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Phil Davies' Namibian plan to bolster Yorkshire's Championship survival bid
By Chris Jones
Former Namibian coach Phil Davies is set to ask key members of the African nation’s Test team to help him save Yorkshire Carnegie from another damaging relegation.
The former Premiership outfit are adrift at the bottom of the English Championship having hit serious financial problems that have left the club with a light-weight squad.
Having coached Namibia at the 2019 World Cup in Japan before taking up his new role as directors of rugby in Leeds, Davies is ready to look to his old African stomping ground to try and boost Carnegie’s survival bid.
“I can see us bringing in two or three from Namibia,” said Davies to RugbyPass. “We have a young squad and we need more depth and a specific skill set that is needed to keep us pushing forward.
“We have a small budget but maybe a few of the Namibian boys who went to the World Cup with me will come in.
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“Those guys would be good and it’s trying to find other guys actually who I’ve worked with and who understand the way we need to play so they can fit in quite seamlessly.
“We want to get to 30, 32 players so we can really start fighting. I can’t see us bringing in more than four, but we have to build the skills and confidence of the players here over the next few months.
“Every match for us is a cup final and we have to make sure we create a plan that gives this club a sustainable future because there is a lot of history over the last 20 years and we want to build on that. We have to do this in building blocks to get to where we want to be.”
Davies, who won the 2005 Powergen Cup when he was previously in charge of the club when it was known as Leeds Tykes, added: “I haven’t got a magic wand, but the attitude of the players and board has been great.”
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
Go to comments