Should the Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby team improve their away record this year a thank you email to Aussie league guru Wayne Bennett will be a must for head coach Craig Philpott.
Last year the Magpies won just one of their six away games, the August 30 Ranfurly Shield challengeagainst Counties-Manukau. The treatment of home and away games was one of the major focus points for Philpott when he joined fellow ITM Cup coaches Scott Robertson of Canterbury and Brad Mooar of Southland for a week-long visit to Bennett and his Broncos club in Brisbane.
"Wayne knew about the history of the Ranfurly Shield and agreed we had a challenge when it came to looking after it as well as trying to win away games. We'll see if his suggestions work," Philpott said on his return home yesterday.
New Zealand Rugby Union's high performance director, former international cricketer Bruce Blair, organised the visit which was a first for ITM Cup coaches. Other topics included review and preview processes and the degree of player and coach direction with these, the developing of on and off field leadership by playmakers during the week leading up to a game and training structures including the extent of full contact sessions and what stage of the week these are used.
Bennett, 65, has coached teams in more than 700 NRL games. In addition to the Broncos, he has coached St George Illawara and Newcastle.
"While he has high-quality assistants in Kiwis coach Stephen Kearney and former Bronco and Kangaroo Kevin Walters, Wayne very much runs the show," Philpott said.
"Wayne has a young roster and a three-year plan. He knows he isn't going to win the championship this year but will be looking for improved performances next year with the aim of nailing it in 2017."
Philpott had a lengthy one-on-one session with Bennett who said a lot of the systems used in the Bay were done well. Bennett may introduce some of Philpott's methods to the Broncos.
Mooar, Philpott and Robertson saw the Broncos 44-22 win against the Cowboys on Friday night in Brisbane. They attended Bennett's pre-game, halftime and post-game team talks.
Philpott was impressed with how the players coped with the 80 per cent humidity and temperatures which reached 30C during the game played in front of 40,000 spectators.
He was equally as impressed with the $27 million worth of facilities at the club's complex.
