Leadership & Management
How Warren Gatland won the preparation war in Cardiff
Warren Gatland’s knowledge of the game in the UK and Ireland is anything but one-sided. He has coached in Ireland, W...
Contributor
Nick Bishop
Here's what Nick thinks...
About Nick Bishop
Nick has worked as a rugby analyst and advisor to Graham Henry (1999-2002), Mike Ruddock (2004-2006) and latterly Stuart Lancaster (2011-2015). He also worked on the 2001 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia and produced his first rugby book with Graham Henry at the end of the tour. Since then, three more rugby books have followed, all of which of have either been nominated for, or won national sports book awards. The latest is a biography of Phil Larder, the first top Rugby League coach to successfully transfer over to Union. It is entitled “The Iron Curtain”. Nick has also written or contributed to four other books on literature and psychology.
“He is currently writing articles for The Roar and The Rugby Site, and working as a strategy consultant to Stuart Lancaster and the Leinster coaching staff for their European matches.”
Nick Bishop's latest articles
Defence
How to play the ‘libero’ like Faf de Klerk
The ‘libero’ is an evocative term in the Soccer vocabulary. It describes the free role played from a defensive positi...
Coaches Corner
What attention to detail at the cleanout really means
Ireland’s Joe Schmidt already coaches with the same values as his All Black counterparts, Sir Graham Henry and Steve ...
Defence
Getting your defence right: when to ‘dig’ and when to ‘wrap’
It is probably no accident that the teams with Farrell-coached defences only lost two of the six Tests they played ag...
Attack
How to attack with the box-kick
The perception of ‘negative play’ in rugby is often associated with kicking the ball. The idea that a team which can ...
Attack
How to blind-side your opponent from scrums!
Defence in the modern game is built around the speed at which the defensive line can move up and mount pressure on it...
Attack
The where and when of ‘how to offload’
The offload can be one of the most exciting and rewarding skills in the game of Rugby Union. Analyst Nick Bishop exp...
Attack
What is Creativity? – the curious case of Beauden Barrett versus South Africa
If the notion of creativity can be summarized in one word, that word would be ‘vision’. Better peripheral awareness a...
Set Piece
How the All Blacks dismantled the Wallaby lineout in Sydney
In his latest article analyst Nick Bishop uses Victor Matfield’s excellent Lineout series to helps illuminate the pro...
Set Piece
How the Crusaders lineout defence stood up to be counted in Christchurch
Lineout defence is one of the most important single aspects of defence as a whole. Analyst Nick Bishop explains how ...
