Ross Chisholm press conference | Trailfinders Women (H)

Harlequins Women's Head Coach Ross Chisholm spoke to the media ahead of Friday's PWR Round 15 fixture against Trailfinders Women.

He discussed a range of topics including:

• The key focuses in the group this week
• The impact Pat Metcalfe-Jones has made as Head of Women's Rugby
• Getting back to the Quins DNA
• The work of his half-backs in the last few weeks

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Sure. Thank you, Harry. Hello, Ross. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Excellent. What's your appraisal of where this Quinn's team are right now?

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Look, clearly we've lost we've lost four games. I think we've we've been in every contest, which is a positive thing. It hasn't been one where heartback to the Saracens away at the start of the season where we just weren't good enough on the day, and um we were nowhere near where we needed to be. I think the pleasing thing is we're in tight games. Even um Friday night against Lafayette was another tight game. And we felt that if we'd have taken some of our opportunities, we could have had an opportunity to win that game. And I think, look, been a rugby a long time as you have, Nick. Like sometimes you go through these periods where you just don't quite have the momentum or um the kind of swing at it at the moment, and it's really important that we don't overreact. And that's probably where I'm at at the moment, is keeping it really level and just saying, look, we are where we are. There's definitely things we can work on and improve on. There's some big moments in the games where we're hurting ourselves. I think, look, we've had yellow cards, and the yellow card periods at the weekends hurt us, and the yellow card periods against Saratas hurt us, and it's looking at those moments, and you know, people don't mean to make mistakes and give yellow cards away, but at the top flight level rugby now, the margins for error are so small. And Loughborough, I think, in our first yellow squad, scored two tries, or the momentum really shifted, and then they scored right before half time, and then they came out in the second half and scored straight away. And it was we're conceding in those periods, which are really, really difficult when you're down to 14 players. So there's a bit of a management piece when we have a yellow card because you're going to get them in the game, um, but also having some self-discipline to go, I'm not gonna uh do that, and that and a high tackle kind of happens, and Ellie, the slap down, but it's sometimes it's the accumulation of penalties where we go back to back to back. So I think the pleasing thing is is everything is is fixable. I'd be worried if we weren't in a contest and we weren't close on the scoreboard or we weren't creating opportunities and we weren't scoring tries. I'd be seriously concerned, but I think that's the thing around staying level. And then look, the reality is we're conceding too many points off the moment off the back of those moments. So our defense needs to be better. We need to hold our discipline, um, but stay really level-headed because naturally through ebbs and flows of a career or a season or whatever, you you have these moments where I think the worst thing you can do is go really reactive and just focus on purely the outcome. Clearly, the outcome is important, but we have to just go. This is us re-root back to who we are and what we do well, keep going, keep putting our foot forward, and ultimately, as Friday night is done, we learn our lessons and we move on to this this Friday.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

Yeah, I mean, you know, certainly from the outside, I would say a lot of people see Quinn's as a club that should be up there, where where they're you know, that that top four, pushing top three, really. Um, as you say, those four results, and and now you're you're more looking over your shoulder than you probably would like to be. How do you kind of cope with with not being drawn into that and this not becoming a habit?

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Yeah, look, I mean, as I said, there's ebbs and flows in the season, right? I mean, look, Gloucester, Gloucester and and Saracens are really strong at the moment, and they are you know really paving the way for everyone. And and look, they will have their periods as well at some point, whether that's this season, next season, we all go through these momentum swings. Bristol at the start, and now they're on a bit of a run. It happens. And you look at World Rugby at the moment, the the competition level is so vast that if you're not on it for 20 minutes in a game, it can hurt you. And there's probably been those moments for us, those those lapses in games where it's like 10-minute period there, Saracen's 10 minutes before half time, 10 minutes afterwards, game's done. Um, and I think that's the thing around just trying to stay level with it. And and this is probably my approach is just going, it is what it is. We have to just focus on what we can control. What we can control is how well we play. We can't control the referee, can't control the opposition, we can't control the conditions, all this stuff. But what we can control is how we turn up every day, who we're trying to be and how we're trying to uh play. And I think you know, anchoring back to what we've spoken around many times before is how do we want to be remembered? What's the philosophy of the club and what's the DNA? And let's just anchor back to those moments around the DNA. Like we want to be brave, physical, entertaining. That's that's the strap line that I didn't come up with. The girls want to come up with, well, let's just root back to that. What does that look like? What does that look like? What does that look like for the first 10 minutes? What does that look like for the first 10 minutes of attack and defense? And let's just execute those those moments. You stack enough of those moments together, suddenly the momentum can change very, very quickly back the other way, you know. Um, so that that's our focus, is just purely focusing ourselves. Um, don't worry too much about you know, clearly that you do look at the lead table, but don't worry too much about a lead table. You focus on yourself, you look after um your own house, as it were, um, and build energy around what what that is?

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Uh in terms of what was I just looking at? Yeah, 41 miss tackles was it from that that game um against Loughborough. Um how do you sharpen up on those sorts of things? Well, uh, I guess, you know, the the success rate of what you're trying to do needs to be higher. Um, is that a hunger thing? Is that a reps, you know, do more of it, repeat it, work harder kind of thing? Is that a well we're probably top four? Oh well, it doesn't matter if we're not top four, we're there or thereabouts in the season, you know, we're heading to all towards six nations, that sort of apathy thing. What where where do you think that that these sort of falling just slightly short of things that all contribute to an end result, to to a loss most likely can be can be more most easily fixed?

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah, I think look, there's probably something we've seen um across across world rugby at the moment is the slight law changes in the aerial contest um and um some of the set piece laws have actually really created some high-scoring games. You just look at the men's six nations at the weekend, the 20s, all that the the scores are big. There's a lot of um attacking rugby as almost uh at the forefront, whereas a few years ago you would argue that defence was probably dominating the side of the ball, but the scoring was a lot lower, so there's definitely a lot more tries, and I think you look at it across the league at the moment, there hasn't been a lot of games where there hasn't been bonus points picked up for four tries. So I think firstly it's about staying level that you know, looking at the data for previous seasons around um, you know, to kind of be in that top four, you have to be around like 25 points conceded 20 points. Uh I don't know off the top of my head, but my guess would be that those games are generally a lot more high scoring, um, or it has been a lot more high scoring this season. So that's probably the first thing that um trying to look at it objectively, as you said, like 41 miss tackles, we just know is not is not good enough and is not gonna win you games of rugby. Um, I think a couple of things to that is one, our defence wasn't sharp enough at the weekend, two, we gave two yellow cards away and defended 20 minutes with 14 players, gonna be extremely difficult and put your defence under load of pressure. We conceded um two tries off the back of that and then straight after half time. I think Ellie came back on, but they scored during that period. Just the momentum swing in sport is massive, and I think when we got the momentum, we scored as well. So that's a couple of fix-ups like 14 uh 15 players on the pitch, number one. Tackling definitely has to improve in terms of um the quality, but also not being um, you know, we're not going to concede nothing as well. I think there's a couple of easy fix-ups there, and I think accredited to that, I think the attack is better this season across the league. I thought Loughborough's attack on Friday night, and and credit to them, and um Scaz, who's obviously an experienced player coaching their attack um with Nathan. Look, credit to them. I thought they moved the ball exceptionally well. I thought they really um found the edges well, and we had those yellow cards and really held us in the midfield, which made it particularly difficult. So the sum of those moving pass is stuff that we've looked at. How do we take away time and space to put attacks under more pressure, work on the tackle technique? Um, some of it you'll change quite quickly, some of it takes time. Um, and yeah, there's definitely hopefully some objective stuff in there that we've gone away and looked at. And so the reality is, Nick, we lost the new we and we're good enough for the last four games. Fact. So you know, we've got to look at that in the cold, half cold, half facts, and and be we've got to be better, and how we're better is as I said, we reroute to principles that we want to play at and um hang our hat on ultimately.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

And um Lucy Packer, how far away is she? A couple of weeks. Okay. Um Al Cal?

SPEAKER_02 9:58

TBC, but not Liley's play um in the next couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Okay. So you're you're still having to do it without those sort of people who are who are obviously fairly pivotal. Just just a word and a final one for me on on the halfbacks that you've you've been operating with. Um I thought it was quite amusing on the game a couple of weeks ago where we were sort of talking about the loss of Lucy Packer and the speed of rock ball. And the one area we probably didn't give Emma Swords her dues was um her, how can I put this politely, her housery and her ability to just get in the way of people and use her experience. I loved it. It was quite old school watching her performance, and I I thought she kind of she brought something a little bit different to it. But what what do you make of those two um with swords and with a lacroma?

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah, look, it's I think firstly, to go to your point, is Lucy is a high quality operator that's won a World Cup. Um so you know, Dantasplay, same with Val Cal, but we all go through these periods where people get injured and it you know gives opportunity to other people, and that's probably how I look at it is you know, it is what it is, we can't change it. Um, we can only look forward and look. Look, I think Swordsy, really experienced player. Um, I think some of our um kicking game, particularly in uh like the harder conditions, like weather conditions, like raining, muddy. Like I thought she was excellent sail away. Um really managing the game. I think she's kicked really well. Um, I think she's you know, our 22 entry attack is really strong, and I think she plays a large part um in that, and she's she's strong defensively, and I think which is which is really encouraging. I think Ella is a young fly half that um has had an exceptional season, is really, really growing in a Quinn shirt, and you know, has as one of the you know, right up there with some of the best kickers in the league. You look at Zoe and um Holly, you know, it sits in that bracket um and is growing in a game management stuff. And look, we know in a fly half we've got someone that has real um real growth as well in that area, which is really, really exciting to be operating at this standard at such a young age. Um, and then look, I also thought that I thought Lucy Burgess and and Kaylee Powell came on and really livened the game up against Loughborough, and that's why I made all those changes early. Just felt that we needed some spark, and I thought the bench really came on and delivered that, and we were able to fight ourselves back into a game, which as I said, look, we know we weren't good enough on Friday night. We you know, we're looking for a performance um come Friday night, and it's a squad effort, and I think the bench really came on and got us back into that game. We we weren't quite sharp enough, and the the margin was too big to to claw it back in the end. But I think with about 15 minutes to go where we were hammering Loughborough's line, if we'd have converted that score, who knows? And as I said, that's probably been the pleasing thing for me is we haven't it's not been like 40 points to to 10 where we're like we were never in that contest, so yeah, yeah. I think there was some real spark added by by those two off the bench. Um cool.

SPEAKER_03 13:13

Lovely, thank you for the time. I'll let uh Helena or Andy jump in. Thanks, Nick.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Andy, do you want to jump on next for both of you like just conscious of time and jumping on to other calls? So if we're able to sort of try and keep it like a top line, yeah, no problem.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Um hi Ross.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Hey Andy, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah, good, thank you. Uh obviously, the the previous meeting was an absolute thriller. Um, you're expecting something similar under the lights. I know you'll probably want to uh you know maintain the discipline and keep it tight, but um at the same time it was an amazing game, the first one, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Yeah, 100%. Elying are really good side with some really good players, and they're really well coached. So, you know, I think we've seen in the league this season it is so competitive, and anyone can beat anyone, uh you know, generally speaking, like Gloucester and Saracens are probably a cut uh you know a step ahead at the moment. But there's generally in that in that middle pack that we're in, it it is a really tight contest. It's one point here, seven points there, it's really, really tight, and it's moments in the game that that um so look, Eelar in a good side, and it's gonna be it's gonna be a great contest on Friday night.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

And it's in your hands, that's that's a big positive, isn't it? I mean, for all the talk of you know um results recently, uh you've got everything in front of you.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Yeah, a hundred percent. And try not to um focus too much on the league table, because I think you know, then you you start to look at more outcomes, you know, and that probably puts you in a in a state of there's not you're not focusing on the here and now and making sure, as I said, like look, there's stuff we definitely need to be better at in you know, 10-minute chunks, 20 minutes chunks. Well, how do you practice that? If you're constantly talking about the lead table, and if we do this and that happens and you start worrying about stuff that you can't control, what we can control is each action we we deliver, each each 10-minute block, each kickoff that we receive, each moment, because that's probably something that uh we haven't been fully in and control of um in those moments. And there's naturally periods where other teams have momentum, we get momentum is that actually can we use stack more momentum moments in the opposition you're gonna win. Um, and we've not been on the right side of that um for the last four games, but it it's all fixable and um you know it's not something that that I personally am not worried about or panicking about because we we don't need to.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

I'll let Alan jump in. Thanks, Ross. Thanks, Andy.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

Hi Ross, I just got a quick question um because I know we're short of time. Um I was talking to Pat Pat Metcalf Jones last week, who was sitting in your seat there, and I wonder what you could say about her and what she brings to the team um and how she compliments you.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Yeah, like Pat's you know, big shoes to Phil in Andy Reese Jones that's that's left. Um you know, Pat's been exceptional since she started the role, she was exceptional in the role before as head of Pathway, just enthusiasm-wise, um understanding of the game, played for Harlequins, understands it, and I think extremely driven to be the best that that she can be in deliver. And I think we you know I was really excited when she got the opportunity to step up into the head of head of um women's rugby, and I think she's really thriving in that role, um, bringing a lot of energy, enthusiasm, all those qualities that she showed in the pathway. And I think um, you know, we we work really closely together. We spend a lot of time discussing um recruitment and um the infrastructure and the strategy of the club. We obviously have our defined roles where mine is more on field, Pat is more off field, but yeah, she's she's really really excelling in in that role.