The master coach who helped put the boot into Australia’s 2003 Rugby World Cup dream has joined forces with the Wallabies to upgrade their kicking prowess.
It won’t just be mentoring on goalkicking. It’s time to again salute the “torp” and downgrade the drop punt that has polluted rugby with overuse since it was copied from the AFL.
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Englishman Dave Alred may have first won world renown as kicking guru for England legend Jonny Wilkinson but his career successes have been many and varied since.
Alred’s presence at Wallabies’ camp at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast is a timely acknowledgement by Test boss Dave Rennie of the big gains that his players can make in this hit-or-miss area of their game.
Alred is on board as a kicking consultant.
It’s a role that Wallaby James O’Connor thought so necessary that he was part of a group of Queensland Reds’ players who paid money out of their own pockets for sessions with Alred throughout the Super Rugby season.
O’Connor operated at a superb 88 per cent (56-from-64) as a goalkicker throughout Super Rugby and found more distance and reliability with his punting in general play.
“Dave was a big help for all the kickers in those sessions. He helped with my process and thinking with kicks in general play as well as the technical side,” O’Connor said.
“You don’t have to belt the ball to get distance. That was a really important message for me as well.”
The latter took strain off his groin where a niggle prevented O’Connor from goalkicking at the start of the 2020 season.
Alred’s thoroughness extends to players keeping diaries where they rate their daily kicking performance against their own standards.
Wilkinson’s goalkicking and his nerveless extra-time field goal sunk the Wallabies in the memorable 2003 World Cup final in Sydney.
Alred’s philosophies for performing under pressure translate across sports because he was a key ally for Italian golfer Francesco Molinari when he won the 2018 British Open.
He has also been working with Western Australian golfer Jason Scrivener, who has qualified for his first British Open this month.
Queensland centre Hunter Paisami is another benefitting from Alred’s input because a relieving kick from midfield or a matchwinning dab like he produced for the Jordan Petaia try in Canberra should be staples for top centres.
“A big focus for me has been trying to add little things to my game in passing and kicking,” Paisami said.
“Being able to really nail a torpedo (punt) and be confident with it is one of them.”
Upgrading the use of the “torp”, as former Wallabies fullback Chris Latham and others used so memorably, is in Alred’s kit bag.
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A neck injury has restricted O’Connor’s role at Wallabies training which pitches Brumbies’ flyhalf Noah Lolesio closer to a start in the first Test against France next Wednesday at Suncorp Stadium.
Lolesio was a slick 81 per cent (42-of-50) operator with the boot through Super Rugby which shows he can definitely be another Test-class goalkicker for the Wallabies.
Being able to kick a ball well is completely different to having a good kicking game which was one of the big reasons behind South Afrifca’s 2019 World Cup triumph.
Rennie can see the benefits O’Connor has derived working closely with Alred.
“They obviously have a really close alliance and Dave has done a really good job with his goalkicking and his punting,” Rennie said.
Rennie is a strong advocate of hiring a national kicking coach but that plan is a whiteboard idea, for now, in financially-challenging times.
“It’s really important we get a national kicking coach, someone who can get around and try to improve the whole country,” Rennie said.
“That comes down to money and we haven’t got a lot of that at the moment.”
Refining strategy and techniques so anyone in the backline can launch a spiral punt, a low, scudding kick or a drop punt to find grass is the ideal.
