PROFESSIONAL rugby can be an unrelentingly physical game, a contest in which two teams thump away at each other with little regard for subtlety or innovation. But it can also be enjoyable to play and entertaining to watch - as Edinburgh and their supporters are rediscovering.
After a final, fairly joyless campaign under Richard Cockerill, the capital club have been a revelation so far this season under new head coach Mike Blair, and go into Saturday’s home game against Cardiff just a point off the top of the URC after winning five and drawing one of their first seven league fixtures. They look like a squad who are happy in their work, and according to Magnus Bradbury, that all starts with Blair’s attitude to training.
The 26-year-old back-row forward is one of many squad members who has revealed himself as a far more versatile and rounded player over the past few months, and his fine recent form was recognised by Edinburgh’s supporters yesterday when they voted him the SBS Player of the Month for December. In some respects Bradbury’s strengths were suited to Cockerill’s game plan, and he continues to believe that the former coach got a lot of things right during his four years at the helm.
But he is also in no doubt that the players are in a better collective frame of mind thanks to the changes brought about by Blair, and he believes that the coach’s approach has helped the squad grow not only as rugby players but also as individuals.
“I’m happy with the way I’m playing, but it’s credit to the coaching staff as well,” Bradbury said. “The way things have changed has given boys like me more time with the ball in hand, and the way the game plan works, it’s a great place to play good attacking rugby. I’ve been thrilled with it.
“The training stuff is good. I wasn’t against the way Cockers did things in the past couple of years - I enjoyed going in and working hard, and we still do that. But there is more of a focus on fun this year, and that makes training something that me and the other boys can look forward to.
“It’s just little things, like for warm-ups we’ll play silly games that are good fun and everyone gets a laugh while getting you moving. The way Mike and the other coaches look at it is to get the best out of everyone you need to enjoy what you do. And so far, so good. It’s all worked out pretty well.
“Even in pre-season we were looking forward to training, even though we knew it was going to be brutal. That helped everyone.
“Mike’s door has always been very much open. He made the point as soon as he came in that for us to get better and grow we should speak to him and tell him if we felt there were things that could be done better or a change to the training schedule – things like that. It’s encouraging that he’s not just that way with senior players. Academy players are told to speak up and have their say as well.”
Scrum-half Ben Vellacott and full-back Emiliano Boffelli have been among the most obvious exemplars of Blair’s expansive style, but Bradbury is certain that he and his fellow-forwards are also beneficiaries of the coach’s policy of encouraging his squad to think on their feet and at times take the less obvious option.
“I feel that I’ve grown as a player,” he added. “Some of the stuff over the past couple of years has been quite one-dimensional: you’ve got a job written down and you do that job, and other people will do their jobs as well. Whereas now it’s a chance for me and the other back rows, with the system we’ve got, to play more and to carry in positions where we haven’t carried in the past couple of years.
“It’s just a different chance to develop, and there are different things we can develop. Not just myself, but so many guys are playing so much better, and playing some really good rugby. It just goes to show how effective that has been.”
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