bearing in mind that this is the opinion of an old loosehead prop imho the attributes required of a good centre are skills, strength and conditioning, and perhaps most importantly rugby intelligenceFlash Gordon wrote:Very true. That's the result of having had 2 of the greatest Irish centers in history occupying the spot for a decade! Losing Isa's versatility is a huge issue.mildlyinterested wrote:Macken would be an upgrade on Daly for sure, Reid too IMO.Fireworks wrote:Macken may or may not be the answer but there is a question over our centre cover in next seasons squad. There does appear to be some potential coming through but I would like to see an older more experienced head in there to help guide the ship.
The academys record of developing centres, outside of Ringrose, is not great.
S&C - relatively straightforward - eat and lift what your S&C coach tells you too and run the number of laps/sprints etc., outlined in your program
Skills - again relatively straightforward, drills and drills and drills whether designed by your skills coach, yourself or a mixture of both
Rugby intelligence - this is the difficult piece of the puzzle. So, for example, I remember reading a piece by Drico where he mentioned that during drills Ringer could just see how an attack was working and where and when to defend, also remembering how Drico and D'arce worked in tandem they just seemed to know where and when to do what - is this just experience and hard work, or is it an intuitive understanding of how the game works and all of that good stuff?
