astronomy

Phil Larder

Phil Larder is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Phil Larder rather than just read about it. In short: Philip John Larder MBE (born 20 March 1945) is an English rugby league and rugby union coach, and former player in both codes. He coached England and Great Britain national teams in rugby league, and in rugby union he was defence coach of England, and the British & Irish Lions.

Key takeaways

Phil Larder belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Phil Larder to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Phil Larder from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Philip John Larder MBE (born 20 March 1945) is an English rugby league and rugby union coach, and former player in both codes. He coached England and Great Britain national teams in rugby league, and in rugby union he was defence coach of England, and the British & Irish Lions. He coached World Cup finals with England against Australia in both codes – losing the 1995 rugby league final, before winning the 2003 final in rugby union. Previously a physical education teacher and national coaching director of the Rugby Football League, Larder was one of the first defence coaches in professional rugby union, and is considered a pioneer in applying rugby league expertise to the defensive side of rugby union.

Early life and playing career Larder was born on 20 March 1945 in Oldham, Lancashire, and educated at Hulme Grammar School. After graduating with a degree in Physical Education and Sports Science from Loughborough University in 1965, he began work as a physical education teacher at Saddleworth School. He played rugby union as a centre for Broughton Park, playing regularly in the first team by the age of 16. He later played for Manchester and Sale, and became known as a particularly good sevens player. Larder found the travelling required to play rugby union incompatible with his work at Saddleworth, so moved to rugby league, where games were concentrated in the north of England. He was first approached by Leigh but opted to sign for Oldham. He played in Oldham's defeat by St. Helens in the 1968 Lancashire Cup final, and later moved to Whitehaven.

Coaching career

Rugby league Larder taught at Saddleworth School for 16 years, becoming Head of Physical Education before leaving in 1982. In 1982, he was appointed Director of Coaching for the Rugby Football League. Following Australia's 40-4 win in the first Ashes series test over Great Britain as part of the 1982 Kangaroo tour, Larder realised that the Australians had left the British game behind and urgent change was needed. Larder spent a week with Kangaroos coach Frank Stanton before the second test in Wigan to observe the Kangaroos' coaching and training methods. Stanton first obtained approval of this from the Australian Rugby League who raised no objections. Although the Australian's had begun to dominate international rugby league since the mid-late 1970s, the ARL recognised that for the international game to grow, Britain needed to have a strong international presence. Larder subsequently made further visits to Australia, and was influenced by coaches such as Arthur Beetson and "Supercoach" Jack Gibson, who himself had spent time in America during the 1970s studying coaching and training methods in the NFL, especially those used by successful Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. With what he had learned, Larder overhauled the coach education system in rugby league and his work saw the sport in Britain become more professional. Larder later coached Widnes from 1992 to 1993, Keighley from 1994 to 1996 and Sheffield Eagles in 1997. He was assistant coach to Mal Reilly on the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour, when the Lions won the third test in Sydney, their first test win over Australia since the second test of the 1978 Kangaroo Tour, and remained Great Britain's assistant coach until the end of 1994. He coached England at the 1995 World Cup, where they defeated Australia in the opening game at Wembley, but ultimately lost the World Cup final to the Kangaroos. Larder was coach of Great Britain on their disastrous 1996 tour of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. The Lions did not win a match in New Zealand, and several players had to return home early to save costs.

Rugby union Larder then moved to rugby union, becoming England's defence coach under Clive Woodward in 1997, He also joined Leicester Tigers in 1998, and the team won four consecutive Premiership titles, as well as Heineken Cup victories in 2001 and 2002. With England he won the 2003 Grand Slam and 2003 World Cup. He was awarded an MBE in the 2004 New Year honours. He then worked as defence coach on the 2001 and 2005 British & Irish Lions tours. He remained part of the England coaching staff until April 2006, when he was sacked along with Joe Lydon and Dave Alred following the team's poor Six Nations performance. Larder later criticised coach Andy Robinson for letting player power run the team in his 25-month period in charge. Larder worked with Worcester Warriors as a defensive coach on a part-time basis in 2006-2007 and returned to the club in 2011, before leaving in May 2013.

Works Larder has written two books on coaching rugby league – The Rugby League Skills Manual, published in 1983 and The Rugby League Coaching Manual, published in 1988. In 2015, his biography The Iron Curtain: My Rugby Journey from League to Union, written with Nick Bishop, was published. He has also produced two coaching DVDs – Knock Them Down and Iron Curtain Defence, both released in 2009.

References

External links (archived by web.archive.org) Statistics at orl-heritagetrust.org.uk

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Phil Larder

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Phil Larder claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Phil Larder before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Phil Larder ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Phil Larder

In research: Phil Larder appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Phil Larder in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Phil Larder is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 20th-century English sportsmen, Alumni of Loughborough University, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Phil Larder outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Phil Larder in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Phil Larder means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Phil Larder out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Phil Larder in simple terms?

Why does Phil Larder matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Phil Larder?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Phil Larder.