Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

The small tip that helped turn Brett Connon into a world class kicker

Brett Connon of Newcastle Falcons concentrates before kicking a conversion during the Gallagher Premiership match between Newcastle Falcons and Worcester Warriors at Kingston Park, Newcastle on Saturday 5th June 2021. (Photo by Chris Lishman/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Former England outside half Dave Walder has revealed the crucial advice that has turned Brett Connon into a “world class kicker” and helped Newcastle pick up vital Premiership points.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Newcastle No.10 landed a last gasp penalty to earn Falcons a losing bonus point at league leaders Saracens that made it five out of five kicks in the 29-23 loss. That followed on from seven from seven when he helped defeat reigning champions Leicester 45-26 at Kingston Park. Now, Connon will be bringing an impressive kicking success rate this season of 84 per cent into the game with London Irish on Sunday and Walder, the Falcons head coach, is delighted with his player’s contribution in a difficult season.

Walder amassed 1039 Premiership points in a playing career that took him from Newcastle to Wasps and onto Japan and also earned four England caps that brought 41 points. He is using this kicking expertise to help Connon whose boot ensured home wins over Tigers, Exeter and Sale this season. Walder explained: “I made a slight change to the way Brett was positioning the ball on the tee. I felt he was leaning it too far forward and missing the sweet spot a little bit and so we talked about how he could change. He has come back and his kicking statistics are now world class.

Video Spacer

Mike Brown and Ollie Lawrence | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 66

Video Spacer

Mike Brown and Ollie Lawrence | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 66

“At the start of the season we felt our goal kickers accuracy was letting us down a bit in games and we talked about and they all went away and worked hard. Brett is now kicking at a high percentage and he is leading they way with 84 per cent.

“Across the league, goal kicking is so important with close matches and everyone will say that the kick Brett got for the bonus point at Saracens was great and it was, but the conversions of the tries in tough, windy conditions that kept us in touch so that we could earn that losing point. Brett is right up there with the best in the Premiership at the moment.

“There are particular challenges kicking at Kingston Park with the way the wind comes into the stadium and I think it sets him up for dealing with the different problems you face across the Premiership at different stadiums. If he can kick at Kingston Park then he can kick anywhere.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 42 minutes ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

12 Go to comments
F
Flankly 1 hour ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

9 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Springboks make 12 changes and move away from 7/1 bench split Springboks make 12 changes and move away from 7/1 bench split
Search