Is Todd Louden the most successful Aussie ex-pat coach?
Roar Pro By Bruce Ross, 11 Apr 2009 Bruce Ross is a Roar Pro
A recent Roar article, Rugby Is Rapidly Becoming Two Separate Games, by Jonnie Cox, mentioned the very limited opportunities for head coaching roles in Australian professional rugby.
Cox’s article and its follow-up comments drew attention to a number of Aussie coaches currently operating in Europe: Michael Cheika, Laurie Fisher, Alan Gaffney, Tony McGahan, Ewen McKenzie, Bill Millard and Matt Williams.
Others mentioned as having previously coached there were Andy Friend, Pat Howard and Jim Williams.
But arguably the most successful of our coaches currently working overseas has never had a European gig, although he has coached in Japan and South Africa.
Todd Louden is a young coach with the extraordinary record of having dramatically improved the performance of his team in every year he has coached.
In 2004, as Director of Rugby at Sydney University, he implemented their EDS (Elite Development Squad) program which is still operating and is the foundation for their status as number one Ccub in Australia.
In that year, Uni won the Sydney Club Champions with all nine grades contesting the finals.
In the 2004-2005 season, he was Head Coach of Meiji University, which participates in Japan’s 120 Collegiate Rugby Program. Louden took them from 68th to the top eight.
In 2006, he returned to Sydney as Head Coach of Randwick.
Their First XV advanced from ninth to Minor Premiers. They were narrowly beaten in the Grand Final by Sydney Uni, who were forced to make more than 300 tackles during the match.
Louden was named Sydney Premiership Coach of the Year.
The next season he moved to South Africa as attack coach with Heineke Meyer’s Blue Bulls, who went from fifth to winning the Super 14.
They were the first South African team to win a Super title, with their success attributed to their new attacking style.
In 2008, he was appointed attack coach of the NSW Waratahs under Ewen McKenzie. The ‘Tahs went from thirteenth in 2007 to second before being beaten in the Grand Final. The true story of why Louden was not appointed Head Coach after McKenzie was dumped remains to be told.
In the 2008-2009 season he went back to Japan as Head Coach of the Ricoh Black Rams, who had been relegated to Second Division status.
Under Louden’s guidance, Ricoh were undefeated in the Top East League and therefore qualified to play the winners of the other two second level leagues to determine who was to be promoted to the Top League.
In the first of these matches, the Black Rams played Mazda Blue Zoomers, winners of the Top Kyushu League, winning by 81 to nil. They then beat Honda Heat from the Top West League 54 to 20.
By winning both games Ricoh not only returned to Top League but also qualified for the All-Japan Rugby Football Championships, playing against Top League teams as well as the top two university teams.
Ricoh were eventually beaten at the semi-final stage of the All-Japan Championships, meaning that they now rank in the top four in Japanese rugby.
Todd Louden has thus achieved the extraordinary record that, in each of the past six years, the teams he coached were outstandingly successful and greatly improved their ranking.
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April 11th 2009 @ 7:51am
pothale said | April 11th 2009 @ 7:51am | Report comment
That’s great. Fair play to him.
April 11th 2009 @ 8:37am
LeftArmSpinner said | April 11th 2009 @ 8:37am | Report comment
Bruce, good article. For me, it is either a case of being lucky to be johnny on the spot, or being able to judge the status of a team prior to accepting the role, or he is a truly good coach.
There is a blemish, that, too, remains yet to be told.
The Tahs, version 2008, and in particular the backs, were appalling, I mean appalling in the first 6-7 rounds. Selections were wrong, tactics were wrong, players were unhappy, fans were unhappy….. primarily, as is the case this year, because the backs could not play any semblance of attacking rugby. Louden was the backs coach.
So Louden goes, Wisemantel comes in, and nothing changes, except that the playmaker gets blamed this time.
My solution:
“Carrot and Stick”
Stick:
1. Drop Tuqiri for Tahu. Tuqiri is not enough of a utility so, back to the Pirates for two games and the bye. Give Tahu some support, breathing space and game time to build his clearly fragile confidence. He can do at least as much and probably more, than Tuqiri and he is younger and has more potential.
2. Give SNK a 50 minute stint at 15. Beale needs some pressure off him and that happens when he is on the bench and out of the front line. But, Beale also needs game time and SNK cant win a match like Beale can and has in the recent past.
Carrot:
1. Give Carter the recognition he deserves for an excellent season so far. Let him play a full game. Much underrated work horse.
2. Show faith in the bench and give them some real game time. They are humans too. They need to play rugby, not stretches, from 7.40pm to 9.15pm on game night.
3. Horne is out of form, probably tired. he’s only young. Replace him and consider giving him a week off next week so that he has two weeks to recover (the bye)
But the biggest carrot is to allow the backs and encourage the backs to play some expansive, get deep, quick hands, support ball carrier, midfield moves from set pieces, clever, attractive and ENJOYABLE rugby.
Backs are human, ego driven, showoffs. They like showing up an opponent with a clever play, individual or as a backline. Let them do it.
Make it fun to play in the Tahs back line again.
Hmmm, and the spectators will come back and they will fill the SFS
April 11th 2009 @ 9:57am
ZULU said | April 11th 2009 @ 9:57am | Report comment
Agree entirely with “left arm spinner’ regarding the TAHS although experimentation is fraught with danger. If we are up by 20 after 40 mins then give ‘em a go..Re Todd Lauden – approx eight jobs in eight years does’nt normally impress on a CV ! is there something else to consider here ?? I believe the Western Force may have some interest in him….if I was them I’d be speaking with the head coaches he worked with to find out why he moved on after being so successfull.
April 11th 2009 @ 10:17am
Bruce Ross said | April 11th 2009 @ 10:17am | Report comment
A correction, Leftie. In 2008 Louden was not the Waratahs “backs coach”; he was the attack coach. Not surprisingly, as an ex-Randwick player, he has always believed that all fifteen players have to be involved in attack.
You state: “The Tahs, version 2008, and in particular the backs, were appalling, I mean appalling in the first 6-7 rounds.” After seven rounds last year the ‘Tahs had scored 18 tries to their opponents 16, with the backs scoring 61% of their tries. They were averaging 2.6 tries per game and conceding 2.3 tries.
For the season as a whole the ‘Tahs scored 38 tries to the opposition’s 23, with the backs contributing 58%. They averaged 2.5 tries per game and conceded 1.7 tries.
This year, after eight games, the Waratahs have scored a total of 18 tries and conceded 16, with the backs scoring 72%. Their try scoring average is 2.3 for and 1.6 against.
Most other Super 14 teams would be quite happy with either year’s stats and not find them “appalling.”
But I suppose most of us agree that as a wealthy city of over 4 million people we should be capable of dominating the competition and filling the SFS.
April 11th 2009 @ 10:28am
ohtani's jacket said | April 11th 2009 @ 10:28am | Report comment
I dunno if you can say Ricoh are top 4 in Japan, but they had a good season.
April 11th 2009 @ 10:45am
Bruce Ross said | April 11th 2009 @ 10:45am | Report comment
Zulu states:
“Re Todd Lauden – approx eight jobs in eight years does’nt normally impress on a CV ! is there something else to consider here ?? I believe the Western Force may have some interest in him….if I was them I’d be speaking with the head coaches he worked with to find out why he moved on after being so successfull.”
Leaving out Sydney Uni, where he did not actually coach a team, Todd Louden has had five coaching gigs, only two of which involved working under a head coach. It might not be too productive to ask either of those coaches why Louden “moved on;” as in one case the head coach also “moved on” and in the other the head coach “was moved on.”
In the case of Randwick – and I am happy to be corrected by someone more knowledgeable than me – the Club committee apparently decided not to continue with a full-time coach and offered him a part-time role.
With regard to the Bulls, it was widely reported that Louden was offered the head coach role when Heineke Meyer left. However I do not think that Pretoria is the safest and most congenial environment for a wife and new baby without any family support.
April 11th 2009 @ 1:19pm
Spiro Zavos said | April 11th 2009 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
Todd Lauden has written columns for The Roar and his insight into rugby in Japan, and throughout the world, is always well-informed and measured. This seems to be the same for his coaching style which as Bruce Ross has pointed out has been extremely successful.
As someone who has a bully pulpit to write about rugby, especially in New South Wales, for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Roar I must admit that the circumstances which ‘encouraged’ Louden to leave the Waratahs were perplexing. We were feed rumours from within the Waratahs camp (but really from whom?) that Louden was undermining Ewen McKenzie’s position.
Louden did the decent thing in the face of these (spurious?) rumours and took up a coaching job in Japan thereby taking himself out of contention for the job of coaching the Waratahs,
John Mitchell has only a year or so to go at the Western Force and Louden must be in line for this job. But he would probably be better employed, with his record of building up the strength of a club virtually from scratch, as the foundation coach of the Melbourne Super 15 franchise.
At least, I hope this happens.
April 11th 2009 @ 2:04pm
Jim Boyce said | April 11th 2009 @ 2:04pm | Report comment
Bruce – A very interesting topic and good point about Louden being the Attack Coach. There seems to be an off-field environment for clubs and S14 that does not include a long term investment in a quality coach.I had a conversation with one aspirant who described the board room environment to be not conducive to a long term investment which involved his family and his future career. He headed back to Europe.
I would also be interested in the history of how Louden was not offered the Waratahs job. Hard to find better credentials. He obviously knows how to manage players in a number of different cultures.
Outside Spiro there are not too many scribes who would recognise the required talents. Unfortunately Sydney is that type of town. The patience factor is not high and Leftie touches on some of those points.
April 12th 2009 @ 11:22am
ZULU said | April 12th 2009 @ 11:22am | Report comment
Bruce ….Your comment regarding Todd’s Randwick contract is incorrect. He was offered continuation as a full time coach [he had a two year contract]at a much improved salary. He played Randwick off against an offer from the Bulls and left the club after one year of his contract.. With regard to his movei to RSA I presume if you decide to move to Pretoria you would review the living conditions there prior to moving.
Todd obviously has a talent and i am not criticising his Rugby coaching abilities but it would be a better cv if he saw his commitments through and enjoyed the success ‘s he had apparently created.
April 13th 2009 @ 2:39pm
DAMAGE said | April 13th 2009 @ 2:39pm | Report comment
I really enjoyed your article Bruce… I also think that if you are going to be critical of a bloke lets not be critical of a coach who knows how to win!! And this bloke obviously does!! I would think Phil Mooney or Damon Ematage would like to have the CV of this guy… Yet they are still in charge of a franchise full of potential and has a team that rivals the Tah’s on talent but still find a way to lose!! SO please lets not try and assisnate this bloke because he has the ability to make things work.
As for the comments by left arm spinner… Look at the games in which the Tahs played in 2008 10 were wet weather or rain effected matches, conditions that no other Australian side had played in for several years…Knowing how to attack to suit your conditions and the opposition is not down to good luck, its down to good planning! And recognition that the attack coach can send his troops out to play any conditons! I would think that is a pretty good way to play.. God knows the Reds cannot do this, in saying that no other Aussie side can.
I know there are a lot of politics involved in Randwick & NSW Rugby but Zulu you must be very Green Eyed if you think that a professional coach would pass up an opportunity to coach at the top level of provincial rugby to stay on as a Sydney A grade coach… For you to say that he obviously played them off against each other is either naive or just club loyalties gone mad.
Good luck to the young bloke… Wish he was coaching my S14 team!!