I’m sorry for you if you really think only an Australian can coach our national team. We learn new and different things every day, irrespective of where we learn them or who is the teacher. Our forward play – especially in the scrum – was considered so poor in the 1950′s and 1960′s we sent out an SOS overseas for someone to come on down to teach us how to scrum. A Welshman – O’Shea if memory serves correctly – answered the call and finally ended up at the academy in Canberra. Thereafter, our forward play in the scrums improved markedly and led to the standard improving to such an extent, our teams have been highly competitive ever since.

We – that is the Rugby family – send “emissaries” world wide to hopefully improve the standard of Rugby in emerging countries, indeed, even to countries that are thought to be “rusted on” adherents and the backbone of the game in both hemispheres. I suppose Wales should be condemned for having Graham Henry, Scott Johnson etc to coach their National team? Numerous other ex AB’s or Enzedders have coached such National teams as Italy, Japan, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga – as well as Scotland [add an Aussie here as well]. Eddie Jones has not only coached OZ but also Japan and Sth Africa. Should he be hog tied to OZ and only OZ? Of course not. Coaching is now a PROFESSION and as such we should not be blinkered into thinking that only an Aussie can coach our National team. Gosh I could go on ad nausea if one included International cricket into this discussion as well. Usually the standard improves from the cross fertilisation of ideas, as does the reach of our great game.

Fiji was coached at the RWC by that great [Fijian] Australian Ile Tabua and what a brilliant job he did. Perhaps we could offer him the job if Deans is unavailable? If a coach with a forward background could get our backline to perform like Fiji did at the RWC then perhaps he should be enticed back to the fold.

Rather than me being “blinkered” and “right wing”, I really think it is you who should take stock and really think about what I really alluded too. If someone writes an expose on an individual – irrespective of the intent and refuses to include a cross section of supporters of that person in the book to get BALANCE, then one will always end up with a contentious, possibly jaundiced view or slant towards the subject matter. Much was written in the print media at the time – it was also discussed at length on TV as well. I followed the thrust of the debate intently. I decided then not to allocate additional time to this debate as I hopefully try to be constructive – not destructive.

We have discussed great OZ Wallaby coaches from the past on earlier occasions and I made the point then that the most successful were not Wallabies except for Dave Brockoff. At one of the forums on the recent RWC tour of France an ex Wallaby with great forward knowledge, was asked why he had no desire to coach. His answer? “It’s time to try something different”. Guess it’s the case of the old adage “those who can.. play, those who can’t.. coach” – or perhaps become referees or comment on blogs!

As for terms such as “multicultural society” to describe OZ – I’d prefer to use the term Australian as that is what we all are, irrespective of our diverse ethnic background. Mine is a mix of NZ, Canadian and Scottish on my father’s side, and OZ, English, French [Huguenot] on my mother’s side. I have very close blood relatives and relatives by marriage who could be described as being black, white or Asian and I love and embrace them all. They are Australian, except when they are citizens of another country. It’s just great to live and breathe in the best there is – even if our Wallaby team is to be coached by an “outsider”.

You’re sounding like a right wing christian fundamentalist censor from the 1950s.
“I wouldn’t waste my time in reading it, as I believe Chris Master’s “slant” on things …”. How can you possibly make a judgement on a book you haven’t read.

You weren’t born south of the Mason-Dixon line were you?, You’ll probably accuse me of being some “pinko commie”, next.

Bob, seriously though, I DO care where our national coach comes from, actually I’ll rephrase that, Australia is a multi-cultural country, and I don’t care where our national coach was born, but I feel it important that our national coach has an allegiance to Australia.

As to the contenders up for selection? I not really happy with any of them. None of them are exceptional, they all seem very mediocre to me. It’s all about safety first, and the fear of losing is foremost in their minds. Why didn’t we hear of any club coaches approached for the job, after Alan Jones and Bob Dwyer both came from clubs directly to the Wallaby coach.

I was on the 44 day Wallaby tour during the RWC in France. After OZ was knocked out we met up with a few Wallabies on our tour coach and at various social functions. I asked most who they would like the new coach to be. Despite your reservations, Robbie Deans was the one most mentioned. Admittedly most were backs and given how negative our back play has become over the past few years I was not surprised to see them nominate Deans.

I really don’t care where our new coach comes from as long as he is committed to the National team and is the “best” available. After all, any professional person would want to succeed in the role delegated to them. It should be remembered the winning captain of the first RWC – NZ’s David Kirk – is now the CEO of Fairfax [Fin Review, SMH etc - Sydney's leading and oldest paper]. We always want the best to run our largest companies, irrespective of where they come from. Only at the political level do we insist the job goes to a citizen of the country.

I’m not a defender of Alan Jones or whether he should or should not be Wallaby coach again. However, unless an obvious biography on Jones was AUTHORISED by Jones -so as to correct obvious mistakes and ommissions etc – then I wouldn’t waste my time in reading it, as I believe Chris Master’s “slant” on things would be there from start to finish.

Reminds me of the left wing media always quoting the author of one of the UNAUTHORISED biographies of John Howard to comment of this or that. It always resulted in the biased thoughts of the author being taken as gospel. Done often enough what is written “becomes fact” irrespective if it was crap or not. Why wasn’t Howard’s authorised biographer asked to comment? Because the lefties wouldn’t have got the answer they wanted!

By the way I hope Robbie Deans becomes the next Wallaby coach.

If he becomes the coach of the Wallabies, I’m moving to New Zealand.