Robbie Deans knocks the knockers
Columnist 
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans is at the crossroads. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Related coverage
I’ll put my cards on the table right now – I am a solid Robbie Deans supporter and have been since day one.
He didn’t win five Super titles with the Crusaders if he couldn’t coach.
Admittedly he had a roster chockful of All Blacks, including three of the very best in Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, and Kieran Read.
Which makes yesterday’s 25-19 win over the Pumas on their turf with 41,000 rabid supporters, including two of them aiming laser beams in the eyes of goal-kickers Mike Harris and Kurtley Beale, very special.
Deans went into this Test after a flogging by the Boks at Loftus, losing Berrick Barnes and Adam Ashley-Cooper for the rest of the season. That took the injury toll to 16 frontliners – decimation.
Then the debilitating 24-hour trip to Rosario. The odds were stacked against Deans and his fourth skipper of the season Nathan Sharpe.
Yet the Wallabies won against all those odds, and they did it very ugly. But who cares, they did it despite losing big unit lock Kane Douglas early in the first half.
In one of the worst international games in memory with both sides regulary coughing up possession, and incurring referee Craig Joubert’s wrath with 27 penalties, a rugby game surfaced in the 65th minute thanks to some Beale magic.
With Ben Tapuai running decoy in front of Digby Ioane and Paul McCabe, Beale timed his pop pass to such perfection, Ioane was through a gap as wide as Sydney Heads for a brilliant five-pointer under the dot.
The game-breaker in a penalty shoot-out.
“He’s a class act”, was Deans’ spot-on comment.
Beale is at 10 to stay. Anyone who saw the spindley head-geared teenage version playing fly-half for St Josephs College, and Australian Schoolboys for three years, had Beale ticked in as a future Wallaby with a touch of Mark Ella in his play.
That touch surfaced again yesterday, which leaves Quade Cooper’s Wallaby future with a big question mark.
Cooper can’t play anywhere else in the backline, and his “toxic environment” within Wallaby ranks still hurts.
But Cooper is one of the now 17 on the injury list, and it would appear not one of them will be able to make October 20 for the Suncorp clash with the All Blacks to wrap up the home season internationals.
Which means Deans and Sharpe have an even bigger mountain to climb.
It’s worth repeating the Wallabies went into the Puma clash with 345 caps in the starting lineup. Sharpe owned 110 of them, the other seven forwards 147 between them, and the seven backs just 88.
According to my records, it was the least experienced Wallaby backline in 44 years since a meeting against the All Blacks at the SCG in 1968.
Arthur McGill (1 cap), John Cole (1), Phil Smith (2), John Brass (9), Alan Cardy (8), John Ballesty (1) and skipper Ken Catchpole 27 – all up 49 caps. They were beaten 27-11.
It could well be the same story again on the 20th. But it the Wallabies can hang onto posession and at least give it a crack against the very best team on the planet, there won’t be any knockers.
As Sharpe asked of his team before Rosario, “let’s play like men, and not boys”
And they sure manned-up yesterday.
Have you seen the new Wallabies jersey? Want one of your own? We're giving away a brand new 2013 Wallabies jersey to one lucky Roarer, click here to go in the running to win.
- Explore:
- Rugby Union, wallabies
October 8th 2012 @ 7:31am
M.O.C. said | October 8th 2012 @ 7:31am | Report comment
Not exactly sure how a scrappy win due to accurate kicking of one guy can suddenly make a coach look the goods? I understand that the WBs had plenty up against them this time, but I would credit this win to the guts of players like Sharpe and the calm of Harris rather than Deans. If this win can be credited to Deans, then the nex t question would be “whay the hell have you not performed better in better circumstances?”
PS. my inner geek is screaming due to the excessive use of the work “decimate” which has been used excessively to describe the WBs injury woes – decimate means to reduce by 10% – hence the “deci”. It was used by the roman army to punish poorly performing units and deserters – every 10th man standing would be killed (perhaps rugby teams could adopt this). And no, before you get the dictionary out and rubbish me, the modern definition is in the dictionary too, so David is still correct – I warned you of the “inner geek”
October 8th 2012 @ 2:08pm
AdamS said | October 8th 2012 @ 2:08pm | Report comment
While happy to take the win, I’m with you M.O.C. In the last two years Deans has had all the cattle in the world at his disposal, at times it has seemed that an injury to an incumbent only opened a place for someone even better to come on the field. His failure is a failure to make those cattle play good rugby. Scrappy wins and ugly losses and at times, patently insane in game decisions.
As to decimate, language evolves and you won’t win. I read a book about WW1 a while ago and a soldier described in his diary how his whole unit was slaughtered in a terrific and awesome way..
October 8th 2012 @ 8:20am
kingplaymaker said | October 8th 2012 @ 8:20am | Report comment
Well said David and its good to see someone who has the courage to honestly say what they think instead of jumping on easy bandwagons such as the anti-Deans mania.
It’s interesting how Steve Hansen tore into Deans and gleefully gloated over his losses. Was Hansen hopeful that talking Deans down might lead to him being replaced so he would have a weaker coach to face for the next three years? Hansen must be disturbed to think what would happen when Deans finally gets hold of a decent, and fit team.
Sadly there will have to be much better management of injuries by the franchises for Deans to have any hope of doing so.
October 8th 2012 @ 9:56am
Kane said | October 8th 2012 @ 9:56am | Report comment
Believe me it’s not easy being on the anti Deans brigade. I for one wish Australia could compete with New Zealand half the time even 33% would be amazing.
Unlike some others on the brigade I don’t believe Jake White or Ewen McKenzie could do a better job, or even match it for that matter.
The only available coaches that I believe are better coaches then Deans is Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie.
October 8th 2012 @ 11:21am
Jutsie said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:21am | Report comment
It would be funny if the ARU went after Joseph or Rennie for the top gig. Can you imagine the howls of anguish from reds supporters if the ARU went for another succesful kiwi super 15 coach instead of the annointed one mckenzie?
October 8th 2012 @ 11:50am
redsnut said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:50am | Report comment
Justie, I’d rather McKenzie stayed at the Reds.
I for one don’t care who the Wallabies coach is, or where he came from, as long as he stops selecting “favourites” over in form players.
As for the lack of depth that people have been banging on about – well that last team showed that there is enough as long as the right selections are made.
I used to be a strong Deans supporter until the RWC selection debacle. Since then, well not so sure.
October 8th 2012 @ 12:09pm
Jutsie said | October 8th 2012 @ 12:09pm | Report comment
Was disappointed with his approach to the WC however I always believe in 2nd chances, if not for second chances neither woodward or henry would have led their respective teams to WC’s.
What I wanted to see this year was an indication that deans had learnt from his mistakes at the WC and used the lessons to move forward.
Its hard to gauge whether this has happened or not due to the general disarray of the game in aus this year (poor s15 form for all teams, injuries, stupid match scheduling by the ARU). I can see in some aspects improvement (using the bench, scrum work, reliable goal kicking) but in others we have stagnated or regressed from last year (game plan in attack, selecting blokes that arent match fit etc).
October 8th 2012 @ 1:48pm
jameswm said | October 8th 2012 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
I agree with redsnut. I don’t care who the coach is or where he’s from. He has to perform based on some criteria. Improve our attack. Tell the ARU to shove it if they’re interfering. Form coherent game plans. Form coherent sentences even.
October 8th 2012 @ 1:51pm
Jutsie said | October 8th 2012 @ 1:51pm | Report comment
Its similar to the tahs situation. Hard to get a coach that wont take nonsense from the board when its the board selecting the coach.
October 8th 2012 @ 11:51am
Kane said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:51am | Report comment
Haha I could imagine the uproar. Rennie has international experience with the U20′s and Joseph with the NZ Maoris.
I feel its the lack of international experience that would leave McKenzie in the deep end as it has Deans. However Deans did assistant coach the All Blacks for a while.
As for Jake White I don’t think he is the right man for the job, I think the SA game style is to different to the Australian style. The Australian game being not to different from the NZ style. What I’m trying to say is that IMO kiwi coaches are going to fit in better coaching in Australia and vice versa than SA coaches trying to do the same.
I also believe this is why NZ coaches have tasted success when coaching Wales as they are the only home nation that tries to play our style of running rugby. This could also be why Australia under Deans have tasted success against Wales, 7 out of 8 times, but tend to come unstuck when they play the slow forward based games of the other home nations, 0 from two against Scotland, 2 from four against Ireland and 3 from five against England.
October 8th 2012 @ 11:54am
Red Kev said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:54am | Report comment
The ARU shouldn’t “go after” anyone – that was at least half the problem with Deans’ initial appointment let alone his extension – there was no genuine competitive process. The ARU interviewed half a dozen candidates as window dressing while JON worked back-channels chasing Deans.
Appoint a panel (include at least one very recent i.e. not Eales/Gregan Wallaby). Draw up a list of selection criteria for the coach to respond to and be evaluated on. Set a contract duration – i.e. conclusion of 2015 RWC. Invite proposals from interested coaches. If Rennie wanted to apply (and I would honestly be surprised if he did want to) then so be it.
October 8th 2012 @ 11:56am
Kane said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:56am | Report comment
Good points made here.
October 8th 2012 @ 12:00pm
Jutsie said | October 8th 2012 @ 12:00pm | Report comment
No need for the rant RK, was just putting forth a hypothetical for the sake of a laugh. Im on the same page as you I wrote this on brett mckay’s article last week:
“Look im not against mckenzie getting the job but all I want is for the ARU to finally become a professional body and go through a proper process when selecting the coach instead of just handing it to a preordained successor.
Link should have to apply for the job, setting out what his proposed plans are. And he should be one of many that have to follow this process (hopefully there are others who want the job lol).
In an ideal world the applications should be assessed by group possibly containing some ARU types but also some independent blokes and ex-players (like eales and NFJ etc) who all want what is best for the team.
If link is chosen as the ideal candidate after going through this sort of process than I will have no complaints.”
October 8th 2012 @ 7:03pm
frisky said | October 8th 2012 @ 7:03pm | Report comment
Kane, go back and watch teh
he first test. You ask for the WB to match the AB even 33%v of the time. Well in that game they were on the attck with 5 minutes to go and a converted try away from a win. I call that being competitive. I am an AB supporter and I was very nervous.
I do not think that the WB cause was helped by all this anti-Deans hysteria. I am surprised that Lord has outed himself out as a Deans supporter. That is not my memory of hois early articles, but I am happy to be proved wrong and that there is more than one rational “guru” on this site.
October 8th 2012 @ 8:48am
rl said | October 8th 2012 @ 8:48am | Report comment
David, I certainly agree that Beale is a special player, but still not convinced he’s the long-term answer at 10. Maybe a double act of he and JOC switching between 10 & 15?
Douglas’ unfortunate injury actually resulted in the better balanced lineup, with Higgers coming on and frustrating me once again by showing what he can be capable of. Shame he can’t do it against the very top teams.
I still reckon Deans’ time is up – as you say, he surely must be a good coach, but there’s other factors at play (which have nothing to do with his techincal capability). Timmy Sheens is a good coach too, but that hasn’t prevented him from being shown the door.
Well done Wallabies, ground out another tough one. Argentina would be filthy at their performance though – played like a team that is not used to favouritism.
October 8th 2012 @ 5:07pm
Lorry said | October 8th 2012 @ 5:07pm | Report comment
Agreed, Im also unsure of whether Beale is the long-term option at 10.
Can he pass left to right? If he can’t, he would be the only Wallaby #10 since forever who can’t. It seems to me that he throws Leaguie floaters when he throws left to right. That may work in league (although that’s arguable I reckon.., I think they could do with a few more Larkham-esque passers in NRL).
And being a star at #10 in the GPS competition doesn’t mean anything really: it’s a high school comp with only 8 teams which he competed in 10 years ago…. It doesn’t have much relevance.
I think the WBS should persevere with Cooper at 10; Beale is a good stop-gap. But leave Beale at full-back, where he is world class!
If Beale learns to pass left-right then he should be 10
October 8th 2012 @ 9:28am
krill said | October 8th 2012 @ 9:28am | Report comment
Nice article, not the negative crap you usually spew forth
October 8th 2012 @ 9:50am
Number 8 said | October 8th 2012 @ 9:50am | Report comment
Since when did beating Argentia become such a big milestone for the Wallabies? In years gone by it should have been a foregone conclusion and just a walk in the park. How low have standards dropped with Deans in charge? Who is there next challange? Japan?
October 8th 2012 @ 4:26pm
AndyS said | October 8th 2012 @ 4:26pm | Report comment
Since it was the difference between finishing second or third in the competition, and being second or just barely third in the world in the year the RWC pools are decided. The more so when the line-up was not far removed from what should have been playing Australia A, had such a thing still existed and injuries weren’t dictating selection. Australia was an underdog for a reason and it is always nice when they get up.
October 8th 2012 @ 10:09am
peterlala said | October 8th 2012 @ 10:09am | Report comment
Maybe Scotland or Tonga?
October 8th 2012 @ 11:32am
Justin2 said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:32am | Report comment
As long as it isnt Samoa
October 8th 2012 @ 11:14am
Sanuk said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:14am | Report comment
Funny how well the team performed without a bunch of under-performing failed Waratahs!
The question still remains re why the squad was not dominated by Reds and the Brumbies players. I suggest that had the majority of Waratah’s contingent not been selected in the first instance the WB’s would be in a much stronger place now. If Deans and the ARU administration go back to the failed Horratahs for the spring tour ar the Lions tour they have truly lost the plot.
October 8th 2012 @ 1:47pm
jameswm said | October 8th 2012 @ 1:47pm | Report comment
They had Robinson, TPN, Douglas, Timani and Dennis.
No Barnes or AAC.
So is AAC one of the underpefrioming Waratahs? I’m trying to work it out. Or is it Barnes? Is one player a bunch?
October 8th 2012 @ 11:52pm
mick-e said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:52pm | Report comment
Youve lost the plot. Players at international level are selected on a player by player basis not where they come from. You need to free your mental faculties of that idea but I am not sure you are capable of it. Why would Deans, with his background, be partisan toward the Waratahs? Doesnt make sense. When you consider a national team you set aside parochialism. Its a national team for godsake not a collection of Reds and Brumbies, Horratahs or whatever your affinity is.
October 8th 2012 @ 11:52am
Cliff (Bishkek) said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:52am | Report comment
Well David I am amazed at the BULL — if that win was due to Deans, then I for one will ask – WHAT HAS HE BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS?
David, it was not Deans – it was two things – it was heart and guts (not as much as it should be) – and it was Argentina. Remember the score was only a difference of 6 — should have been more.
The Rugby played was crap and that may hve been the moist conditions of the evening — but very, very poor.
Deans is not a GOOD INTERNATIONAL COACH. He is a good scout and identifier of talent – BUT HE CANNOT MOULD A TEAM.
Dean’s success at the Crusaders was due to waht he ws given – he developed nothing.
Deans failings; he cannot select correctly (many instances), he cannot select a bench correctly, he cannot use a bench correctly, he plays players out of position (and fials most times), he has weakend Australia’s once proud heritage of DEFENCE through straight bloody stubborness of thinking he can do it.
And as for Sharpe – great Warrior and the only man standing now — but he can only give for one game every now and then – went missing in Sth. Africa.
Wallabies are good against lesser talent. If the Argies were the Boks or the ABs on Saturday — the Wallabies would have got flogged.
get over DEANS – DAvid he was a HOPE – but he failed — and New Zealand KNEW IT.
October 8th 2012 @ 4:29pm
AndyS said | October 8th 2012 @ 4:29pm | Report comment
Fine, but the flip side equally applies – if that win was all down to the playing group, then what the hell have they been doing for the last five years?
October 8th 2012 @ 9:23pm
Cliff (Bishkek) said | October 8th 2012 @ 9:23pm | Report comment
Ageed Andy — agreed and htati s why my bloody hair has gone greyer than it should have and bloody more quickly than it should have.
I think Aussie Wallabies seem to have lost the PRIDE — not sure — I also belvie the 3 AMIGOS HAVE NOT BEEN GOOD FOR AUS REUGBY – TELENT YES – BRAISN NO – TEAM – NO – ONLY I
So the real reasons eldue me once they are on the field — but the 2nds just showed up the 1sts
What we get in Aus with putting the jumper on — id different to waht an AB player brings once he puts hte jumper on!!!
Cheers
October 9th 2012 @ 12:01am
mick-e said | October 9th 2012 @ 12:01am | Report comment
You’d be a lot better for my headspace if you’d learn to spell.
October 8th 2012 @ 11:52am
redsnut said | October 8th 2012 @ 11:52am | Report comment
Well said Sanuk
October 8th 2012 @ 2:14pm
ken oldman said | October 8th 2012 @ 2:14pm | Report comment
Deans is a first class coach,in my view there is no doubt about that.The same can be said about Warren Ryan a former coach in the ARL,but it was Tommy Raudonikis who taught the Ryan coached Newtown how to win.,for he was the test halfback at the time,leading the Jets into battle..
Deans needs a warrior like Tommy to say come on chaps just follow me and the inspiration will begin and the tide will turn for the Wallabies..
The ARU.just have to find a Tom Terrific.