Rugby League Coaching Manuals

By Ian Laybourn, Sporting Life - Veteran coach John Dixon makes no apology for packing his Celtic Crusaders team with experienced Australians as the Bridgend club look to plant firm roots in Super League. Dixon, a seasoned Australian himself, has added nine players to last year's National League squad and all but three of them are from the southern hemisphere.

Difficulties over a heavy dependence on overseas personnel were brought sharply into focus when no fewer than eight of the Crusaders players were left stranded in Australia by visa delays but Dixon believes the wait will be well worth it.

Five of the new faces - Ryan O'Hara, Lincoln Withers, Adam Peek, Mark Bryant and Marshall Chalk - can boast more than 500 appearances between them in Australia's National Rugby League and that experience will be crucial as the Crusaders look to defy the bookmakers, who make them favourites to collect the wooden spoon in their first season in the top flight.

Dixon has also recruited Castleford's Peter Lupton and St Helens pair Matty Smith and Steve Tyrer and says he tried to lure more players to Super League's newest club from the game's heartland.

"We talked to lots of people right across the spectrum - from Australia and northern England - and those keenest to join us were people in the southern hemisphere," he said.

"There is a lot of tradition in the clubs in the north and attracting people to Wales in our first year wasn't the easiest exercise.

"We hope, as we continue to grow, that we will have more appeal to people up north and also to people in Welsh rugby union."

Only four members of the Crusaders' 26-strong senior squad are Wales-born but the vast majority of the club's junior teams are local and there are a record number of schools in south Wales playing rugby league.

Having spent three years working on the grassroots, Dixon is confident the use of overseas players will soon be superseded by local talent.

"There won't be the Welsh contingent in 2009 but there will be the 'Welshness' in our squad that is ongoing and that will be the real strength and that will provide sustainability," he says.

"It's a long-term process. All the strong clubs are based on a junior development strategy and that's what we need to have at our place.

"What we have to do in the interim is provide a side that be can a role model or appeal to young people."

Rugby league has endured a tenuous existence in south Wales over the years but, if the Crusaders' remarkable progress since their formation in 2005 is matched over the three seasons of their Super League licence, the future is indeed bright.

Under Dixon, they won promotion from National League Two at the second attempt and, after finishing second to Salford in League One last season, lost to them in extra-time in a thrilling Grand Final.

But the former Brisbane Broncos assistant coach is under no illusions over the size of the task facing his side in 2009.

"When we joined League Two, they said we wouldn't be successful but we finished third in our first year and won the competition in our second year.

"Teams who get promoted don't get success but we were 30 seconds away from winning the Grand Final, so who knows?

"Do I believe the step to Super League is the same as from National League Two to One? No I don't. We're untested in this area but we've got some confidence in ourselves and we'll compete really well.

"But, as to where we finish, there will be no predictions from me. Are we ready? Only time will tell. We think we've recruited pretty well."

Dixon's men face arguably their toughest match first up with a trip to defending champions Leeds next Friday, a fixture brought forward three weeks to enable the Rhinos to play the World Club Challenge.

Rather than being daunted by the prospect, Dixon's initial reaction to the draw was one of eager anticipation.

"We're pretty excited about it," he said.

"In at the deep end on the first day, that was wonderful news for us.

"It's a great way for us to start the season - it puts us in the limelight, playing a week before the season starts. We're on national television and so we're in the frame right from the word go. That appeals to us enormously."

A former schoolteacher, at just turned 57, Dixon takes over from Wakefield's John Kear as Super League's oldest coach but he insists he is here for the long haul.

"This is what I wanted to do," he says.

"These are exciting times for everybody associated with the club.

"We've got some young players here who want to play footie at the elite level. It's a dream come true for them and their aspirations and certainly for me it's a most satisfying time.

"In rugby league years, we're very young here and that applies to the coach as well."