AMID THE HECTIC run-up to Christmas, among the warmer uplifting glimpses into a sportsman’s psyche came from LA.
LeBron James was courtside for a youth basketball game featuring his son Bryce. When the 11-year-old stormed away displeased with his performance, the game’s best player broke into a jog to catch up, sit down and offer some important advice on the fickle nature of scoring in sport.
“If you making shots or missing shots, don’t worry about it, kid,” James implores.
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“You get too down on yourself for no reason. You made three of the biggest plays of the game.”
The message is simple. There is more than enough stock pre-loaded into scores in any sport, they define the outcome. But in most cases there is a lot more to any player’s performance than their percentage shooting accuracy.
Gareth Steenson didn’t quite enjoy the same anointed status as fellow 34-year-old James did on his way to the top, but he has also learned not to dwell on the misses. Because another shooting chance is never far away.
“I go out to try and kick every goal that I can,” Steenson says after The42 misconstrues a previous interview’s suggestion that he ‘practiced missing’ shots.
“But what I’ve learned over the years is that, you’re not going to kick every goal. And you can’t let that hinder the other things in your game, you just have to get on with it.
Steenson kicks at goal in Gloucester. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
“It’s how you bounce through mistakes. When I was younger, I’d base my whole game around how I was kicking at goal. If I missed two or three kicks in the game, I’d be saying I had a poor game. Then you look back and think: ‘actually I went quite well.’”
Reacting well to an adverse outcome is vital. Because perfection is impossible.
It’s a feeling. I believe if you go out and miss and then learn to deal with the situation it makes you stronger.
“The last thing you want is to go and knock all your kicks over in the warm-up and then the first thing you do in the game is miss in front of the posts. That could completely destroy your confidence and the next thing the whole game’s gone. Probably dealing with missing is the best way I could put it.”
It’s a skill that could come in very handy when Steenson brings his Premiership-leading Exeter Chiefs side for what could yet be a winner-takes-all clash with Munster in Limerick next Saturday.
Thomond Park history is littered with the names of goal-kickers and out-halves with blossoming reputations who wilted in the silent pressure.
Steenson is an assured old hand. And he has quite literally been down this road before. Though a lot of mortar has been put in place since then.
“The last time I was there it was U21. I don’t think there even are U21s any more,” he jokes. That game was a 33-0 win over Italy in 2004, when his four conversions came for tries from Richard Lane, Keith Doyle and Jamie Heaslip.
“It’s a long time. I’ve not seen the new Thomond Park. I was there in the old days.
“Ultimately, we want it to be an exciting week for us when it comes. It could potentially be a knock-out game.
“If we can get a good win this week, we’ve set ourselves up for a chance to get into the last 16 in Europe. Because ultimately it will come down to who wins on the day. That’s a great way to be. It will be a real exciting prospect for us as a team.
“It’s a big challenge for us as well. We want to challenge ourselves as much as possible if we want to be a top side in Europe, this is the sort of challenge you want. I hope we can put in a performance this week and, when it comes to it, next week it will be a real exciting day for us.”
Steenson makes a break at Thomond Park in 2004. INPHO
INPHO
Steenson was speaking before Joey Carbery’s tour-de-force helped Munster to a brilliant bonus point win away to Gloucester. The gap between the southern province and the pride of England’s south west now sits at nine points. So for a grandstand pool finale at 17.30 next Saturday, the Chiefs will need a bonus point win over an uncompromising Castres at Sandy Park today (kick-off 1pm, BT Sport).
The French champions have already played a big part in keeping Champions Cup Pool 2 as tightly congested as it is, with an unlikely 14-man win over today’s opponents coming before their ill-tempered back-to-back battles with Munster. The Devon club entered this campaign determined to make their mark in European competition, yet looked dead and buried without a win to their name through the first three rounds.
Doing things the hard way is basically a part of the Chiefs’ DNA, however, and nobody personifies that better than Steenson.
The Ulster native’s journey has been well-documented, forced to seek out rugby in England in 2006, he found a kindred spirit in the shape of the Chiefs. A club with aspirations and class fit for the big time, and will to scrap every inch of the way there.
Fans of Munster and Exeter ought to look across the water with admiring glances. Because there are no shortage of similarities in their underlying culture. Simple geography is one element, with each side based in southern cities some way removed from the capital. But just as relevant is the playing ethos underpinned by hard-edged forward pack and a relentless hunger for work.
Steenson has become more than a symbolic stalwart for the club, he is a legend. He holds the record points tally (2504 and counting) and led them to a Premiership title. After 281 appearances, he is perfectly happy to fulfill squad roles with spells as fullback this season and he is among the replacements this afternoon.
Steenson turns to his backs in the home draw against Munster. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
The raspy bass of Steenson’s Armagh heritage has not been diminished in his voice despite this being his 11th year at Exeter and 13th in England. Through that time he continuously held out hope of playing for Ireland, either as an exemption to the non-existent (but usually enforced) overseas player rule, or not.
He laid down plenty of performances worthy of a call-up during the Chiefs’ remarkable rise from plucky second-tier tyros to champions of England.
He has made Exeter his home now and with a growing interest in coaching and a young family it’s not easy to picture the 34-year-old anywhere else. He recently opened a bar in his adopted city too, a formally established version of the homemade refuge he had created for fellow Chiefs.
“When I moved home five or six years ago… we had a nice garage and, you collect a lot of memorabilia over the years. The wife told me ‘you’re not allowed put it up in the house’. So I put it up outside, then it developed to, basically, after games and the way things were going; the club was progressing, it was a nice little haven for guys to come in and have a drink, chat about the game, watch a bit of tele or whatever sport was on.
“That’s an extension of that we’ve created in town. Same idea, what you’d expect of an Irish bar… just a bit of fun really.
“To be honest,” he adds of the new bar, called the Stand-Off, “just arose off the back of me having the testimonial last year. I got to meet a lot of people outside of the rugby club, business people in Exeter, and it’s been nice to have a (distraction, so that) not everything’s about the rugby. I have other things to think about now.
“When I come back to the rugby, it makes it more enjoyable and it keeps the mind ticking.
“I’m just enjoying things and love the place we live in. It’s a great place to be.”
He adds: “It’s very similar to home. It’s got all the same sort of feeling, it’s a bit more laid back down around here, similar to what I was used to back home in Armagh.”
“I’m proud of my home and I’d have loved to play for Ireland. The opportunity never arose while I was playing in England. But I’m very aware that I’ve played my best rugby here and to be part of a club that has grown from where we’ve been to where we are now, one of the top teams in the Premiership, hopefully progressing to be one of the best teams in Europe.
“To be part of that journey, for me, it’s very fulfilling. I’m very pleased with where we’re at.”
Top of the Premiership and still with a shot of hitting a new landmark by reaching the quarter-finals, what’s not to like?
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Long-serving Steenson determined to help Exeter lay down a marker on Thomond Park return
AMID THE HECTIC run-up to Christmas, among the warmer uplifting glimpses into a sportsman’s psyche came from LA.
LeBron James was courtside for a youth basketball game featuring his son Bryce. When the 11-year-old stormed away displeased with his performance, the game’s best player broke into a jog to catch up, sit down and offer some important advice on the fickle nature of scoring in sport.
“If you making shots or missing shots, don’t worry about it, kid,” James implores.
“You get too down on yourself for no reason. You made three of the biggest plays of the game.”
The message is simple. There is more than enough stock pre-loaded into scores in any sport, they define the outcome. But in most cases there is a lot more to any player’s performance than their percentage shooting accuracy.
Gareth Steenson didn’t quite enjoy the same anointed status as fellow 34-year-old James did on his way to the top, but he has also learned not to dwell on the misses. Because another shooting chance is never far away.
“I go out to try and kick every goal that I can,” Steenson says after The42 misconstrues a previous interview’s suggestion that he ‘practiced missing’ shots.
“But what I’ve learned over the years is that, you’re not going to kick every goal. And you can’t let that hinder the other things in your game, you just have to get on with it.
“It’s how you bounce through mistakes. When I was younger, I’d base my whole game around how I was kicking at goal. If I missed two or three kicks in the game, I’d be saying I had a poor game. Then you look back and think: ‘actually I went quite well.’”
Reacting well to an adverse outcome is vital. Because perfection is impossible.
“The last thing you want is to go and knock all your kicks over in the warm-up and then the first thing you do in the game is miss in front of the posts. That could completely destroy your confidence and the next thing the whole game’s gone. Probably dealing with missing is the best way I could put it.”
It’s a skill that could come in very handy when Steenson brings his Premiership-leading Exeter Chiefs side for what could yet be a winner-takes-all clash with Munster in Limerick next Saturday.
Thomond Park history is littered with the names of goal-kickers and out-halves with blossoming reputations who wilted in the silent pressure.
Steenson is an assured old hand. And he has quite literally been down this road before. Though a lot of mortar has been put in place since then.
“The last time I was there it was U21. I don’t think there even are U21s any more,” he jokes. That game was a 33-0 win over Italy in 2004, when his four conversions came for tries from Richard Lane, Keith Doyle and Jamie Heaslip.
“It’s a long time. I’ve not seen the new Thomond Park. I was there in the old days.
“Ultimately, we want it to be an exciting week for us when it comes. It could potentially be a knock-out game.
“If we can get a good win this week, we’ve set ourselves up for a chance to get into the last 16 in Europe. Because ultimately it will come down to who wins on the day. That’s a great way to be. It will be a real exciting prospect for us as a team.
“It’s a big challenge for us as well. We want to challenge ourselves as much as possible if we want to be a top side in Europe, this is the sort of challenge you want. I hope we can put in a performance this week and, when it comes to it, next week it will be a real exciting day for us.”
Steenson was speaking before Joey Carbery’s tour-de-force helped Munster to a brilliant bonus point win away to Gloucester. The gap between the southern province and the pride of England’s south west now sits at nine points. So for a grandstand pool finale at 17.30 next Saturday, the Chiefs will need a bonus point win over an uncompromising Castres at Sandy Park today (kick-off 1pm, BT Sport).
The French champions have already played a big part in keeping Champions Cup Pool 2 as tightly congested as it is, with an unlikely 14-man win over today’s opponents coming before their ill-tempered back-to-back battles with Munster. The Devon club entered this campaign determined to make their mark in European competition, yet looked dead and buried without a win to their name through the first three rounds.
Doing things the hard way is basically a part of the Chiefs’ DNA, however, and nobody personifies that better than Steenson.
The Ulster native’s journey has been well-documented, forced to seek out rugby in England in 2006, he found a kindred spirit in the shape of the Chiefs. A club with aspirations and class fit for the big time, and will to scrap every inch of the way there.
Fans of Munster and Exeter ought to look across the water with admiring glances. Because there are no shortage of similarities in their underlying culture. Simple geography is one element, with each side based in southern cities some way removed from the capital. But just as relevant is the playing ethos underpinned by hard-edged forward pack and a relentless hunger for work.
Steenson has become more than a symbolic stalwart for the club, he is a legend. He holds the record points tally (2504 and counting) and led them to a Premiership title. After 281 appearances, he is perfectly happy to fulfill squad roles with spells as fullback this season and he is among the replacements this afternoon.
The raspy bass of Steenson’s Armagh heritage has not been diminished in his voice despite this being his 11th year at Exeter and 13th in England. Through that time he continuously held out hope of playing for Ireland, either as an exemption to the non-existent (but usually enforced) overseas player rule, or not.
He laid down plenty of performances worthy of a call-up during the Chiefs’ remarkable rise from plucky second-tier tyros to champions of England.
He has made Exeter his home now and with a growing interest in coaching and a young family it’s not easy to picture the 34-year-old anywhere else. He recently opened a bar in his adopted city too, a formally established version of the homemade refuge he had created for fellow Chiefs.
“When I moved home five or six years ago… we had a nice garage and, you collect a lot of memorabilia over the years. The wife told me ‘you’re not allowed put it up in the house’. So I put it up outside, then it developed to, basically, after games and the way things were going; the club was progressing, it was a nice little haven for guys to come in and have a drink, chat about the game, watch a bit of tele or whatever sport was on.
“That’s an extension of that we’ve created in town. Same idea, what you’d expect of an Irish bar… just a bit of fun really.
“To be honest,” he adds of the new bar, called the Stand-Off, “just arose off the back of me having the testimonial last year. I got to meet a lot of people outside of the rugby club, business people in Exeter, and it’s been nice to have a (distraction, so that) not everything’s about the rugby. I have other things to think about now.
“When I come back to the rugby, it makes it more enjoyable and it keeps the mind ticking.
“I’m just enjoying things and love the place we live in. It’s a great place to be.”
He adds: “It’s very similar to home. It’s got all the same sort of feeling, it’s a bit more laid back down around here, similar to what I was used to back home in Armagh.”
“I’m proud of my home and I’d have loved to play for Ireland. The opportunity never arose while I was playing in England. But I’m very aware that I’ve played my best rugby here and to be part of a club that has grown from where we’ve been to where we are now, one of the top teams in the Premiership, hopefully progressing to be one of the best teams in Europe.
“To be part of that journey, for me, it’s very fulfilling. I’m very pleased with where we’re at.”
Top of the Premiership and still with a shot of hitting a new landmark by reaching the quarter-finals, what’s not to like?
Subscribe to our new podcast, Heineken Rugby Weekly on The42, here:
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
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