Top Tofty

Tofty
By Paddy69
August 17 2002

Mark Mapletoft, or Tofty, as he prefers to be called, has recently joined London Irish from NEC Harlequins. I caught up with him at the London Irish Press Day on Thursday.

Now that he has had a chance to settle in to the squad, Tofty is enjoying life at LI (if you can call full contact training in 32 degree heat enjoyment?).

Having had 3 lengthy layoffs, totalling 3 ½ years out of his playing career, Mark is keen to get into the new season. Freely admitting that on his return to Quins from his latest injury last season, he didn’t play well, he is keen to set the record straight now. How much of that was down to psychological factors and how much down to structure, Mark was not prepared to speculate.

“Being out for a long time does take its toll mentally”, was all he would say when pressed. “However, in some ways, it is better to have an injury that you just know will keep you out for a long time, then you know where you stand, far worse to have one of those niggly injuries, that just won’t go away”.

“The training structure is very different here”, says Mark, and although the Quins coaching staff were excellent, he finds that the LI set-up is more to his liking.“The training is much more game-based, and that suits me better”.

“I have the greatest respect for Brendan, and his training methods, he won’t accept anything but your best. With the heart rate monitors and the assessment thereafter, no excuses are accepted for not performing”.

Indeed, emphasis on performance seems to be an ever-present theme at LI these days, with both Conor and Doc emphasising it at every opportunity.

When asked about the Docs fierce attitude in the training session, Tofty said, ”Even today, when there were about 6 players who didn’t participate in the full training session, and players were being used out of position, Brendan gets frustrated when players are not in the right place at the right time. This is in spite of training out of position, perhaps, where you’re not sure of the calls, no excuses accepted”.

On his own chances of making the team, he has been told that the same ethos as last season applies, if you get your chance and take it, the place will be yours. Looks like some things aren’t changing.

I mentioned that he might be speculating on Barry picking up an injury! “Having been there, I wouldn’t wish injury on anybody. I share a lift in with Daws, and we talk about the effects that long lay-offs have on players, especially from a psychological perspective”. One of the Academy players has picked up what will be a long-term injury, and Mark has been helping him to get his head round it. Indeed, Mark is full of praise for Barry, and reckons Barry, best known for his kicking has a fantastic all-round game.

Tofty also mentioned that Declan was now learning the No. 8 game from Chris Sheasby, and the intimation was that he is being groomed to take over in this position. “Chris is such a character, a great player and will be a hard act to follow”. For now, though, Daws and Dec will be fighting it out for the no. 7 berth. I had to tell him that we know O’ Sheasby is bionic. Cue laughter.

Sadly, Dec had gone by this point, or I would have been straight back to him.

He added that Pieter Rossouw had been having a positive input into the backs coaching, adding some new variations.

“I’m really looking forward to the Middlesex 7's and the Leinster trip. We have been training extremely hard for the 7's, in fact, we've got another session this afternoon (Thurs)"

"I hope to meet some more of the supporters at both of these. So far, the welcome has been fantastic”.

At that point, more frolicking with a football called, so in the time-honoured tradition of the tabloid reporter, I thanked him and left. “My pleasure, see you all in Dublin”, came the response.

All in all, a thoroughly nice bloke, hence the title of this article. Let’s hope that given the chance, he will prove those critics wrong.