Chase the solution

We love this train-of-thought story from champion coach Robbie Deans about focusing on success! This was back in his playing days, before professionalism, when he was playing for Canterbury. “You just chase that opportunity to succeed. Chase the solution. Shut everything else out. Chase the solution.” Read on to get all the feels.

“For me personally… a moment of growth was when we first defended the Shield against Counties. It was learning in every way.

We, for the first occasion, stayed in the night before, where previously we'd just driven from home; from wherever out in the country.

We'd underestimated how many people were going to turn up, so we ended up parking miles away. And we had to walk 30 minutes. Some of us were late for the team meeting.

We got into the game and I missed a kick early on, hit the upright from basically straight in front.

And at the end of that game had the opportunity to draw, which would mean retain the Shield. The last kick was in the last two minutes, so it was for all intents and purposes going to be our last chance to retain the shield.

And having missed the early one, where I was thinking more about the chance of failing I was just so happy to have an opportunity to redeem myself first and foremost, probably, but more importantly to have the opportunity to keep the shield for us… for Canterbury and for the team and for the region.

And it was where I learned the importance of concentrating on the opportunity to succeed. You just chase that opportunity to succeed. Chase the solution. Shut everything else out. Chase the solution.

And, I was shown a... well they actually made a picture of it and it was hung around a few outlets around town of my approach to that kick and I'd never seen myself in that context, because, you know, we didn't even take photos of the games let alone... there was no footage of them, really. You know, they weren't shown routinely... But I saw this image of myself kicking and just positive at the ball. It just reflected the mindset. So happy to have the opportunity to put this one through.

I was in shock, to be honest. In fact, we got back to the changing shed and the Counties players came through to their credit to thank us. And I met Bruce Robertson who I had a lot of respect for, and he went to shake my hand, and I was just… just shaking. It was a delayed reaction. It was like… Yeah… So the impact on me was enormous. But you're just so immersed at the time. You know, like… just lost in the moment.

And it was a moment of growth for me, as a player, that that's the way to approach the game.”