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The Auckland debacle has put Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie in the cross-hairs for, unfortunately, legitimate reasons.
The Wallabies looked a dispirited lot from the start of the game, with a disorganised feel about them, some bad dropped ball and poor defence. Why would that be? In Sydney the previous week, they also started poorly, but didn’t look dispirited.
Both matches did show a lack of general cohesion and disorganisation at times. Nic White was desperately looking for someone to pass to at times, and quite often chose someone in a worse position than himself – a cardinal sin.
But where were the runners? Wycliff Palu and Matt Toomua crashed together in Sydney while both were attempting to field a restart, where neither had obviously called ‘mine’.
There is only a short time to get the team together prior to the first Bledisloe, but that applied to both teams. One more week, and the All Blacks upped the ante with commensurate response from the Wallabies. Why?
I have a suspicion that there is a crisis of confidence among the Wallabies about the strategic and management capabilities of their coach. A damaging public disciplinary incident in Ireland looked to have been overcome through the evidence of good subsequent performances, notably against Wales.
Quade Cooper, a player that McKenzie believes in, was at 10, Toomua at 12, and the backline functioned well. Cooper is currently on the injured list, and in the meantime we have witnessed the rise of the Waratahs and the fluid and effective functioning of their backline, with Nick Phipps at nine, Bernard Foley at 10, Kurtley Beale at 12 and Adam Ashley-Cooper at 13.
The selection of Beale at 10 to replace Foley, who played the June Tests against France, was very mystifying, but perhaps it was going to be a masterstroke. The first Bledisloe showed that it wasn’t going well, but also that when Phipps and Foley came on, the team looked more settled and organised.
The continued Beale experiment in Auckland was perhaps too obvious a mistake for McKenzie to make for the Wallabies players, and their dispirited performance was the result. They are professionals, however, and surely they can still do what is required of them, can’t they?
I don’t think they necessarily can. At the top level of any sporting contest the result will go to the player or team that can deliver their absolute best under pressure. In rugby, the team must be united as one to have faith in each other to make the necessary tackle and clean-out the ruck in time to save possession. They also need to have absolute faith in their coach and his strategic judgements, selections and team skills and training management.
Steve Hansen has proved since 2011 that he is a master coach and man-manager, along with his coaching team. His team believe in his abilities to manage the process to give the All Blacks the best possible chance of winning. Winning helps a lot, of course, but there is more to it than that.
The most important part of the process is the man-management. Players have to be individually managed to bring out their best and convince them buy into the processes in place. Players need to know everything about their necessary skills, why they were not picked, what they have to work on, what is their path forward and what their potential future in the team is. Where and how do they fit in?
Our most successful recent coach has been Rod McQueen, a businessman and employer of people. He is a man who had experience in dealing with employees with competitive interests and agendas to bring out the best in them for the betterment of the company and its bottom line.
Michael Cheika has now emerged as a coach with a similar background in business management and employment and management of people. He has people skills. The Waratahs showed the value of that, and the players were fiercely loyal to the coach and team direction.
Is it too late for Ewen McKenzie? Has irreparable damage already been done to the fragile trust between the coach and players? I think we are right on that edge, and the only way forward for McKenzie is a new start with the team, via a mea culpa admission regarding the selections at nine and 10 in the first two Bledisloe Tests, and a personal style transformation to enable him to accept advice, listen and learn, be more inclusive and change direction as required.
He has shown himself as extremely pig-headed and determined that he knows best. There is a disturbing element of macho head-butting behaviour in the way he does things, which is a major negative to any organisation at any time.
His challenge to Steve Hansen for the All Blacks to bring their “A” game was stupid and unnecessary. The lack of sportsmanship by the All Blacks towards the Wallabies shown after the Michael Hooper try – when the ball was left sitting behind the goal-line and Beale was waiting on the 22 for an All Blacks player to kick it to him – was a direct result of McKenzie’s bull-at-a-gate attitude. He’s a risk taker where no risk is required.
This is a massive moment for McKenzie. He has to realise that the public and all the resources of Australian Rugby would be behind him if he could show those personal attributes of seeking and accepting advice. His personal silo of information is tainted, and he has to get out from under his own stubbornness. With that change, he could very well succeed in bringing the players along with him.
Here’s hoping anyway.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.