Robbie Deans, this Tour is about winning and redemption

I have to admit, I am a Robbie Deans fan, I know he has his detractors so this article shouldn’t come as a shock.

Maybe I am special, maybe I am one of the few rugby tragics left in Australia, and yes I have been a continual loyal supporter of the Waratahs.

Maybe my fortunes are starting to turn around, South Sydney are topping the league, the Tahs are actually playing well (though not on Friday night) and I am getting ready for a massive Lions series ahead with the Wallabies.

However, like everything, there is always a cost. In recent memory I don’t think there has been a more spoken about or highly criticised coach than Robbie Deans (spare us all the misery of Peter De Villiers).

The Australian public is so divided by him, in what he has achieved, and what he should have achieved. Is Robbie entirely to blame, perhaps?

Or was his cattle good enough to get the team over the line; cue the likes of Giteau and Cooper?

Whatever you make of him, I hope he does well this series, love him or loathe him, don’t we all want to see Dingo and the Wallabies do well?

The Australian public has always had high expectations, we don’t accept failure no matter how realistic any national teams objective is.

Can you see us winning the Ashes? Nope – will there be a Cricket Australia inquiry, independent review, public fall out, a national day of mourning and vitriol splashed upon the front pages?

You could put your house on it. Our pride has always been our greatest strength but also our greatest weakness, our Achilles heel.

My point is that despite his history, Robbie Deans’ legacy comes down to this series. And he certainly knows it. If you evaluate his entire career on pros and cons, past mistakes and triumphs, there has been plenty of them, it could be fair to say that the ledger is even.

So let’s put this in context. I personally hate Shakespeare but apparently if you put his plays in context they make more sense, right?

Positives
When he took over as Wallabies coach it came with fanfare and optimism by the rugby public. Apart from Ewen McKenzie who could be considered a tad too green at the time, we had no other talent to choose from.

Sorry Alan Jones, your time was in the 80s, it was a far cry from the modern game.

Let me start this part of the article by saying that Robbie has an acute eye for detail.

In his first match he beat the All Blacks, blooded a bunch of new players such as the likes of Peter Hynes and Will Genia and brought the best out of the old timers such as your Sterling Mortlock, Phil Waugh and George Smith.

All of a sudden the Wallabies were encouraged to play what was in front of them; as opposed to the structures and predictability that previous coaches had engrained into the Wallabies psyche.

There was a fresh of breath air in the way the Wallabies played, new energy that seemed to reinvigorate the trust among the Rugby faithful.

The sky was the limit, and nothing was guaranteed.

The rot had stopped, you were playing for your position week in, week out, and times were changing.

Gone were the days when the senior playing group could confront the core management group and the Brumbies old boys could enforce their influence on the squad.

Deans is candid by nature, growing up playing barefoot rugby in the New Zealand snow had taught him well; that you were only as good as your last tackle, something that Australian stars have never managed to entirely fathom.

Like all things it would come at a cost, he could never get the best out of Matt Gitueau, although he was not entirely to blame, Giteau was in poor form internationally and domestically throughout the Super Rugby under Deans’ tenure. Everyone was put on notice, this was Test match rugby, and Robbie was loving every minute of it.

His triumphs include wins over South Africa, in South Africa, two years in a row, one of which being at altitude, a feat we hadn’t don’t in 60 odd years. A rugby championship was added to the old and dusty trophy cabinet at the ARU.

A third place in the rugby World Cup.

He took the sixth best team in the world to number two, second only to the All Blacks, arguably the greatest team to ever grace the rugby field with likely two of the best ever players of all time in their team, Dan Carter and Richie Macaw. Also, a kiwi grandmother could play well outside Maa Nonu.

He latterly took a third string team to Argentina and won, with the fourth choice captain, in a year which he fielded 41 different players and despite the odds managed to do reasonably well in a catastrophic year of injuries.

Robbies’ stats back him up as well.

Of the 71 tests Deans’ has had as Wallabies coach his overall win ratio is 60.56%. This is admirable considering over the past five years Graham Henry leads the list, second is Peter De Villiers (who inherited a lottery of players and systems after Jake White) and third is Marc Lievremont of France, who coached France to 46 matches compared to Deans’ 71 (and against nations like Italy and Scotland).

If you think about it objectively, who out of the three would you have as a coach, Deans’? PDV? Lievremont, doesn’t need to be answered.

If you factor the times he hasn’t played the All Blacks, our closest rival and the team we have played the most, his win ratio is closer to 70%, nothing to be sneezed at.

Cons and Mistakes
We’re only human, and we all have our failings, despite an enormous pay packet. It could be argued that Robbie was never a good communicator; I would rather think that he is candid yet diplomatic, shy to conflict, being abrasive is not his style.

To doubt his coaching expertise would be naïve.

Public fallouts with the likes of Giteau and Cooper have been well publicised, but was he entirely to blame?

There are always two sides to a story, probably not entirely. The fault somewhere lays 60% to the player, 40% to Deans. Giteau was in poor form and believed that he was owed the five-eighth role.

He didn’t fit the Deans’ mantra in the team first approach, and his form didn’t warrant him to be selected. Consequently he was dropped.

Regardless, Robbie was unable to enhance his talent to that of previous coaches, maybe Robbie was culturally insensitive to this, was he wrong, arguably no, could he have seized the opportunity better, yes.

It’s unfair that he was entirely to blame, but at least he was able to put his money where his mouth is and make a decision on the entire squad.

The same can be said for Quade. We all have our problems, our agendas. Quade had come off a serious injury and hadn’t been playing well all year, he lacked the confidence in contact, the speed, agility and the zip in his delivery; he hadn’t been first picked, and all of a sudden a player who thrived off confidence was found on the outer.

Labelling the team as a toxic environment when the squad was naturally anxious going through the motions of a horror run of form, injuries and when your backs are against the wall isn’t going to do you any favours.

We shouldn’t have to remind you that your coach stood by you and started you through the World Cup despite the appalling efforts by the New Zealand public, [cough, ahem, politicians], to cauterise and alienate an individual based on by large his heritage.

Sorry Quade, you haven’t done yourself any favours, despite public opinion on the fall out, Robbie knows that Quade has the talent at his disposal to win a game and will be considered if he fits the team dynamic; and despite recent events not being selected in the initial 25 squad to face the Lions, I still think he will feature at some point in the series, and he should.

There have been mistakes.

Bad mistakes. He has been found wanting with his substitutions at key times in a game.

Losses to Scotland – twice. Disputable considering one was away at Murrayfield, and of the game we dominated but failed to convert, Giteau missed the penalty to win the game and was consequentially dropped.

History has a habit of repeating itself, a perfect ambush for the Scots, William Wallace would have been proud, and credit to them after a tour to Samoa and Fiji.

By and large, to doubt Robbie Deans’ credentials would be naïve.

Much of the stigma would be fairly directed at him purely because he was the first foreign coach of Australia, who happened to be a Kiwi.

When James Horwill was lifting the Tri-Nations was there any jeers from Queensland?

No, there was elation.

I like the squad named for the Lions, its well balance, and the players in the squad are deserved and will complement one another on the field and in training. All in all, the Robbie Deans legacy will be defined by this Lions series, the ledger is even, the jury is out.

Redemption is your currency Robbie, and again its time to put your money where your mouth is. Get excited Australia, this is going to be one helluva a Lions series, only to follow suit with the Rugby Championship and Spring Tour.