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Do some coaches influence the performance and motivation of players better than others? This question came to mind recently when considering the relative performances of the Wallabies and the Waratahs.
For years the Waratahs were horrible. Then their players changed into the gold jumpers of the Wallabies and became better at what they do.
Whether this came about for monetary reasons, because of the pride involved, or because of the relative talents of coaches in motivating them is unclear.
However, it was apparent in the Robbie Deans years at the Wallabies that his teams were generally made up of half the Waratahs’ side, and they performed pretty well against everyone except the All Blacks.
The stats during the Deans years show the Wallabies won 58 per cent of Tests but won only 16 per cent against the All Blacks. His teams won 73 per cent of games against everyone except the Kiwis, including 64 per cent against the Springboks. Not too shabby given half his troops came from an underperforming franchise.
Then there is All Black coach Steve Hansen. His record is staggering, with 29 wins and one draw in his first 31 Tests. More or less unbeatable, which puts Deans’ record into some sort of perspective as better than just ok.
Though the franchise performances of teams from which Hansen draws players are good – one of the franchises usually wins the provincial competition – the 94 per cent win rate by far eclipses any other stats in rugby union.
The Hansen coached All Blacks have Bradman-like statistics. They are simply miles better than anyone else in this era and probably in any other eras too.
So a conclusion might be drawn that Hansen and Deans improved the players’ performances, albeit from different base levels.
So where are we now in Australia? Time will tell if Ewen McKenzie will lift his group of Wallabies.
So far, his stats are getting better. Overall his winning percentage is 50, though it is still zero against the All Blacks.
The improvement is from the low point after his team couldn’t win any of the first six games they played. Thereafter the percentage rises to 80, though that includes only one win against any of the other top four sides.
This is an important qualification, as McKenzie will need to satisfy some base performance criteria and one benchmark he set for himself.
The base criteria is more or less to win all games against teams below the top four and at least half against the other top four teams. Ewen’s self-imposed problem is that includes at least half the games against New Zealand.
This is a tough ask to satisfy a big promise.
What is rather nice though is that the base level from which his players are drawn is much closer to the standard of the base available to Steven Hansen over the last few years. Two of McKenzie’s source provinces played finals football and one played in the final, exactly the same as the Kiwis.
Better still is that one of the provinces is delivering in spades. The gathering and motivation of talent in NSW is akin to the grouping of players in the ACT Brumbies team several years ago which formed the spine of the Wallaby team. That Australian team went on to be number one in the world.
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.