Mike Catt

[goodNumber10]

How much of an impact do you think Catty is having on the England team?

Farrell is marked up as Backs Coach - (i thought he was defence but hey ho) and Catty as attacking Skills.

there seems to have been a drastic sea shift in the attacking intent, and a lot of the play for me has catts trademark and reminds me of how London Irish played under him... (never thought Brian Smith was the brains.)

so, thoughts on Catty please.

 

[ratsapprentice]

England's handling skills and general awareness have definitely improved of late - it's very possible this is a direct result of Catt's work.
It's hard to know for sure though.

There was a suggestion that one of his roles was that of an "individual development program" (IDP) manager.
This came to light at a Bath club talk with fans when Ford and co were explaining a program that we run under that name and it was explained that what Catt does is comparable to this position at Bath.

A very basic explanation of the program's goal is to improve a player's standout skill rather than bring up their weaknesses.
So for example the aim of Dan Cole's "IDP" would be to improve his jackaling... Courtney Lawes' might be to hold a defender and pass/offload into space in the 5m channel.
The example given at the Bath talk was Davey Wilson - he has been working on his ability to break tackles and side-step.
His break in the first couple of minutes in the Wales game is no fluke - he works on that skill directly in training at Bath.

As I say though, I don't know exactly how similar Catty's role is to the one explained above.

 

[goodNumber10]

never knew any of that, cheers.

There is a lot i see in the attack that i used to see at London irish, and also at Bath when Catty was there. It's probably a combination of both if we're honest.