They are a special breed, defence coaches. Strike up a conversation with Saracens’ Paul Gustard about how his season has been going and he will reel off not only the number of tries his team have conceded, and the circumstances surrounding each one, but the precise figure in their points against column, as well as the tries conceded and points against figures for each of their nearest rivals.
That said, when your defence is the meanest in the league, it is easier to keep on top of the details – which for Saracens read five tries conceded in seven Premiership and European Rugby Champions Cup games. “One was a maul try,” says Gustard, almost as an exercise in self-flagellation. “Three open-field tries [two in the last 10 minutes of last weekend’s match against Worcester, which they’d been winning 48-6] and a pick-and-go try against Toulouse. Every one still rankles with me.”
It’s this kind of obsessiveness to all matters defensive that has helped Saracens to their status as English champions – they conceded the second-fewest tries last season, despite finishing the regular season in fourth. As the architect behind it all, Gustard continues to feature in any credible conversation regarding the England coaching panel Eddie Jones is about to assemble.
For the record, by Wednesday afternoon he had heard nothing from Jones. “It’s obviously very flattering to be linked with the national position but I don’t covet another man’s job. Andy Farrell [England’s current defence coach] is one of my good friends and I’m very happy where I am. We’re on the edge of achieving something quite special at this club, we think. Currently, I’m renegotiating my contract, so that’s where my future is.”
Gustard’s contract has another year to run but all of Saracens’ coaching staff are being offered extensions to 2019. If Jones wants to recruit him, or anyone else from Saracens’ success story, he should move fast or oblige the RFU to cough up another small fortune to secure their man. Gustard would answer the phone, at least, if called. “I wouldn’t be so rude not to.”
It was Jones who offered Gustard his first coaching job, albeit not quite the same one as he holds now. In 2008, after a successful final year of his playing career, which ended with two seasons at Saracens, Gustard was invited by Jones to become skills coach.
“He’s the one who retired me as a player! We were talking about contract renegotiation and he asked me if I’d ever thought about coaching. He set me a couple of assignments as an entrance exam, if you like. He gave me a player profile to break down and then I had to work out how I would go about developing him, what my coaching style would be – a beat-them-with-a-stick kind of guy or more relaxed. He was testing me from the off. It was tough and it was different but working six and a half days a week was the experience I needed to gain fast.”
As a hard-as-nails back-row forward, born in Newcastle, forged in Leicester, Gustard might not have been the obvious choice as a skills coach – but coaching is about personality. You sense that first season concentrating on players’ skills was crucial in shaping him before he focused on defence. “You’re a teacher, aren’t you, an educator.”
He has since turned defence into an art form at Saracens. The Wolf Pack, as they have become known, must be about the only defensive unit in rugby to be celebrated with their own nickname. “We have a defence honours board and we’re thinking about putting wolf-head logos on the shirts to represent players’ achievements. But there are so many sponsors we can’t find the space.”
Neither can the teams who have to play rugby against them. Jones must be impressed by the coach he helped create. Don’t be surprised if he decides to reap what he has sown.
