Former Ospreys boss Sean Holley has named the referee he never wants to see again, revealed the story of an old-school tour in Ireland that resulted in six players getting sent home, and explained why he is glad he is no longer involved in coaching.
The 55-year-old is now the co-owner of a golf business while also working in public speaking and rugby punditry. He recently appeared on The Offload, the podcast hosted by Tommy Bowe, the ex-Ospreys winger, and Donncha O’Callaghan.
Recalling the Welsh region’s run to the 2010 Celtic League title, which involved playing away to Munster, Ulster and Leinster near the end of the season, Holley referenced the devastating 29-28 Heineken Cup quarter-final loss they suffered against Biarritz in San Sebastian.
“We had an old school tour to get to the (Celtic) final. We lost in San Sebastian to Biarritz. That is a different story. Three of the scruffiest drop goals Damien Traille ever scored… We had a penalty. Clock had gone in the red, penalty, arm out, George Clancy, whom I never want to meet in the street ever again.
Old school tour
“So Dan (Biggar) goes for a speculative drop goal knowing we had the penalty in front of the sticks to win the game by two points. He missed the drop goal attempt – and George blew up for full time (instead of allowing the penalty).
“We’re desolate and I’m thinking, ‘What do you say?’ Filo Tiatia was retiring. I turned to our captain Ryan Jones and said, ‘We can’t let this great man retire on this’. I have got a vision; I didn’t, but we get to the final and I can see you lifting the cup on the rostrum and you call Filo to lift it with you.
“We had to go to Munster, Ulster and Leinster, three games in a week as we had a game called off earlier in the season, and we persuaded the board to let us go for the week, not let us fly back and forth. An old school tour to get two wins and two bonus points out of those three games.
“We beat Munster at Thomond, 20,000. We went to Ulster, Tommy scores the bonus point try in front of 15,500, so now we had two wins and one bonus point and just needed one losing bonus point in Leinster.
“So I said to the boys in the hotel, ‘You will never play for this club again if I see somebody without a beer in their hand’. I wish I never had. They thrashed the hotel. I had to send six of them home,” he said, laughing.
Having coached at the Gloucester academy, it was 2003, right at the start of the Ospreys foundation, when Holley went to work with Lyn Jones. “Lyn is the best coach I have worked with, a technical, tactical genius,” he insisted. “He taught me so much, as I was seeing things I had never seen before, and it encouraged my creativity to think how can I help and the level of detail on the (attack) moves.”
Asked if he missed coaching, having stepped away following his last involvement (Bristol in 2016), Holley explained: “Do I miss it? Sometimes I do. In times like Welsh rugby is in at the moment, I find myself scratching my head, I could really help here…
“I did (miss it) for the first couple of years. I had great offers coming in, but as time went by, every offer that came in, I would sit the family down and ask them, the three kids and my wife, and they would say, ‘Don’t do it, you are a better dad, a better husband, you are around more often’. So that sort of persuaded me.
“Don’t get me wrong, if the right one had come up that you couldn’t say no to, then that would have been a different matter. But because I got so heavily into TV and doing analysis as well as commentary and punditry, it felt like I wasn’t away from the game.
“I was still immersed in it and was probably watching more rugby, watching all the different teams, doing all my analysis – I created a niche on the TV for that. And yeah, I didn’t miss it as time has gone by.
“I look at it now and couldn’t think of anything worse than putting cones down. I channel my skills and ability into other things now, into my business and into other things.”
Looking at coaching in general in the pro game, he suggested several of those currently involved make the same mistake. “A lot of modern coaches, in particular, miss the point,” he said.
“Rugby is about people. It’s about each other, it’s about a group, it’s about a team and getting the best out of each other and if that means going and having a beer with the boys and having a laugh, it means that.
“Or if it means pulling them in the office and telling you straight what you need to do, or this is why you are not picked this week and you need to do this to get picked next week, that’s life. You have just got to be yourself. There is no point trying to be somebody else.
“At the end of the day, I had to do that because I never had a long playing career, I never played for Wales. I had to earn the respect. I did all my academy stuff. I was the youngest first-level coach, the youngest regional coach when we started in 2003.
“Our first captain was Scott Gibbs. I was the same age as him [33]. I had to earn Scott’s respect. How do you do that? You be normal, you give up your time, you are, ‘What can I do for you?’ I did a few extras with him.
“Believe it or not, he said: ‘My left arm pass isn’t very good’. So we used to spend time working on his left arm pass, just he and I. I used to spend a lot of time with the kickers individually, (Gavin) Henson, (James) Hook, Biggar, all these, even going back to Adrian Cashmore.
“You had to earn their respect, not by being someone else but by giving of yourself. It stood me in good stead and gave me a great coaching career. I wouldn’t have changed anything.”
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