John Buchanan

Stephen Redgrave

Melbourne: Coach John Buchanan might be at the fag end of his stint with Australia but he is not tired of introducing new ideas to help the team succeed in their quest for an unprecedented third consecutive World Cup.

In his latest trick, Buchanan arranged a session with five-time Olympic rowing champion Stephen Redgrave on the pressure of expectations that will accompany them as they move closer to the final, which they are the ‘favourites’ to win.

Redgrave, the 45-year-old British rowing legend, told Ricky Ponting’s men how, in the second half of his career, he made a conscious effort to create an aura about himself so as to maintain an edge over rivals such as Australian James Tomkins, an Australia daily reported on Thursday.

He said he took a distinctly “Australian” approach, knowing that everyone would be looking at him as the favourite, a position very familiar to Buchanan’s team. Redgrave’s theme was called “aura maintenance”

Buchanan, who will hand over to Tim Nielsen after the World Cup, rarely misses a chance to exxpand the experiences of his players, and for example took them to visit soccer coach Alex Ferguson and his management team at Manchester United during the 2005 Ashes series. (PTI)