While watching film from the Panthers’ recent 44-14 loss to Indiana, head coach Frank Graziano said his team looked completely lost.

He said that is not ideally where he wants his team to be at midseason.

“Everybody looked like they forgot how to play,” Graziano said. “We had to do a lot of shuffling because of injuries, but if you are playing in one position, (then) you slide over and play another, things are different – but they aren’t that much different.”

Graziano said if rugby is played how it is supposed to be played, it would almost be position-less, like in soccer, where any player can do any position based on what is going on at the time.

Junior Molly Clutter said that Graziano tries to teach them to play without set positions in practice so they can be ready to play with people out because of injuries.

“We stand scattered, and Graziano kicks the ball, and we have to play it,” Clutter said. “Nobody has a position; we all just do what we can with what’s thrown at us.”

Graziano said a big part of the Panthers’ problem is that they need to be more creative and not just run a play-by-play on the field.

“Rugby is a very free-flowing sport, where it has to be creative on the field,” Graziano said. “We can do drills great, but we are having trouble learning how to take the drill in a playing application.”

Graziano said that because a majority of the team are crossover athletes who did not grow up playing rugby, the quickest way to teach them how to play is mechanical.

“It is a lot of, ‘Here is what you do,’ and just put them in a very robotic form, but that is not really how you play the game,” Graziano said. “It is very free-flowing and non-stop; it is creative abilities, and just having fun with the whole thing. So now what I am trying to do is break them out of the robotic stuff.”

Graziano said he is looking back to his old playbooks and bringing out a variety of plays to help the team look less methodical and to force them to think on their feet and make plays.

Coming off two losses in a row, Graziano decide to take the team back to basics to get them ready for Saturday’s game against Ohio State.

To reset the team physically and mentally, Graziano gave the Panthers nearly an entire week off without any practice.

The Panthers are now practicing twice a day. Graziano said they are reaching the maximum amount of practice time, with four total hours a day.

Clutter said no one is really complaining about the extra practice and, although getting up at 6 a.m. is not fun, everyone understands that it’s necessary.

“We take our practices in little one-and-a-half to two hour blocks, but it is sort of a back-to-training-camp mentality, with two-a-days and learning new things,” Graziano said.

Junior flyhalf Samantha Manto said that while Graziano is trying to teach more to the team, the sessions are broken into smaller pieces to feel like less work.

“Each session is very specific, and you learn one thing and apply it,” Manto said. “It is more general and focused, instead of all the new stuff at once.”

Graziano said he is passing out written exams in the second session of practices every day, in order to see what players remember from the first session.

“They are going to get quizzed every training session for the next week or so,” Graziano said. “Some will take 10 minutes, some will take five minutes, but they will get quizzed so I can see, just like any other teacher, if they are grasping my concepts.”

Graziano said they will probably make a few mistakes in the games at first – the free form allows for mistakes – but the new ideas will help them learn the art of the game beyond the basics.

“Every once in a while, coaches or teams get bogged down, like we are right now, and they have to come up with something new to try and fix things,” Graziano said. “The energy is pretty good right now, but I expect it to keep building, and all the past losses, and even the wins, will be forgotten. We are starting over and focusing on Ohio State.”

Senior Prop Jaki Brophy works on scrum technique with the other members of the scrum’s front line during practice Monday afternoon at the Rugby field.

(more…)