Old dogs, new tricks?

The good news came through this week that Finland will NOT be relegated in the European Nations Cup (ENC) Division 2D. 

Why not? The first cause was Armenia, who were due to be relegated from Division 2B, but have now withdrawn from the competition entirely.  Secondly Bulgaria, who finished second in our Division, played and beat Hungary from the Division above in a promotion/relegation play-off, earning the Bulgarians promotion.  However, Armenia’s departure would have left Division 2C one team short, so both play-off teams will remain in the group. If all this seems complicated, you’re probably a forward.  Use this chart to help follow: http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/competition-1.htm

Which leaves us with Division 2D, our own division. Cyprus, deserving group winners, will be promoted automatically along with Bulgaria who we already mentioned.  Norway, who finished last in Division 2C, will join us due to automatic relegation and Bosnia & Herzegovina will gain promotion from Divison 3 as group winners.  Finland were originally due to switch places with Bosnia, but with both Cyprus and Bulgaria going up a division, that would have left Division 2D one nation short, so there we stay. Therefore in the next season we will compete against Norway, Bosnia and old enemies Greece and Luxembourg.  So what can we expect?

(photo by Rod McCracken - A second bite at the cherry? Finland will want to follow Divison 2D winners, Cyprus)
 

Norway finished bottom of their division but they went down fighting.  Like Finland they only took one win from eight games, beating Austria at home.  They also managed a home draw against Nordic rivals Denmark. Their biggest loss came from an away game against the Danes, losing 28-5, but in general their matches were close-run affairs with no signs of any embarassing scorelines.  We have not met our Nordic neighbours on the field since 2005, but the win record has not been good, having won just one game in eight, with an average points difference of 33 favouring the Norwegians. Finland will need to be on their guard, especially when we travel for the away game.

See the full results from Division 2C here: http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/group-5.htm

The Bosnians finished as convincing winners of Division 3, the lowest division in the ENC.  Known ironically as the ’Group of Doom’, it contained just 3 nations: Bosnia, Slovakia and Azerbijan.  Tragically Azerbijan forfeited both their games in 2011, leaving the remaining two countries with only one game to play. Bosnia cruised to three easy wins, averaging 44 points per game.  With some cruel irony, their closest match was a home win against Azerbijan.  Finland have played the Bosnians twice, winning once away in 2006 and scraping a 3-3 draw in Helsinki in 2008. What is clear is that Bosnia have discovered a try-scoring habit so they cannot be treated lightly. 

See the full results from Division 3 here: http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/group-37.htm

The Greeks are a bit like the French.  Surrender and economic jokes aside, it is because you cannot predict how they will play.  On the one hand they held Cyprus to their smallest win (a 13-33 home loss) and also smashed Bulgaria 47-7; but away from home they have lost to Luxembourg, Bulgaria and of course Finland (the memorable 11-7 win in Helsinki).  Finland must be aware of Greece’s ability to call on players from abroad and must be especially prepared for a tough battle in the away game, where the Greeks will almost certainly have a Trojan horse or two waiting.

Finally comes Luxembourg.  In recent years we have competed with them for the division’s ’wooden spoon’ but this time the men from the Grand Duchy (who play as a club in the Belgian and German leagues between internationals) ended well ahead.  If Finland is to make promotion a serious goal, our sights must be firmly set on winning both Luxembourg games.

See the full results from Division 2D here: http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/group-6.htm

This weekend sees plenty of domestic rugby, so let the competition for the National Team jerseys begin!  Ruck on!

Rucking On The Road

Long-distance travel goes with the rugby territory in Finland. Away matches can therefore be seen as challenging for any side.  Consider OYUS Rugby in Oulu: the Freetime Machos stars never have the luxury of a local game, travelling 288km to Kuopio, 319km to Vaasa and 339km to Jyväskylä.   Keep in mind that this must seem easy compared to the time of the film, where Turku and Oulu enjoyed a 648km journey for their match. More recently we saw teams setting off in the wee small hours to enjoy a fine day at the Tampere 7s, where the first game began at a very friendly 09:20.  With travel putting such a strain on performance we look at simple, but effective, ways of succeeding on the road.

Top tips for travelling:

1. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

Simple as it may sound, take 15 minutes to get your kit together the night before the game.  This becomes especially important when leaving early in the morning as last-minute packing will eat into your sleep time and add unnecessary stress on match day.  Perhaps more importantly, last-minute rush may cause you to forget something, leading to embarassing fines at the end of season party!  Linked to this is the need to get enough sleep.  Compensate for an early departure and give yourself good quality sleep rather to stealing a quick snooze in the car.

2. Put down that steak!

Red meat takes far longer to digest than white meat and fish. Consequently, if you wolf down a 400g of rump or a tasty double burger on Friday night, all that meaty goodness will still be sitting in your gut come kick-off time.  This means your body is not only diverting energy towards digestion, but you are also dragging around extra weight.  Instead, opt for a pre-match meals based on quicker digesting carbs (pasta etc) with chicken or fish for your protein.

3. Hey, Waterboy!

Hydration is not just something to think about during the game – it starts from the moment you wake up and even the day before.  Away games often mean hours in a car, but this can also be a great time to get the fluids in – take 2-3 litres of water with you and continually take small sips to keep hydration levels high.

(photo by Rod McCracken - Hydration should begin well before the match)

4. Keep it simple!

Some people have their match day rituals but the general concesus is that sticking with normal routine is the best way to prepare. If you have a regular breakfast on other days, current thinking says that sticking close to that is the safest strategy, with the caveat that fry-ups are not included!

5. The painful truth.....

We’ll tell you straight: if you want to play to your full potential, having some beers on the Friday night is a terrible.  All you will do is increase the dehydration, making it even harder to climb back to your best before kick-off.  Save the partying until after the match.

Removing the thorn from the lion's paw

If domestic rugby is making such great improvements, this begs an obvious question: why is the nation getting relegated?

The answer, as you would expect, is far from simple. When I first started sticking my nose into national rugby here, I did so hastily and naively after hearing multiple accounts of poor treatment of players and bias in the selection process. Fortunately for me the management chose to deal with me patiently rather than brush me aside, so over the last eight months I have been able to develop my own view of how it all works. So what have I found?

In professional sports the fans are always quick to hold the coach/manager responsible for the players’ shortcomings – something I have always despised. Having watched and worked with the NT coach on several occasions now, I have nothing but respect for him.  His knowledge of drills and tactics is invaluable to the players he commands. At my first NT camp, the coach sat the attendees down and outlined a simple but clearly-defined game plan and unanimous support was voiced by the players. To my knowledge that plan has never changed, yet since that time I cannot recall seeing it implemented on the field during a match. Once Finland get on the field, something in the collective player psyche switches off and all tactics become a distant memory.

Sounding familiar? It should do. When I arrived at my club I was staggered at the lack of communication and team play, despite much of the squad having played together for years. 18 months on and we are still trying to iron out these same problems, but the transformation has been unmistakeable. How was this achieved? By knowing in advance roughly what the squad composition would be and drilling them again and again as a team until they fully understood what to do and when.

(photo by Rod Mcracken - Bruised: the NT thank the crowd in Turku after a bitter loss to Bulgaria in May)

The difficulty is transferring this method to Finland’s national team. A clear problem is the lack of training time Finland’s NT gets as an actual squad. Recent camps have been open-invitational (meaning that clubs had wider discretion to nominate potential players, rather than the NT selectors having the final say) and it must be said that both camps were resounding successes. However, when one compares the list of players at the latest camps with the squad lists for the last two NT matches, you will notice some oddities: several players were drafted directly into the squad despite not having been at camps. Again, some could (and have) cried foul play in the selection process, and on some level it does seem wrong. Two things need to be carefully considered here. 

Firstly, the coach has and will always do his best to pick what he feels is a match-winning side. If he picks players from abroad or who could not make it to camps, I think we can safely say it not to spite domestic contenders.  It would have been damaging, if not dangerous, to select under-seasoned players to play against a team like Cyprus. Unfortunately this still leaves the problem that we are selecting a XV where some of the squad have had no training time with their teammates before the game. Therefore the first step to Finland's comeback must be the management making the rigid decision to make camps exclusively about training match squads – forget ‘open’ camps! Camps should be for drilling a preset team for the next match, not giving unsuitable players a fun experience. To keep numbers up both a match 22 and a development 22 should be invited, creating the opportunity for a training match.

(photo by Rod McCracken - Glimmers of hope: Finland drew first blood against group winners Cyprus)

The other consideration is somewhat delicate as it breaches the political side of Finnish rugby: Finland is brimming with talented players, so why are they not coming forward? The single biggest obstacle to NT progress is the lingering presence of past grudges on BOTH sides. If anything positive is to come from relegation, it must be that it is seen as a fresh start all-round. It is unfair to say that the NT is the old boys’ club that some claim it to be. I was delighted to see two Tampere locks make their debuts recently. After Tampere took 7 wins from 8 games last year it was only right that they be well-represented. Another 5 players gained their first cap against Cyprus recently. The time is now: Finland will have opportunities to build momentum against weaker opponents in Division 3, but we also have the chance to build a new squad, one that can grow together now and continue on when promotion is won.

With the whole season ahead of us free of NT games this is the time for all players, Championship and Division 1, to stake a claim. Open-mindedness is the key to future success: if the players commit and make an effort to work alongside each other, then it will be a team (not 22 individuals) that emerges to carry the flag forward for Finnish rugby.

Keep on rucking in the free world!  Hyvää Juhannusta kaikille!

The ball's gone dead - restart!

First up, a quick look at what the new season has in store in the aftermath of the National Team's campaign.

 

So that’s it. Another cycle of the European Nations Cup has come to an end and the result is that Finland will drop down to Division 3, leaving Suomi at the bottom of the IRB rankings. Of the 8 ENC matches played since the cycle started in 2010, we took just one win – the memorable victory over Greece in Helsinki last June. Many will dwell on the near misses, particularly both matches against the Bulgarians, and to the casual observer it would seem that Finnish rugby has now hit rock bottom. Maybe not.

I have had the privilege of being involved in Finnish rugby for around 18 months now; a mere instant compared to some guys on the domestic scene, but long enough to notice the rapid evolution. The 2011 season has been described by many as the most exciting and competitive season in the history of Finnish rugby. In contrast to previous seasons, it was a competition where no team could be called an easy match, with every club earning at least one victory. Not one match was forfeited and there was no sign of the 50-point walkovers that had been abundant in the past.

The offseason was a time of expansion with Division 1 (previously the Finnish Cup) making big progress. Thanks to the work of some truly dedicated individuals in each club, rugby is gaining serious momentum in the Land of 1,000 Lakes – so much so that new sub-divisions have had to be created to accommodate all the teams! 2012 sees the arrival of brand new clubs including Pori, Kotka, Porvoo, Joensuu and Hämeenlinna. Pori and Rauma have so many players this year that they all but bit my head off when I informed them that 15s would be unlikely in our Division 1 tournaments! Turku Eagles and Jyväskylä are also fielding Division 1 teams for the first time which reflects the success of well-placed advertising and friendly badgering.

Ladies rugby is certainly not just an afterthought either, with Pori and Helsinki now providing a great opportunity for more women to get involved in our sport. Finland’s ladies have battled admirably on the international circuit and the arrival of new players can do nothing but strengthen their future prospects.

 

(photo by Rod McCracken: Eagles' centre Pieter Le Roux takes down Warriors' Erik Pekkola) 

The SM-sarja has kicked off in revolutionary fashion, with Eagles taking their first win since 2004 over the reigning champions of the past 4 years, Helsinki Warriors, which will surely put other teams on alert. Tampere also started strongly against Jyväskylä in tough weather conditions to reaffirm their status as contenders. Helsinki Rugby Club's 2nd XV have won consecutive rounds of Division 1 East, while in the Western Division Rauma continued their dominant form, overcoming impressive newcomers Pori as well as Eagles' 2nd team. Finally in the Northern Division Jyväskylä's 2nd team and Oulu have both claimed victories so far.  With the first Helsinki SM derby coming up on 30^th June, the 2012 competition promises to be a thriller!

(photo by Rod McCracken: newcomers Pori made an impressive entrance to Finnish rugby)