Deans confirmed as the right man for the World Cup
By Adrian Warren, 26 Jan 2010 Adrian Warren is a Roar Pro
Wallaby coach Robbie Deans watches his team train in Sydney, Australia. AP Photo/Mark Baker
Robbie Deans has been confirmed as Wallabies coach until the 2011 World Cup, with Australian Rugby Union boss John O’Neill boldly declaring the struggling code had turned the corner after confronting its demons.
Last year wasn’t kind to rugby, with Australia winning just six of 14 Tests, no Australian team making the Super finals and concerns over declining attendances and television ratings.
There was speculation highly-regarded New Zealander Deans might struggle to retain his position after an indifferent year.
However, O’Neill revealed the ARU board had guaranteed his tenure through to the next World Cup after listening to a review of 2009 by Deans and the ARU’s high performance manager David Nucifora.
“The board were very comfortable and confirmed Robbie in his position through to the World Cup in 2011,” O’Neill said at the Wallabies jersey launch.
O’Neill said there would be no changes to Deans’ assistant coaching line-up, but revealed that former Brumbies and Blues coach Nucifora would be more available and would help assistant coach Jim Williams in the lineout and breakdown areas.
With a new broadcasting rights deal which O’Neill said he was “pretty pleased with” to be announced over the next month, the ARU chief believed there was also on-field reasons to justify his belief Australian rugby had turned the corner.
He said the emergence of promising youngsters like flanker David Pocock, halfback Will Genia and inside back Quade Cooper potentially heralded “the making of another golden era”.
O’Neill was also pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction of leading northern hemisphere administrators following Australia’s 33-12 win over Wales in the final match of their spring tour.
“I was in Dublin for an IRB meeting and a number of northern hemisphere reps said the way we played in the first 20 to 30 minutes, we could be the team to beat at the World Cup,” O’Neill said.
Although the World Cup looms next year, O’Neill said Australia’s immediate objective was to win their first Tri-Nations tournament since 2001 and regain the Bledisloe Cup which was lost to New Zealand in 2003.
O’Neill was adamant he wasn’t concerned about rival football codes, even though soccer stood to gain tremendous coverage this year from the World Cup.
“We are not concerned about competition, we will be cheering for the Socceroos as loudly as any other good Australian would,” said the former Football Federation Australia chief executive.
“The reality is we’ve confronted our demons as a game.
“We were really open last year in talking about the state of the game, crowd figures, ratings et cetera.
“The response we’ve had from sponsors, corporate partners and broadcasters has been `that’s great, that you aren’t trying to hard from the truth and you’ve confronted it’.
“You don’t want to be in the trough for too long and I think we’re coming out of the trough and 2010 will be the year when we’ve turned the corner.”
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Dropkick said | January 26th 2010 @ 6:58am | Report comment
Dam. I was hoping Deans would be appointed to coach South Africa…
Hansie said | January 26th 2010 @ 7:03am | Report comment
What a surprise! Robbie Deans has survived a review conducted by Robbie Deans.
LeftArmSpinner said | January 26th 2010 @ 7:35am | Report comment
no brainer. but good anyway
Kento said | January 26th 2010 @ 7:46am | Report comment
I just wish we wouldn’t have some a major focus on the World Cup; it’s just a tournament and should be de-emphasized.
mcxd said | January 26th 2010 @ 8:20am | Report comment
nucifora be more available to help ? the way he helped auckland packed with all blacks ? please help by leaving or even better going to coach the all blacks or boks. Is there a job in the ARU dave wont put his hand up for ? Dave, the toilets are blocked please sort them out. yes Mr. O’neill…….. Im still trying to work out what “high performance manager” means ?
Bay35Pablo said | January 26th 2010 @ 9:02am | Report comment
mcxd, it means “I am in charge of about 1/3 of the ARU budget every year”. Youch!!!
hammer said | January 26th 2010 @ 8:29am | Report comment
One thing about the Aussies – they can talk a good game – just because you say it doesn’t make it happen – another ‘golden era’ ? – it’s been well hidden up to now – perhaps O’Neil actually believes that 4% improvement b/s the new jersey is meant to provide
Bay35Pablo said | January 26th 2010 @ 9:05am | Report comment
I never thought it was in doubt Deans would coach us through. You don’t change the builder halfway through rebuilding your house, unless you can help it. And it is a big job to rebuild the mess we had before.
Is it just me, or does Nucifora hang around in the background like the Grim Reaper? It’s like he’s just waiting for the chance to become the Wallabies coach when whoever is currently there gets punted. It’s creepy.
Sheek recently said to me JON had almost disappeared, which was quite unlike him (JON not sheek). Now we know where he was, bargaining on the TV deal.
Red Rooster said | January 26th 2010 @ 3:29pm | Report comment
Pablo – the grapevine says that Nucifora has been annointed to takeover post world cup so he needs to keep his coaching cv up to date so its not too controversial. Not bad heh – get promised the job 4 years in advance and do little or no coaching (u20′s to 5th place and some vague Wallaby involvement) and then get the job – creepy indeed
funmaster said | January 26th 2010 @ 11:29pm | Report comment
Dropkick, we are pretty much happy with PDivvy thank you very much. Now the draw says we shouldnt meet the wallabies untill the finals.
I sure hope you dont catch the “chockers-tag” bug from your tas-man neigbours, or Engkand.
Either way, either way
DanielB said | January 27th 2010 @ 12:00am | Report comment
Love how all the members of this new ‘golden generation’ are overseas born – doesn’t bode well for the state of the union in Australia.
Frank O'Keeffe said | January 27th 2010 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
If John O’Neill thinks Robbie is still the man for the job then I suppose we can trust that.
Let’s be honest, aside from his decision to play Giteau at 10 and Barnes at 12 (I’d prefer it the other way around), the problems with the Wallabies go well beyond the coach.
While we can criticise Deans for playing Burgess for as long as he did, and for the declining Aussie backline, there have been holes in the Wallaby side that are difficult to fix.
Australia really hadn’t had a great kicker at fullback since Latham retried. Adam Ashley-Cooper’s recent form is very promising I will say though, and I’d like to see him counter-attack with the ball even more this year. When Ashley-Cooper counter-attacked on the UK tour he looked more threatening. His kicking is solid without being great, and its kicking where the Wallabies have lost 6 or the last 7 losses to New Zealand.
I like to think Digby will start to hold down the 13 jersey from now on, and it appears the Wallabies have filled that gap.
10 is the biggest problem. Giteau’s performance against Wales was tremendous, but in so many games before that his kicking was been aimless. His cross-field running also complicates that backline as well. He drifs and the person next to him drifts some more. Ryan Cross got criticised a lot this year for being ineffective. But how can anybody be effective when so many defenders can mark you because your 10 and 12 are drifting.
Eightman was a huge problem because Richard Brown isn’t up to the international standard. Palu being back in the side is the way things should be. He’s not a great player compared to someone like Heaslip, but his form in Europe was very good and getting dropped seems to have lighted a fire under him.
The second row is a real worry. What Australia would give for someone like Botha or Thorn – a hard nosed grinding workhorse! It makes such a massive difference to the pack, and to me its where the Aussies have really lacked leadership. Great second rowers are leaders.
Tight-head is interesting. Alexander did a phenominal job on the UK tour – the whole scrum did. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles Woodcock this year though. I think the real test of Australia’s tight-head will be New Zealand. As the saying goes, “A side is only as strong as its tighthead.” I love how terrific the Aussie scrum is these days, and Benn Robinson is Australia’s best player.
I’d like to see Pocock over Smith this year, although that may change with the Super 14 season. Something Deans did so that annoyed me was rest Pocock against Scotland. Smith played poorly against England and against Scotland. He did redeem himself against Wales though. Meanwhile Pocock was easily the best player in the Irish game, and would have walked in MOTM had he not injured himself in the Wales test.
But yeah there are so many positions that need filling in the Aussie side – that’s my point. And you can’t expect Deans to just be able to fill them by experimenting with players. He experimented with someone like Brown, and I think he had to swallow the truth that Palu is just the best there is for the position.
With the progress the Aussies have made in the forwards this year I’m at a loss to explain how their backs went backwards at a rate of knots.