OJO'S INSIDE LINE: Brain behind my experience (From Wiltshire Times)

OJO'S INSIDE LINE: Brain behind my experience

2:00pm Saturday 23rd June 2012 in Rugby

GETTING the chance to coach my local team is a really exciting opportunity and something that I’m looking forward to a lot.

It’s been something of an ironic week for me really, having the role at Trowbridge confirmed at around the same time as I attended the funeral of one of my coaching mentors.

There were a lot of people from the world of rugby at the funeral of Gloucester legend John Brain earlier this week and especially a lot of players, both past and present.

A lot of the stuff I’ve picked up through the years, especially in terms of coaching nous, came from John.

Nobody was more aware of the intricacies of forwards play than him and it was very sad to see his life cut so short at the age of just 51. He was definitely one of my inspirations in rugby and when it came to the really ‘dark arts’ of forward play, he was one of those guys who spent hours poring over the videos for more information.

A lot of the ideas that nowadays would seem commonplace in the game came from his input.

As for starting out at Trowbridge, Thursday July 3 is the key date when the players report back for pre-season training and I, for one, can’t wait for that moment.

It will be great to get to know some of the players, hear their ideas and their visions for where they want the club to go.

What with the behind-the-scenes moves being put in place, it’s clearly an exciting time to be joining the club.

Elsewhere in the world of rugby, we come to a pretty momentous weekend for the home nations in the southern hemisphere.

I don’t think anybody expected England or Ireland to win their series in South Africa and New Zealand respectively, but I think people felt at least one of them, or Wales, would win a Test match.

That hasn’t happened so far, although Ireland probably came the closest last week against New Zealand and it was a cruel late defeat for them.

I don’t expect them to win the third match, but the final margin will be interesting to see.

If England could win their third Test, it would count as some sort of moral victory, but the team that really needs one is Wales.

People felt they had the best chance of a series win in Australia, but now they are staring down the barrel of a 3-0 whitewash, which would be a bitter blow for them.

Send your thoughts and opinions on rugby to Steve via ohoulihan@newswilts.co.uk