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Former league star Phil Blake is on a mission to plug the leaky defence
- Wayne Smith
- From: The Australian
- November 20, 2010 12:00AM
To say the least, Phil Blake's life has taken an unexpected turn in the past month.
And suddenly he finds himself travelling from Sydney to Perth via Florence.
That's not the route any reputable travel agent ordinarily would book, but it is a detour the former rugby league star turned Sydney rugby union club coach doesn't mind in the least.
Not only has he arrived in Italy for the first time in his life, but he has arrived there as the Wallabies' defence coach.
"Three weeks ago I was going to coach Manly again next year and since then I've got the opportunity to come here with the Wallabies, and then I'm off to Perth for two years as the Western Force's defence skills coach," Blake said.
"So a lot has happened and my life has changed dramatically.
"Here we are sitting in Florence, and the closest I've been to Italy before that is Brookvale."
That's not literally true, as he spent four of his 16 rugby league seasons playing for Warrington, but he has come a long way this year, and not just geographically.
It was only in February that the super-fit 45-year-old had a five-hour triple heart bypass operation, so his emotional journey has been almost as dramatic as the one that began when Robbie Deans, having liked what he saw when he invited Blake to conduct a couple of sessions with the Wallabies squad, asked him to join the spring tour as defence coach.
Having played for no fewer than six rugby league clubs -- Manly-Warringah, Souths, North Sydney, Canberra, St George and Auckland -- Blake is accustomed to fitting into new groups, but he admitted to being nervous the first time he had to stand in the midst of the Wallabies and spell out how he wanted them to defend.
"It was a little intimidating going from working with part-time footballers (at Manly) to having the nation's best 40 players in front of you," Blake said. "You've got to know your stuff."
And were they hard markers? "Oh yeah. When you come from the outside in, they're saying: 'OK, let's suss him out'."
Even Blake sees the funny side of his current position and can understand why it has become a talking point in rugby.
"Defence wasn't my forte as a player," he admits. "I was all about attack, scoring tries, blowing sides away. Not that I didn't understand defence. I did, totally."
He has proven that in his three seasons as coach of Manly. In his first year, 2008, his side conceded 71 tries. Last year that figure plummeted to only 46, and this year it dropped even a little further, to 44.
It's unrealistic to expect him to have the same effect on the Wallabies but something needs to be done, and quickly. Last year they let in only 15 tries in 14 Tests but already this year they have conceded 31 in 13.
Admittedly, new rule interpretations at the breakdown have made things easier for attacking sides -- on the positive side of the ledger the Wallabies have scored 40 tries this year compared with 29 last year -- but there is still no disguising the fact that Australia has surrendered its long-held reputation as the best defensive side in world rugby.
The stats might suggest Blake faces major problems, but he likes what he has seen during his first three weeks on the job.
In particular, he is encouraged by the grit the Wallabies' Test and midweek teams have shown under pressure against England and Munster over the past week.
"When it was 26-6, England had a scrum on our 22 and we went 11 or 12 phases in defence," he said. "If a side didn't have a good constitution or pride in their defence, they'd be breached, but they kept turning up, understanding that it's a character test and that you have to come through the other end."
If anything, the midweek side impressed him even more on Tuesday night in Limerick.
"We've all been around football a long time but I can't honestly say I've seen a better defensive effort than against Munster."
Even Quade Cooper's defence doesn't faze him. "I don't see it being a problem. It's a problem if you're shying off contact, and he's not. His contact is good. I don't think it's going to be much of an issue. He has addressed it and the biggest thing is the honesty in the addressing, and we've worked this week on little issues."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225956823518