Toby Booth is now two years into his tenure as Ospreys head coach. So just what has he made of Welsh rugby? “How long have we got?” he quips.
Up until 2020, all of Booth’s rugby career had been spent in England, as a back row and hooker with Folkestone and Blackheath, then coaching at London Irish and Bath.
But then came the move to Wales, with everything that involves in terms of the volatility and unpredictability of the rugby environment here.
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“To a certain extent, I knew what I was walking into. There had been a fair bit of diligence on my behalf to try and understand the whole Welsh backdrop,” he says.
“Starting out, it was difficult. To be honest, it was more complex - let’s put it like that - than what I expected and that manifested itself even further down the road. But in terms of the positives, what I have loved about the whole Ospreys region is how passionate they are about the game and the effort that goes into it.
“Everyone wants the same thing, they want a successful Wales team and successful regions. We have just got to find the best way to get there. It’s not going to be perfect, but we have to find a way because we want Welsh rugby to thrive.”
The Ospreys have certainly been moving in the right direction under Booth, with the former electrician having sparked the team into life. In the season before he took over, they had finished bottom of their PRO14 conference, winning just two out of 15 league matches, while losing all six games in Europe.
Now they stand as the leading team in Wales, based on league position, and the country’s only representative in next term’s Heineken Champions Cup. One wonders whether he views that status as a pressure situation?
“Pressure is for tyres! It’s a great opportunity. We have earned that right and we are very proud of that fact against what was a very difficult backdrop. It’s a great reflection on the team and the effort and hard work that was put in by everybody. We will do our very best to seize that opportunity. The glass is half-full for sure,” he said.
“We started this journey under my tutelage a couple of years ago. The first year was about assessing where we were, the second year was trying to bed in a bit more. We are getting to understand what we are and what we are good at.
“During the off season, as a head coach, a lot of reflection goes on about how you went and what you need to get better at. What I have probably learned over time is it’s often not about changing huge amounts. It’s more of a building process. You’ve got to be confident on the journey that you are on.
“There has been a lot of sifting through footage and stats and looking at what the key things are that make a difference. We won enough games to be in the URC knockout stages and we know we need more bonus points. We are looking at how we can get those marginal gains.
“We want to be more progressive, score more tries, defend better, everything, we just squeeze and squeeze. The good intent is mirrored throughout the business. We are not satisfied with just being ordinary, we have got to go and earn what we deserve. That’s the challenge for us all. The group is set up better than it was and we are enthusiastic about the future.”
The Ospreys’ Euro schedule will certainly give them a good idea of just how much they have progressed, with the English and French champions - Leicester and Montpellier - providing the group opposition.
“We want to test ourselves against the best and there is two of the best right there. We are up against the two league winners, which is what I wanted before the draw. Let’s take the very best on and find out where we are,” said Booth.
“It’s an extreme challenge but one we look forward to. With the four-match group format, there’s very small margin for error. We need to be peaking at the right time and having a fit squad is vital. We know it’s very difficult, but whatever happens, we are going to enjoy it.”
As for his approach to coaching, the 52-year-old Booth has said his man-management owes much to his time on building sites when he was a player down in his native Kent. “I loved my job as a sparkie. It’s a life experience which is entirely relevant to what I do now. You have to know which buttons to press, have a good feel for people, know how to get your concepts across.”
In his mid 20s, he swapped life as an electrician for studying biology and sports science at St Mary’s College in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. After gaining a BSc, he went on to become director of sport at the college, while player-coach at Blackheath.
He began to forge a reputation as an innovative thinker on the game, working with England Students and U21s, and then, over the years, at London Irish and Bath. Now he is doing the same with the Ospreys. Chatting to him at their training base in Llandarcy, it’s clear it’s a role he is relishing, as he brings his extensive coaching experience to the fore, along with his amiable people skills and dry humour.
"From day one here, it's been about what we can do and what we can control. I'm very respectful of the history of the Ospreys, but my focus has been on looking forward and creating something new," he says.
In terms of the business operation at the region, that’s very much the world of chief executive Nick Garcia, who came on board from Manchester City.
“When I joined a year ago, it was a case of let’s build a plan that takes us forward and we did. We are tracking well in terms of our social media growth, our commercial growth, our shirt sales are up," says Garcia.
"Everything is going in the right direction but my God there have been rocky seas. Covid has been so much more of a hangover than anybody expected, but we are really excited about next season.
“It’s critical that we service our local fan-base first and foremost and that begins with our match day experience. We are looking to see if we can do more in terms of that. We want to see more seats filled. It helps the guys on the pitch play better rugby and no TV product looks good with empty stadiums. So that’s an area we are going to really focus on.
“We have made a conscious decision that we want to be more transparent and open with our supporters. That means better digital content and better visibility. We are also going to be recruiting quite a lot off the pitch on the business side, having slimmed down for Covid.”
And, finally, what about the ongoing debate over the future of the pro game in Wales, amid financial challenges and speculation over the number of teams?
“There has been a lot of work this last year with the WRU and the regions around Welsh rugby and how we can make it better. That’s been keeping us busy,” says Garcia.
“We are doing a lot of work around the restructure. That is probably the single most important thing we can achieve in Welsh rugby right now. It’s not an easy fix, but I think we are very close. I am bullish about the future, but we absolutely have to drive that over the line.”
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