Why it will work out you couldn’t say no
HE has been involved in more than 200 Ospreys games and since being upgraded to the senior coaching team has had an input in 38 derbies which have seen the Liberty Stadium team emerge victorious on 33 occasions.
As a skills and development coach, he helped bring through scores of players, including a number who went on to play for Wales and the Lions, such as Justin Tipuric, Rhys Webb and Dan Biggar.
But Gruff Rees is moving on at the end of the season, ending an association with the Ospreys that stretches back 13 years.
Few know more about the workings than the Ospreys.
He saw the superstars come and go, the trophy-winning years followed by belt tightening, the various head coaches and the quirks of the big names.
caught up with him to reflect on the highs and lows and the different characters, while pondering where his career will lead him next...
MO: What has it been like working at the Ospreys? GR:
It’s been an extraordinary and something I will value for the rest of my career.
We won the league title within a few months of the coaching changes back in 2012 and that meant a huge amount to us as coaches and players. A lot of good work had been put in before but it still needed a big effort to get over the line and take the silverware.
Sport is about special moments and they do not come much more special than beating a top-quality Leinster side at the RDS to win a league title. The character we showed that day was something else.
I got a huge amount out of helping to develop players in my role at the Ospreys between 2005-06 and 2010. It isn’t about just nurturing skills. How players progress as people is important too because being a professional is a 24/7 job and it matters how individuals conduct themselves. In that respect, I have nothing but respect for the way people such as Rhys Webb and Dan Biggar handle themselves away from the pitch.
MO: Who is the most talented player you helped bring through? GR:
For talent you couldn’t surpass Justin Tipuric.
On Friday afternoons, we’d play some touch games in the barn, staff and players.
You’d be playing with a guy who you knew could do things and see things on a different level.
There are plenty of other topquality players, such as Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb and Ashley Beck, But Tipuric took you aback. It definitely helped that he was able to see a player like Marty Holah operating at close quarters.
Holah was the perfect role model. He had played for the All Blacks more than 30 times and competed with Richie McCaw for the jersey, yet he still saw every day as a learning day.
There was never any suggestion that he knew it all and was totally satisfied with his game. Basically, he just had a brilliant attitude.
MO: Jerry Collins joined the Ospreys in 2009 and it soon became apparent he did things differently. From driving a battered old car to burning the candle at both ends, he wasn’t your typical rugby player. But his appetite for the game was remarkable. GR:
Jerry was simply his own man. Back in 2009, I’d be running the early-morning group with the likes of Ashley Beck, Eli Walker, Tom Prydie, Matthew Morgan, Tom Habberfield and Sam Davies, young academy players at the time. It would be a 7.30am skills group, lasting for about 90 minutes and complete with lots of conditioning games and mini-games.
Jerry would turn up wanting to join those games.
It was awkward because I’d know that he’d have a full day of training ahead and the conditioners and the medics wouldn’t want him to overload by doing stuff beyond his normal routine.
I remember saying to him: “Look, Jerry. This is really awkward, but you are going to have to concentrate on your own sessions during the day. I’ll have to politely say ‘no’. “
But, on one occasion, I can recall