Rookie Galbraith Shield-winning coach Richard Jones puts relationships at the heart of his coaching philosophy. 

A graduate of Academy Southland’s two-year Performance Coach programme, Jones helped guide Woodlands to the Southland premier men’s club rugby title in his first year of coaching at senior level last weekend. 

The Aparima College assistant principal has employed a range of transferable skills from his teaching background, alongside those learned through the Academy programme. 

“Teaching and coaching go hand in hand, they really complement each other. My coaching philosophy is really based around developing relationships and developing the environment. A lot of that stems from my teaching background, you have to get that relationship right and be able to communicate with people, whether that’s learning curriculum subjects or playing good footy.” 

Jones had previously spent six years coaching representative age group teams – four years with the Southland under 16s and two with the under 18 side – since hanging up the boots in 2012. 

Jones, who won three Galbraith Shield titles as a player with Woodlands, paid credit to his assistants Dan Cavanagh and Dan Iosefo, along with team manager Kevin Muir, who he had previously worked alongside at age group level. 

“It’s been a really enjoyable first season. The Galbraith Shield is what it’s about and we were lucky to have a really strong group, but it was quite a varied group, from Jason Rutledge who is 42 right down to two or three guys who were in their first year out of school. 

“Saturday was enjoyable for a whole lot of reasons, but we’ve definitely had some good battles with Star over the years. Mark McHugh is one of my best friends and he was right in the thick of things for Star. We were just pretty excited to get the opportunity to play because these are pretty strange times at the moment and we were thinking we might get robbed of that opportunity.” 

Jones said time spent in the Academy coaching programme had helped develop his confidence as a coach. 

“You do a lot of work on developing your coaching philosophies and identifying strengths and areas to work on. The course was immensely beneficial and it helped with how I manage my energy and gave me a clear focus around what I think is important with my coaching now.” 

Jones also thanked Rugby Southland, who invested financially in his application for the Academy programme and have also supported him through further coaching development courses. 

Preparation for a winning season had begun almost as soon as Jones accepted an invitation to coach the 2020 side. 

With the benefit of existing relationships with players he had played alongside in the squad, the build-up to the club season included plenty of phone conversations and chats over a coffee. 

“It was pretty early in the season when people were saying that we were favoured to do well, which is cool and it was recognition that we had some good players, but it’s still about managing workloads and they are all at different ages and stages of their careers. 

“Club rugby is different in that you have some guys who just want to have a run around and a few beers on a Saturday and there’s other guys that have been in a professional environment for a number of years, and others who are just looking to crack that professional level. Making sure you have all those guys on the same page is probably the biggest challenge.” 

Article added: Thursday 20 August 2020