An Interview with Leeds Tykes' Phil Davies
Director of Rugby
By apb on 24/2/2003
February 24 2003
Just after the Bristol away game, APB went along to the training centre in Kirkstall to interview the Leeds Tykes Director of Rugby, Phil Davies. Armed with questions from the message board, your nervous (and journalistically inept) editor dived headlong into the fray.....
APB: The pre-season goal that was stated by JC was that 11th would do us fine this season. 11th is obviously going to be a bit of a disappointment now, whats the newest target?
PD: We didn't really set any goals at the start of the season, we just looked on improving what we did last year, and we're still improving. This situation with ourselves as a new team [in the ZP], we're in a development phase - we're in our second five-year plan if you like, and this years been excellent for us - we've improved a lot on last year. we want to finish as high as we can. Ultimately my goal for this club is to win the Heineken cup and the Zurich Premiership, and our squad strength at the moment is developing, and we're gearing up to put ourselves in a position where we can constantly evolve each season, as a top five, top three club. But thats something we're aiming towards. This year has been great, its been enjoyable, its been reasonably successful so far, and I hope that from the players point of view we finish with something quite tangible, and if thats european rugby its going to be superb.
APB: Speaking as a fan its been wonderful to be part of it, but there have been accusations if you like from some of the opposition fans of a certain degree of one-dimensionalism, the team don't really have any ideas. What would your counter to that be?
PD: People can say what they like I suppose. We try and play the game I did at Llanelli, a lot of fluency, a lot of pace and movement, but also you have to play the conditions, you have to play the opposition you're playing against, and there are lots of ways....I think we try and play quite attractive rugby. I've not heard that accusation before, but people are entitled to their opinions!
APB: It tends to be mostly on internet messageboards....
PD: We try and play with a lot of flair and a lot of passion - we try to play an all round game, theres not one particular style. I want to try and play with as much movement and pace as you can which you're not always able to do because there's fifteen other blokes trying to knock seven bells out of you!
APB: Following on from that really, its also been mentioned that "Ooh, you look like a Rugby League side". Now my personal view is that's really because we're Leeds we're from the North we obviously must do. Is that something you'd agree with?1
PD: No not at all, again its just peoples opinions! Jon Callard and I are the coaches here, and theres six or seven thousand bar-room coaches around every Friday, Saturday or Sunday! No, we play RU not RL. We don't gear up to play the game like that either. Theres a certain amount of structure in the game nowadays because defences are so tight and well organised and after a certain amount of structure we want to try and start moving defences areound to try to start to creating the space to play in. Our defence is strong because we have a strong work ethic towards defence for four years, and that's been developed through our side of the club.
APB: So how much cross fertilisation between the two sides of the club is there?
PD: Just discussion really - I speak to Daryl Powell a bit and Jon speaks to Mick Cook, we chat, exchange ideas, Jon does a bit of kicking with them, and theres a little bit of crossover with the physios and stuff, but we're separate entities and we're so busy with everything its very difficult to get any quality time.
APB: Its been quite telling this season, that you've made some very shrewd signings - the likes of George Harder, Gordon Ross etc, have you got any on your radar for this summer?
PD: Of course..I've got players I'm looking at for 2004/2005 season as well. This year we've been lucky with recruitment, but sometimes you sign players and they don't come up to what you hoped they would and sometimes you sign them - take a bit of a punt - and they come through. We're very thorough in the way we recruit players here and we put a lot of time and effort in. Its a big world out there and we can get players from everywhere. One of the things we are focussing on is trying to develop young English players through the academy and trying to keep the best talent - Yorkshire talent - in Leeds to play for the club, and thats the most important thing moving forward. I'd like to think we could develop a nucleus of yorkshire and english players here to play - but then again there is a need to bring other nationalities here ; its good, its healthy to bring other cultures mixing with us, and its a big part of what we do. So the higher we get the more we've got to make sure we're thorough.
APB: As a Welshman, is there some part of you that thinks "I wish I was bringing along Welsh talent as well?", rather than just English?
PD: (Laughs) Not Really! I'm in England at the moment and this is where my opportunity lies and we're an English club. Of course I'm a passionate Welshman and I'll always want to see Wales to well. But at the moment I'm a Welsh supporter if you like. There are Welsh players here and of course I want them to develop, but because they play for Leeds and if they want to play for their country then thats fantastic for us as a club, its great for them, and good for Wales too. The Scottish guys here - I'm just as keen for them to do well and equally as keen for the English players to do well, my alliegence is to the RFU because we're an English club.
APB: Have you got any thoughts on the current controversy within the Welsh game at the moment?
PD: Not at all really. I'm disappointed with it. I think the strategic planning of the WRU has not been great - over twenty years let alone the last three or four. I don't think we've taken the game forward enough and its disappointing we've got to change things and its going to be a difficult time - the economic side is not great and there's going to be a lot of players out of work down there as well, so its just a disappointing, depressing situation that they find themselves in. But I'm sure they'll come through.
APB: Do you foresee a time when you may feel you have something to offer there?
PD: I don't know. I've been here seven years now, and we've built the club up from next to nothing, and you know we're getting more support all the time. People like yourself are coming and its great. We had a bus load of supporters going down to Bristol and I chatted to quite a few of them on Sunday night and I talk to quite a few on matchdays in Headingley and I want to stay here as long as people want me to stay. I've still got a lot more to offer the club I think, and I want to make sure I finish what I started - it'll take me a few more years! I'm extremely ambitious and I'm very driven to make Leeds one of the best clubs in Europe and thats what I'm striving for all the time. Its not going to please everybody but that's life. We're going about it in an honest and hardworking fashion. We'll get there in the end!
APB: That's really good news from our point of view, that you don't see yourself moving away! Some of our people have been asking about the forwards situation. Matt Holt's been used a prop quite a lot - do you still see him as having a role as a hooker?
 Matt Holt - A real Diamond! |
APB: And Duggie Wheatley is he coming on OK?
PD: Yeah he is! He's only 23 Douglas and hes a big unit. I'm hoping he'll stay for another two years and he'll develop and one day he'll give us an opportunity... Mike's 30, 31 now, and when he comes to be 33, 34 and looking to retire maybe, we'll have a ready made replacement with Duggie Wheatley and Michael Cusack who's only 18 and in the academy. So we're looking pretty good in that area.
 Justin Wring - on the mend... |
PD: He's all right! I feel sorry for him really. He's had a horrendous time with injuries, so I'm going to try to get him some rugby somewhere - we've not got a lot of rugby after Friday night up until the middle of march. I think the transfer deadline is the end of March so I've got to take that into account. So I'm going to try and get him some football somewhere so that he can get himself back in the groove - he's played next to nothing rugby since last August. He's played one game this year against Llanelli. So we need to try and find him some football somewhere. Again that's our liason with the local clubs hopefully that works. Its a strong link we have now around the county. Come April/May time at the business end of the season he'll be back with a bit of game time. As is Phil Murphy who's been all off for a few months as well. It gives him confidence, it gives him experience, and we've got a big year for Phil next season with Tom possibly going to the world cup, and these building blocks for him are important.
APB: Finally, the Friday night experiment! We've got another game coming up on this coming Friday. Do you see this as the way forward for the future for Leeds?
PD: Its obviously a decision for the board, but I know we've got a lot of positive feedback from the fans - corporate and people on the terraces. Personally I like the atmosphere. The atmosphere that's been generated by our supporters on the last few Fridays has been absolutely superb, its been excellent. You're not going to please everybody in a sense, but I would like to think its a good way forward for us because corporately we can really develop the business that way and thats important for obvious reasons. I think it'll seal the fun with the kids as well - they enjoy it because its not a school day the next day. Most supporters and corporates like it because its not a work day the next day! So there's a lot of plusses. Whether its a 7:30 or 7:45 kick off next year is something we'll look at and something that I think has been a positive experiment so far. We're going to try and possibly do the Quins game on a Friday as well, because they might not enjoy coming up on Friday night! But we'll see. we'll see!
1This is a direct transcript of what I said, not what I actually meant. What I meant was - The Southern based fans all think we must be rugby-league-esque because after all, "Northern clubs can't know about the Union game, can they?". I didn't put it across at all, did I?