Nathan Hines' radical idea to lighten the load on his Top 14 players
With their Champions Cup hopes long gone, Montpellier’s energies are focused on the Top 14. However, they will still put pride on the line against European rivals Connacht this Sunday.
“We underperformed again against Gloucester last weekend,” said assistant coach Nathan Hines, reflecting on last weekend’s 29-6 defeat at Kingsholm. “Our attack wasn’t working. Our defence didn’t work for the first 20 minutes – we’re struggling a bit with injury and sickness. We were up against it from the start. Indiscipline cost us. We didn’t play in the right areas of the field and we got punished.”
These are issues the staff at Montpellier want to get right before Connacht visit the GGL for a match that in qualification terms is a dead rubber but which Hines still regards as hugely important. “We’re at home. We want to carry a bit of momentum into the (Top 14) game against La Rochelle next week, which is important for us.
“Just because we cannot make it through in Europe doesn’t mean we’re any less motivated to win – it’s just there’s no carrot of qualification. We don’t want to get beaten at home.”
No one at the club is underestimating the challenge Connacht will set. They sit three points ahead of Montpellier in Pool Five and beat the French side 23-20 at the Sportsground in November. “They punch above their weight. They always do. They’re a very well organised team. They don’t have as many internationals as other teams, but they’re well-coached and well-drilled.
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“They sometimes lack a little power, but they’re traditionally tough to play against. What they have going for them that most teams don’t is that they play for each other. You can really see that they’re used to dogging it out together – they have a good team spirit. You can’t buy that.
“A lot of teams don’t have that, but Connacht do and they can fall back on that when they have to – that’s what makes them so hard to play against.”
The French club’s season so far has been a muddle. After a slow start, they have edged their way into the sixth place in the Top 14 in a pack of teams including Toulon, La Rochelle, Racing 92, Toulouse and Clermont. But they have only won once in Europe and come into the final round of group matches rooted to the foot of Pool Five.
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Montpellier lost key players to the World Cup at the start of their campaign, including Louis Picamoles, Yacouba Camara and Frans Steyn, while new arrivals Handre Pollard and Guilhem Guirado, who picked up a serious injury in his sole outing for the club to date, were late to arrive which hit their plans.
Hines, though, also hinted at a deeper historical issue at the club. “This year’s a bit particular because you’ve had a World Cup. Players come back and they need time off – and then you’re straight into Europe and need results quite quickly.
“It’s a funny year. A lot of guys have been getting a lot of minutes that they normally wouldn’t get, which makes them more fatigued than normal, and obviously internationals haven’t had a lot of prep time having been at the World Cup.”
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He refused to use the World Cup as an excuse: “You suck that up. All clubs are in the same boat, more or less, but you just give young guys the opportunity.”
For all Mohed Altrad-bankrolled money, giving youngsters a chance is a problem. “That’s where we’re lacking depth. Our centre de formation (academy) was depleted somewhat a couple of years ago under Jake White. Usually you can call on those guys to help you. We didn’t have that luxury.”
Now, with just matches against Connacht and La Rochelle before the international break, Hines has looked back at the first half of the season for Montpellier. “We could have done with winning the three games we’ve drawn,” he said. “Against Bordeaux at home, we could have played better… and the referee missed a key forward pass, which would have been nice for him to spot.
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“We were stupid away at Toulon – we had a penalty and then got into a scuffle, so the referee reversed it. That would have given us three pots for the win. We’ve got a difficult game against La Rochelle coming. They’re starting to find their way just a little bit. It’s going to be difficult.
“They’ve got a strong scrum whereas, at Montpellier, we’ve got the most penalised scrum in the competition. It’s going to be difficult but the ideal will be to go there and get some points.”
He admitted to wishing he could lighten the load on his players. “There is a lot of rugby in the Top 14 and the Premiership. It needs cutting. Maybe cut two teams out of the Top 14, to make it more competitive. There’d be fewer games for players – this season we started in August and we’ll finish in July. As a coach that’s demanding. As a player it’s even more demanding.
“The provinces in Ireland come under fire in England and France for rotating and protecting their players. If you can do that, do it. In Premiership and Top 14, they can’t. Players are playing a lot of games – and they don’t get as much protection from the unions as players in Ireland.”
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Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments