DEANS GLAD TO HAVE GRAHAM AT THE FORCE
Monday, 17 May 2010 4:37pm
By Chris Pike
Richard Graham
Richard Graham
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans feels having Richard Graham with the Force will have some big benefits ahead of next month's games with Fiji, England and Ireland in the lead up to the Tri Nations.
Graham, who is on the Wallabies staff as skills coach, joined the Emirates Western Force this year as an assistant to John Mitchell and Deans feels that having him closely involved in the Investec Bank Super 14 competition will be hugely beneficial to the Wallabies and Graham himself.
"It was good to have a member of the staff involved actively and the game does evolve. He's exposed to it week to week, and he's working with some young blokes over here so it's good for them as well," Deans said.
"It's also very good for Richard. It's his first year in Super Rugby and it's given him another background of experience in the game after gaining some at Saracens. You find as coaches that every experience is good and he's probably had a couple of seasons worth of experience this year."
Graham is a former Queensland fullback and has been a good help to Force and Wallabies young star James O'Connor. While he has spent some time at flyhalf and inside centre, the majority of O'Connor's 2010 season has been in No. 15 and that's where Deans would like to keep him for now.
"We chose to introduce him at fullback mainly because of some of the physical realities. He is a young man and we didn’t want him exposed to that constant bashing in the front line because it's tough on the body," he said.
"He has a long career ahead of him, but he clearly has the capacity to play up there and has the enthusiasm. It's not as if he's afraid of the contact."
Deans is also looking to develop a more attacking side that now has versatility in the way it goes about things after having more depth among the four Super 14 franchises.
"You will see less conservatism, a lot more willingness to attack and we don’t want to come close, we want to come out winning. We will be prepared to take risks to achieve that," Deans said.
"You'll see a lot of variations in tactics, but the critical thing for us firstly is gathering our group. Once we are settled on our selection mix that will determine our scope in terms of how we approach what we do. With the amount of players available to us and what we are seeing in Super Rugby, we see a lot of scope in terms of how to play the game. We shouldn’t be restricted in how we approach it."
Deans is looking forward to the four Tests next month, including the June 12 Cook Cup clash with England at Subiaco Oval.
"With England coming out here that's our first major assignment really. We know the area pretty well and the venue, we also know the opponent and we are developing a really good tradition against England," he said.
"It's becoming not unlike the Ashes the Cook Cup and it's become an important contest for us. In recent years we've had some really tight tussles with them."
http://www.westernforce.com.au/news/.../section/50753
