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John Afoa to move into coaching role with Bristol
By Ciarán Kennedy
Bristol Bears have announced that John Afoa will become the club's new scrum coach. Afoa, 37, will take over from Alasdair Dickinson ahead of the 2021/22 season and will carry out the role alongside his playing commitments.
Afoa recently signed a new one-year extension to his playing contract with the club.
Director of Rugby Pat Lam said: "Jonny has been planning and preparing for a few years to transition into coaching so I’m very pleased to add Jonny to our Coaching Team from next season."
"I first worked with Jonny back in 2004 and after playing over 450 first class games in both hemispheres, it’s fair to say he is hugely knowledgeable about the scrum and all its fine arts.
"Jonny is a massive leader, mentor and player for the Bears, and he has played a big part in driving our culture and performance on and off the field.
"He has the utmost respect from the players and management alike and I believe he will be an excellent addition to the coaching team and he’ll continue to add real value on and off the pitch.
"A big part of our culture is about growing our people from within. Jonny becomes the fourth member of our playing Leadership Group over the last four seasons to join the Management Team, following Nick Fenton-Wells as our Team Manager, Sam Jeffries as our Professional Development Manager and Jordan Crane as our Senior Transition Coach."
Afoa added: "This is an exciting step for me personally and I’m grateful to Pat for the opportunity. There’s a significant responsibility and it’s one that I’m relishing alongside representing the Bears on the field.
"We’ve developed a good reputation with our scrum so the impetus is on me to build on that and work with the guys to continue our growth in that area."
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I’ve seen an improvement in both.
Go to commentsFrance using the 7-1, England using the 6-2, Ireland and Scotland have used it a few times as well and many nations are starting to adopt it. The reality is the game is changing. Administrators have made it faster and that is leading to more significant drop offs in the forwards. You have 2 options. Load your bench with forwards or alter your player conditioning which might mean more intense conditioning for forwards and a drop off in bulk. The game can still be played many ways. Every nation needs to adapt in their own way to suit their strengths. France have followed the Springbok model of tight forwards being preferred because it suits them. They have huge hunks of meat and the bench is as good as the starters so why not go for it? The Springboks have also used hybrids like Kwagga Smith, Schalk Britz, Deon Fourie, Franco Mostert and others. England are following that model instead and by putting 3 loosies there who can do damage in defence and make the breakdown a mess in the final quarter. It worked well against Wales but will be interested to see how it goes going forward against better opposition who can threaten their lineout and scrum. All the talk around bench limitations to stop the 7-1 and 6-2 for me is nonsense. Coaches who refuse to innovate want to keep the game the same and make it uniform and sameness is bad for fans. The bench composition adds jeopardy and is a huge debate point for fans who love it. Bench innovations have not made the game worse, they have made it better and more watchable. They challenge coaches and teams and that’s what fans want. What we need now is more coaches to innovate. There is still space for the 5-3 or even a 4-4 if a coach is willing to take it on and play expansive high tempo possession-based rugby with forwards who are lean and mean and backs who are good over the ball. The laws favour that style more than ever before. Ireland are too old to do it now. Every team needs to innovate to best suit their style and players so I hope coaches and pundits stop moaning about forwards and benches and start to find different ways to win.
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