Back on the pitch ... forwards and backs?

So i've been slacking on blogging for a while, largely because I had a pretty heavy duty surgery and have been trying to focus on recovery.

LOTS of interesting rugby things have happened - I was privileged to complete the final session of the first Advanced Coaching Course here in the US, and now have just a few final deliverables to finish. The City 7s events occured, and four of our players here in Philly participated, as well as several of the MARFU U23 players. The Nations cup has come and gone, and our own Stacy Baker ROCKED the front row ... I reviewed a CDP workshop in Nebraska, and I'm currently working on some new coaching videos for our coaching workshops.

Of course, the fall season kickoff is here, now, and that's where my main attention is. We did a preseason camp in mid-august, and have been practicing and preparing for our first league match next Saturday. Due to the travel associated with the new women's divisional structure, Atlanta and Philly will be playing our first CR3 D1 match AT Pumpkinfest. P'fest will be alot of rugby, as we've got two sides entered AND we're playing the league match, AND we're running the tournament (and apparently I've got quite a historical position of honor as Philadelphia celebrates Pumpkinfest's 25th Anniversary in a very special way, thank you Allison).

But on to the business of COACHING. As I read and hear about various team's preseason preparation, I notice that a lot of teams don't bring forwards and backs together until several practices have passed by. I can see the value in devoting alot of time to unit skills preseason, but I've always felt that the connection between forwards and backs is too critical to take that approach. That being said, some of the teams who DO take that approach run very very successful programs, and so I'm curious to hear some thoughts.

Anyone?