Steep learning curve for Cowman after Ireland’s injury-ravaged season
The Dubliner was recruited into the national team set-up from Leinster and came highly recommended. His remit this week has been to prepare the squad for the humidity that will greet them at the BBVA Stadium on Saturday night which will almost be at Hong Kong levels.
The injury profile on this tour has been a refreshing change for the coaching staff, with Stuart Olding’s ankle having cleared up, and Les Kiss has a full deck to choose from against the US Eagles.
It marks a big contrast from the GUBU situation that dominated the last days of Declan Kidney when players were dropping like flies.
The IRFU have been looking into what happened, but trends have been hard to find. As Cowman’s first campaign it was a steep learning curve.
“Man, I’d love to know the answer to that question,” he replies when asked why the injuries came so thick and fast in the spring.
“There is a lot of people who can hang their hats on cause and effect in terms of injury but the other side of the fence is that sometimes you just can’t mitigate against them.
“I know during back in 2009 the injury profile for the squad was only a couple when they won the Grand Slam. This time around there has been a few more and obviously we didn’t go so well.
“The higher your playing roster is the more likely you are to be successful so if we can reduce the injuries and get rid of them, we have a far greater chance of winning games. When they are upon us it is a bloody tough challenge.”
Was it a freak occurrence?
“It would appear that way,” he said. “If you look at the patterning of it there wasn’t three or four hamstring tears. There wasn’t repeated injuries occurring. There was lots of trauma, an ankle here and there.
“It was certainly a difficult time for me, the first time being in as strength and conditioning coach trying to overcome those injuries. It was pretty challenging. It was unfortunate.”
Despite the difficulties, the union remain happy with the Irish injury profile. The job of the S&C staff is to keep it that way with the relentless schedule for senior players.
“It’s going to be tougher and tougher for us to have the injury profile we’ve had in Ireland, which is quite good.”
The lack of injury concerns on this tour could be linked to the relative youth of the squad, with two even underage for the U20 World Cup.
It has been said that the Irish players are too small and need to bulk up, something Cowman agrees with as long as it is done in the right way.
“The challenge for us is, because we are not the naturally gifted speed, size, power individuals we have got to put that into them. That, in itself, causes a stress,” he said.
“We have to get the balance right that what we think is an appropriate level of physical development so they can compete in collisions and tackles, but at the same time not have it be a stress on the players so they don’t break down and get hurt.”
This two match tour represents the end of his first full season in charge and it has been quite an experience.
“It is entirely different. I consider myself a novice at this level,” he admitted. “I can’t just transfer the programme that we had provincially and dump it into a national programme and expect it to work. That’s naïve.
“I’m back as a novice even though I’m in the game 12 years. It is a steep learning curve, but hopefully I’ll come through it.”
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