The Big Mouth Doctor

source
Yesterday I was watching the Heineken Cup match between Saracens and Munster and the game turned on it's head at one point. This didn't happen because a coach changed something, but something else occurred which shouldn't have. Saracens were trailing 3-6 at the time and there was roughly 30 minutes left to play. Following on from last weeks game this was always going to be a game of small margins as there is nothing between these two sides.

Jamie George who is the Saracens hooker was collecting the ball on the side lines to throw the ball into the lineout when something was said. It wasn't another team member or an opposing player, but the Munster's doctor chirping away trying to rial him up. If I know the Munsters coach this was a tactic that back fired and was just being too cocky. The doctor had no reason to be anywhere near the side of the field as no player needed attention.

All hell broke loose and even though no punches were thrown there was around 5 minutes of pushing and shoving with a large group of players going through the advertising boards on the side of the field. According to reports George was called a "fatboy " or something similar regarding his weight and he took offence to that. Normally if you play in the front row you are a fat boy and if one of your team mates said that you would rib him back with a comment or two. An opposing player or worse a medical staff member has no right to say that and was used to get under his skin.

At the time Saracens were going nowhere in the game and were frustrating themselves by not thinking clearly. The little melee that they had galvanized them back into a team and the doctors words backfired big time. Saracens went on to dominate the rest of the game and win comfortably in the end by 15-6. The Munster team has only themselves to blame as they woke a team up that was half asleep.

Saracens are considering lodging a complaint regarding the comment, but I would suggest they send a thank you letter instead. Without the doctors timely interference they would have lost and surely would have been the end of their European run. Sometimes teams need this wake up call coming from an area you could never imagine and this is just one of them.

Coaches at press conferences today choose their words wisely these days as many times those words come back to haunt them. The opposing coach will use the words during the pre match build up to help focus his team and possibly give them the edge that they require. Mind games are a huge part of sport today and one doesn't need to give the opponents extra ammunition and more of a reason to win than your own team.