to minimize those drops. If they drop, we pick them up quickly and get them back to the right track.

—— I believe you have to really look the players closely?

Yes, hopefully we start to sense the physical or mental fatigue before it happens because you don't want to have the negative performance, you want to protect from that. So when I said before about supporting the player is the same thing.

◆This Team is Sungoliath

—— So obviously this year is a World Cup year and it's a unique year for every team, how do you think you can bring the team together to the peak level?

In Top league, you have to start good that's why this period is so important. We've got 10 players potentially away with the world cup. We want those players back but we might not get them back.

So that's why the effort and the energy of those young players are so important. Senior members are returning to the team so in my head, that's our team.

We don't know when South Africa is going to get knocked out, when Japan's going to get knocked out, and Samoa, we just don't know. In what state those players are coming back,,, just don't know. So we've got these boys to step up to that level and we are happy to play against Panasonic on the 13th of November.

—— I believe the Top league is now getting really competitive, which team do you think is your rival team at the moment?

Well, Panasonic is last year's Top league Champion and Yamaha won the Japan Cup title so they set the standard last year. They are the two teams that picture us against trying to challenge. And there are ongoing rivalry Fuchu neighbors, Toshiba.

But I believe every team plays with Suntory, the opposition will go to the new level so we need to go new level too. I think we were guilty last year playing really close games, how many games did we win in the last 5 mins by 2, 3, 4 points winning margin. We've got a win comfortably in those games.

So I'm happy about the start of this season, winning by 87 - 35 against Yakult. The game against Tokyo Gas was even better, 43 - 0 in half time but told them to smash in second half and scored 90 - 0. We've got stop playing at their level, we need to play in our level.

Our Theme for this season is "Tough". We've got be tough on opposition, tough on ourselves, but it's really important that we build that in.

◆Tough Choice

—— What is the meaning of the theme "TOUGH" ?

The word came from the players, there were lot of discussions and my belief is that the players have to buy in to what is we doing. That was the word they presented to us saying that's we want so I say fine, we've got a be a tough, you want to be Tough? We will make you Tough.

I then presented "Aggressive Attacking Rugby" to the players saying that this is the way we play. And I asked them "what's mean to you?" So they wrote down and we got some answers and comments from them. It's theirs, they own it. So if that's what it means to them, we have to make sure to do that.

We've presented a lot of things to the players last year, "this is what we going to do this year" like our theme "we want it back". So this year it's "we are thinking to do this but what you guys think?" and asked "what's that mean to you?" So it's a different approach this year.

They presented the word "TOUGH" earlier on. Then we presented the Aggressive Attacking Rugby and they've linked together. And one of the things for Aggressive Attacking Rugby is from the players "Tough Choice".

It is tough to get off the ground, it's tough to run that under line, and it's tough to run into the teeth of defence so actually the word blended really well.

It is tough to play the game and things that we leant from last year，we had some players who weren't tough last year. We gave them chance not to be tough. So I take that responsibility this year. It's really clear in my head, it is hard to play aggressive attacking rugby. It is not easy, you've got a take tough choice. You've got a have the fighting spirits. So that's we've got a train this year.

◆I really want to be playing that rugby

—— What was the most hardest things you have gone though in last year and what was the most pleasing things in the last year?

The hardest thing in last year was the realization in mid-season that the things we put in place led the confusion. Then we got trapped in there. Probably the big enjoyment thing was to see some of the young players to come through. We have used lot of rookies last year and we saw some good performance.

—— When I did an interview (Fan Club "SKAL" magazine) with you in mid-season last year, I felt that the team was in a difficult point of the season.

Yes that would be the time that everything we tried to put in place didn't work and I believe we haven't solved the problems at that time. We missed the key people which are our Japan members. We've tried new stuff in the first 12 weeks and played against Toyota and we went to Abashiri camp. All the Japan members came back at that time but we didn't spend anywhere near the time with the Japan members to explain the new things that we put in place. Like "Why we have them?" , "What is the purpose?" so we had one group doing this style and other group thinking this is different, That was our big disconnect.

So this year, right from the start, we made clear to the players saying that this is Aggressive Attacking Rugby. As for Japan members, you guys are not here but this is what we are going to do, you guys are not involved but we want to them to think "That's good, I've got a do that now" and I want them to feel "I want to be a part of that", I want the Japan members to come back and saying "I really want to be playing that rugby" but I've got a little bit of catch up to do and also young members need to catch up to that level too.

—— I deliberately ask this question but what is your goal this season?

Of course win. We can win the pre-season comp but I think we have to go to that attitude. And then go to the Top league and win that, and let's have a crack at the Japan Cup. We will get three titles.

(Translation : Nao Yoshimizu / Interviewer & Context : Kazuyoshi Hariya／Editor : Yutaro Igarashi)
[Photo : Aki Nagao]