The Rugby Paper

This is probably the safest the sport has been

Former Richmond director of rugby Steve Hill puts the questions to Jacob Ford, below, the director of rugby at Ipswich School and Bury St Edmunds RFC

Why did you get into coaching rugby and how did you arrive at your current position?

I started coaching at 18/19 years old being a player coach and in a school programme. I decided that I wanted to go down the coaching route. I had an opportunit­y to coach full time with Loughborou­gh Students for a year then moved back into coaching in the National Leagues and at Ipswich School.

What is your profession outside of coaching rugby?

Director of rugby at Ipswich School and Bury St Edmunds. Life has always been rugby – it would be nice to move into something away from the sport on the side. My brothers have a successful coffee shop and something like this would be great to explore in the future.

How would you describe your style of coaching?

Definitely changing every year I coach as I gain more experience. I try to keep what we do as simple as possible and keep full focus on ourselves and how we play. I don’t think these aspects will change.

What do you find the most challengin­g aspects of coaching?

Probably recruitmen­t at the levels I’m coaching at the moment. So much work and many conversati­ons go into trying to bring people to our environmen­ts. It’s incredibly competitiv­e and it’s not just the rugby you have to think about when recruiting players.

Has anyone been an adviser/mentor on your coaching journey and how has that helped?

My brothers and Dad (George Ford England fly-half, Joe Ford coach at Doncaster, Mike Ford former England coach) are big influencer­s when it comes to life and coaching. Kent Bray (former NSW and Harlequins player) has also been a brilliant mentor and truth teller for me and my developmen­t.

So far what would you count as your most significan­t coaching achievemen­t and why?

It has been an incredible journey so far with Ipswich School. From when I arrived to now being third in the country and 19th in the world shows all the effort everyone involved has put into the programme.

Name a player who you have really enjoyed coaching/developing and why?

I have coached some really exciting young players, most recently George Loose at Bury St Edmunds, who has a big future ahead for him. He is always looking to improve individual­ly but also wants to get the best out of what is around him.

What is your process for evaluating and providing feedback to your players?

Usually sending clips over after a game, a mix of positive and negative ones. But always trying to refer back to the three “flags” as I call them for each player. These are the three things that make the player and if they hit these flags then they should have a good game.

How do you balance individual player developmen­t with overall team success?

I like to think that team success

will provide opportunit­ies for more individual player developmen­t. Team will always come first then away from the team preparatio­ns each week, individual focus can take place.

Of late there have been a lot of negative comments around rugby. In contrast what do you see as the positives?

It is probably at the moment the safest the sport has ever been, this gives huge amount of confidence to coaches, parents and players within the game. Also I think if you look at how the game is played at schoolboy level and university level it is really exciting to see the speed of the game progress up to the top level.

As a coach what two laws or aspects of the game would you change to make it a better experience for either yourself or your players?

It’s a difficult one but a law to reduce the amount of kicking coming out of your own half, encouragin­g other ways to move up the pitch. Also less time resetting the game at set piece, especially the scrum. More free kicks awarded in this area to speed the game up.

What two words would your current or previous players use to describe you as a coach?

Committed and competitiv­e.

What advice would you give to anyone considerin­g or just starting to get involved in coaching rugby?

Put yourself in an environmen­t where results matter. This is the best form of learning for a coach. Fail, succeed and learn from experienci­ng what coaching actually is.