Army Senior Men interim Head Coach, Lt Col Tim Osman, says that positive and proactive management of the players this week will be important if the team is to retain the Inter Service Championship at Twickenham this Saturday.
The Army may be the reigning champions, but they will be running out at the end of a campaign which has blooded some 11 new players into representing the red shirts at a senior level in a capped game.
And despite having beaten both the French Army and Royal Air Force in their capped games so far, the newness of the team poses a different challenge for Lt Col Osman and the staff as they prepare the group to run out at the home of England rugby.
“From our perspective we’ve got to get the mentality right,” he says. “It’s a unique occasion for a lot of the guys who haven’t played in front of 50, 60 thousand people, and we’re a new team. We’ve talked a lot about that over the last month, we’re conscious of it, and will do everything we can to not have it impinge on our performance.
“Different things, stimuli and nerves affect people in different ways. We’re trying to combat that and treat it as normally as we can. If we get that right and the performance right then hopefully the result will follow.”
Relatively inexperienced the red shirts may be, but they will nevertheless be taking on the Royal Navy on the back of one of the performances of the season at Kingsholm, where the RAF was seen off 48-17.
The difference between the teams was especially marked in the second half, where a two-point lead at the break became a 31-point margin come the final whistle.
“We were very pleased, clearly, with the result,” Lt Col adds. “It’s always a fairly nervy week, and across the team you want to try and perform.
“It was a bit of a generic Inter-Services game where the teams were both a bit nervy and testing each other out. There were a few mistakes and penalties in the first half, so when we remedied and tweaked a few things at half-time the players got into their stride, and I thought we could see what the team can do when the ball gets going forward, our ball carrying comes into play and our offload game comes into play.
“It was pleasing to get the tries in the second half and overall a pretty pleasing day. We could see where we were at; we know what we should be able to do and what we’re trying to do, and it was good to put those processes into place.”
The past fortnight has posed a unique problem for Lt Col Osman, namely balancing the needs of his day-to-day Army role during the Coronation build-up and preparing the team for its biggest rugby occasion of the year.
“It’s the day job!” he says. “It’s needed a juggle between things in camp with the squad and the needs of the day job. It’s been tiring, but we got there.
“The management team has worked hard, the S&C team stayed on top of the boys, and we went down to watch the Navy in their game against Taunton. The medical team have been working on their injury list and rehab, and everyone’s been carrying on in the background while they’ve been back at their home bases.”
It may have been a month since the Army’s last game, but the players have still been kept busy.
“We had a three-day camp which was really good, focusing on S&C,” says Lt Col Osman. “We had a good day out at ATR Winchester, where we were really well looked after on their high wire and did some strength and skill sessions with Gareth Slade-Jones, who put the boys through their paces.
“We had a day at Harlequins as well, doing some training with them.
“I’ve said all the way while I’ve had the privilege of being involved, if you get the environment right and the culture in the group right, where it’s not players, coaches and staff, the starting 15 or the 23, it’s all one team. It’s fundamentally important. We’re all one group together. If we get that right then the team is better and the performance is better.”
The end of every season sees familiar faces leave, and this year is no exception, not least among the management group. Saturday’s game marks the last as Director of Senior Men’s Rugby for Col Sandy Fitzpatrick MBE (Late Scots), and Lt Col Osman paid tribute to his work over the last few years, not least in steering the Men’s programme out of the pandemic.
“His involvement throughout the years, with the Masters team and through many of his Units and Regiments before that, Sandy has been a stalwart of Army rugby,” the Head Coach says. “We’re sorry to see him go, and he’ll take away a lot of experience and knowledge about what it takes to get players delivering in the red shirt on the field.
“People probably don’t realise the amount of hard work that goes on behind closed doors in his own time. He’s been phenomenal in delivering and the results speak for themselves. We’re very much intending to see him off in a good light with a good performance.”
Words © New Dogs, Old Tricks
Header and featured image – Alligin Photography © Cat Goryn
