Former England and current Stade Français defence coach recently offered his expertise to National Two West side Camborne as pre-season preparations begin to ramp up. (Photo Credit: Steve Mock)

With pre-season underway across National League Rugby, clubs have been uploading pictures and videos to social media of players being put through their paces.

Teams are beginning to get into shape ahead of the 2024/25 campaign and avid followers of National One and National Two may have been drawn to an interested observer at Camborne.

At the start of the month, the National Two West club posted an image of players returning to training, listening intently to some on-field instructions.

But rather than the detail being delivered by Director of Rugby Steve Larkins, on this occasion, it was the familiar face of Paul Gustard explaining drills to the Cherry and Whites.

Gustard, the current defence coach at Stade Français, was invited to Crane Park by longstanding friend Tony Chapman, CEO of CLX Professionals, the club’s major sponsor.

“I love coaching, I love interacting with people,” Gustard tells National League Rugby. “Helping people is a primary driver for me in life and I think our responsibility for people, let’s say, at the higher end of the game, is to make sure we pass on the experiences we have to try and help others.

“I was going down to Cornwall for a holiday and Tony asked whether I’d mind going to help Camborne and share some information.

“My actual enjoyment of it was fantastic. One thing you want as a coach is you want feedback from the players and effort from the players. I found the group, the coaching group with Steve, Josh [Matavesi], Tom [Kessell], with Chris Fuca, the whole group very receptive.

“Good, driven mindsets, wanted to listen, wanted to learn, wanted to see how things are done. The coaches gave me guidelines of what they wanted but also gave me space and freedom to see an alternative way of how they could do things.

“I am not always right. If I write a six in front of you and I am at the opposite side of the table, you see a nine and I see a six. We’re both right. We are both seeing the same thing but our lens is different and that is what I wanted to bring to Camborne.”

Having a fresh perspective on Camborne’s approach will undoubtedly have been useful for the Cornwall outfit, with Gustard’s input designed to improve the club’s defence.

In 2023/24, apart from the relegated pair of Dudley Kingswinford and Newport (Salop), no other club in National Two West conceded more points than Camborne.

Granted, a major factor in that was their 109-0 loss to champions Dings Crusaders on the final day of last season but for a team who finished in the top six, Gustard – and the Camborne coaching staff – are aware of the need to restrict their opposition more effectively.

“Wherever you are across the course of a season, generally defence is a key indicator of success,” says Gustard, referencing the fact that the top six teams in the Top 14 – including his very own Stade Français – had the best defensive records last term.

“Conceding nearly 1,000 points [Camborne conceded 904] isn’t going to get you to where you want to be and I think the goal for Camborne, the energy they have got behind the team on and off the field, is to keep pushing forward and try to move up the leagues as much as they can.”

Across the course of the week Gustard was with Camborne, he oversaw three 1st XV sessions – as well as coaching the Ladies’ team – before they concluded with a touch rugby tournament.

“I carved up in that! Gustard laughs. “I scored tries galore! I was running a bit of a hard line off nine and threw a couple of floaty passes off the top but I think I did well!”

Instead of delving deeper into “the hard running lines” of the former Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Saracens flanker, we swiftly bring it back to the core of Gustard’s sessions and the idea of how Camborne can elevate their learnings.

“Specifically on the field, Camborne are looking to have a more aggressive defence so we worked on tackle technique,” Gustard explains. “We worked on the principles of our defensive system. We worked on being a bit more aggressive in terms of getting off the line harder and putting teams under pressure.

“For that then, it was about looking at how can we create a system. So you’re looking at fold policy, looking at what is left on the short side, how many people go around the corner, you look at spacing and so on.

“Camborne identified it and one thing we spoke about was probably the allocation of time. It is great I can go down while I am in the area and it is great they want to use me, but now they have got to utilise that and utilise some of the principles of coaching pedagogy in terms of if we do attack for 40 minutes, we might have to do defence for 25/30 minutes.

“They are a team that likes to play but unless they sure up the other side of the ball, then they are never going to get where they want to get to.”

The meticulous detail of Gustard, who worked with England’s defence during their record-equalling run of 18 consecutive Test wins between 2016 and 2017, underpins our conversation.

And included in this are his interesting methods of “getting his point across.”

During his time at Saracens, Gustard brought animals into training such as wolves and a snake to outline what he wanted to see from his defence.

The way of modifying his messaging to suit certain situations is a fascinating one but it is also backed up by his results with England, as well as at club level with Sarries and now Stade Français.

So did Gustard put anything creative into practice at Camborne?

“No not his time,” Gustard laughs. “Maybe they’ll have to bring in something that can bring their story to life – maybe like a surfboard or something!

“I have tried different things and the idea is to try and illustrate things and bring them to life.

“I had a magician come in and cut someone in half to demonstrate being sawed in half when I was with England before we played Italy. I wanted to use the acronym of S.W.O.R.D but because I am from Newcastle, I don’t know how to spell sword right so I went with S.A.W.E.D.

“S was like speed off the line, A was aggression, W was work-rate off the ball etc.

“I think we ended up having to put the analyst in the box to be chopped in half because we were worried about putting someone like Anthony Watson in and him getting chopped in half!

“It was a surprise to the players but something that I have learnt as a coach – and I am not saying this is right – but our brain works best with pictures.

“If I think back to the best moment in my life, my wedding day. I can’t remember the date (genuinely!) but I remember my wife Laura walking down the aisle with her sister behind her and my baby.

“I think our brain works better in pictures rather than dates so what I think with coaching is the more that we can use imagery and storytelling, the more likely that the anchorage of the points you need to learn are going to resonate and stick in your mind.

“One thing I always try to do in coaching is how can I keep bringing things to life and how do players remember what I’ve said? If I always stand in front of a room and I talk about staying square or watch the ball or back fold cover, it gets pretty normalised and pretty mundane.

“We know for anchorage, music, humour, some sort of activity is important. I tried to bring that to Camborne with a couple of video presentations I did just to try and give them a flavour of something different and also to bring to life some of the things we spoke about in the week with Josh [Matavesi] (player/defence coach) and the coaching team.”

Who knows, these innovative methods may be implemented by Matavesi and Camborne across the 2024/25 season along with some potential new attacking strategies.

Like Gustard, England Under-20s boss Mark Mapletoft is a friend of Chapman’s and his knowledge will be integrated into the work being done by Tom Kessell [backs coach] as Camborne look to evolve their game plan.

Last Friday, Mapletoft guided England to the U20 World Championship title after they beat France 21-13 in South Africa.

The England squad contained an array of talent, with a vast number of players experiencing National One and National Two to varying degrees during the 2023/24 season.

Having represented Blaydon for three years before stepping up to the Premiership – as well as working with affiliate clubs across his time at Saracens – Gustard more than understands the role National League Rugby plays in the eco-system of the English game.

“I’ve worn the same shoes as some of the boys before and one of the most important things to do is play,” Gustards says.

“You leave school and you were probably, if you were in an academy somewhere, one of the best handful of players in your local area and in your age group. You then get offered an academy contract but what often happens is you are never really given information that is like ‘no’.

“It can be like ‘you’re so good at this’ or ‘you do this so well’ so actually, you need to go somewhere where there is some setback and failure because that is going to assist with growth.

“Secondly, playing 18-year-olds against 18-year-olds is different to playing an 18-year-old against a 29-year-old that has been around the block. There is a huge growth thing in that.

“These clubs play a fundamental role in the development of a lot of the players that have played a high level of rugby. Maro Itoje played at Old Albanian for example and you can’t underestimate that.

“The other thing is there is an earthiness, there is a quality around human development of mixing with people of different ages and different backgrounds where you are not so sheltered in a perfect rugby bubble. I think it really broadens the mind.

“The very final thing is that these levels of rugby are just f****** good fun. You actually get to try things on the field that you might not be able to at elite level. Some of the stories, the different shapes and sizes of athletes, the coach journeys, the beers after training, it all adds to the experience.

“I think people involved in National League Rugby and community rugby who give back to help all of these players develop is such a wonderful asset to their growth.”

Gustard is now gearing up for his third season at Stade Français, with the Parisian club aiming to build on last year’s second-place finish and semi-final appearance in the Top 14.

The 48-year-old hopes he can return to Camborne during the 2024/25 campaign having visited Crane Park last term for the club’s derby day meeting with Redruth. “I hope they have another Cornish pasty waiting for me!”

Undoubtedly Gustard loves coaching and helping others, and his expertise will surely be maximised by Camborne with the new season rapidly coming into view.

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