Brumbies expected to spill blood at training
Laurie Fisher wants more mongrel in the ACT Brumbies forward pack and has urged his players to be more aggressive towards each other to prepare for the Super Rugby season.
Although most coaches shy away from having teammates belt each other at training, Fisher believes fierce rivalries and occasional scuffles will boost the Brumbies' chances of on-field success next year.
It's a philosophy he developed during his stint as the Munster forwards coach in Ireland over the past three years.
Training sessions would rarely go by without players turning on each other and punches being exchanged on the field.
It sounds like a toxic recipe for in-fighting. But Fisher wants to bring the same ruthless attitude to Canberra and warned his players to expect to spill blood in ruck and maul sessions despite being three mouths out from the first game of the season.
''[At Munster] they were disappointed if two blokes didn't come to blows by the end of the training,'' Fisher said.
''I don't think [that attitude] is here naturally, it's something we have to build.
''It's not that the guys here shy away from it, but it's not something they've been consistently asked to produce at training.
''We had a maul session last Friday which was probably 80-90per cent and we'll have a genuine crack [today] ... I'll be expecting people not to hold anything back.''
Fisher is attempting to reinvigorate the Brumbies forward pack after it was left battered and bruised last season. The team lacked a physical presence at the breakdown and it was a major contributor to the Brumbies' dismal results.
Fisher was the Brumbies' head coach for three years before joining Munster at the end of 2008.
Now he has returned as Jake White's forwards coach and been given the task of turning an inexperienced pack into one capable of matching the most dominant teams in the competition.
One of the Brumbies recruits who could get a chance to prove himself in the forward pack is Scott Sio, who admits making the transition to his first professional contract has been tougher than he expected.
Australian under-20s prop Sio is the second youngest player in the Brumbies squad.
He was added to the five-man extended player squad because he has the ability to play tight-head and loose-head prop as well as hooker.
The 116kg, 20-year-old said he was trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible so ''I can impress the coaches when I get my chance''.
''I've learned a lot of the little technical subtleties ... just with my versatility making sure I learn different manoeuvres in the scrum,'' Sio said.
''Laurie has come back and really hit us hard with a lot of breakdown and set-piece stuff we need to know.
''In Ireland they grow up with that aggression, here we're a bit more athletic and the stuff we're doing is building that aggression up and it's becoming more natural.''
Page 2 of 3Laurie Fisher wants more mongrel in the ACT Brumbies forward pack and has urged his players to be more aggressive towards each other to prepare for the Super Rugby season.
Although most coaches shy away from having teammates belt each other at training, Fisher believes fierce rivalries and occasional scuffles will boost the Brumbies' chances of on-field success next year.
It's a philosophy he developed during his stint as the Munster forwards coach in Ireland over the past three years.
Training sessions would rarely go by without players turning on each other and punches being exchanged on the field.
It sounds like a toxic recipe for in-fighting. But Fisher wants to bring the same ruthless attitude to Canberra and warned his players to expect to spill blood in ruck and maul sessions despite being three mouths out from the first game of the season.
''[At Munster] they were disappointed if two blokes didn't come to blows by the end of the training,'' Fisher said.
''I don't think [that attitude] is here naturally, it's something we have to build.
''It's not that the guys here shy away from it, but it's not something they've been consistently asked to produce at training.
''We had a maul session last Friday which was probably 80-90per cent and we'll have a genuine crack [today] ... I'll be expecting people not to hold anything back.''
Fisher is attempting to reinvigorate the Brumbies forward pack after it was left battered and bruised last season. The team lacked a physical presence at the breakdown and it was a major contributor to the Brumbies' dismal results.
Fisher was the Brumbies' head coach for three years before joining Munster at the end of 2008.
Now he has returned as Jake White's forwards coach and been given the task of turning an inexperienced pack into one capable of matching the most dominant teams in the competition.
One of the Brumbies recruits who could get a chance to prove himself in the forward pack is Scott Sio, who admits making the transition to his first professional contract has been tougher than he expected.
Page 3 of 3
Australian under-20s prop Sio is the second youngest player in the Brumbies squad.
He was added to the five-man extended player squad because he has the ability to play tight-head and loose-head prop as well as hooker.
The 116kg, 20-year-old said he was trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible so ''I can impress the coaches when I get my chance''.
''I've learned a lot of the little technical subtleties ... just with my versatility making sure I learn different manoeuvres in the scrum,'' Sio said.
''Laurie has come back and really hit us hard with a lot of breakdown and set-piece stuff we need to know.
''In Ireland they grow up with that aggression, here we're a bit more athletic and the stuff we're doing is building that aggression up and it's becoming more natural.''
