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Ask coach Bobby Dwyer, or any of the 1991 Rugby World Cup winning Wallabies, about Ewen McKenzie and they would say, “Great bloke, great team-man, great prop, and mighty tough.”
Tough is in a player’s DNA, it doesn’t change. So McKenzie’s dramatic and devastating exit has to be the tip of the iceberg.
McKenzie couldn’t be a wimp if his life depended on it. Having said that, he hasn’t been his normal, affable and easy-going self over the last few months.
Being terse, short-tempered, and scowling, aren’t part of McKenzie’s DNA. But for ARU boss Bill Pulver to blame the media for McKenzie’s demise is a red herring.
What is even more bewildering is the slience from ARU chairman Michael Hawker, one of the best men I’ve known in rugby for over 50 years.
Not only was Hawker a top-shelf Wallaby inside back, he’s made his mark in business on the world stage – he’s all quality.
I expect we’ll hear from him sooner than later, and in tandem with former Wallaby skipper John Eales, a board member, he’ll lead the way to find McKenzie’s long-term replacement before Friday, when the Wallabies leave on the five-week Spring tour.
There are only two possible contenders – Michael Cheika and Jake White – but tactically there’s only one to carry on the basic core work of McKenzie.
And that’s Cheika.
They are two peas from the same pod, where rugby is to be enjoyed by both the Wallabies and the fans by running the ball, not kicking the soulcase out of it.
White, on the other hand, is a renowned ‘territory gained by the boot’ coach.
But there’s one major difference between McKenzie and Cheika – the latter is a better man-management coach.
The case in point is Kurtley Beale.
Cheika gave the talented Beale the confidence in himself that no other coach had achieved, and was rewarded by Beale being a vital cog at inside centre in the exciting Waratah backline which helped end an 18-year Super drought.
The added bonus was the total understanding and combination between Beale and the most destructive member of the backline, Israel Folau.
But for some unfathomable reason McKenzie chose to ignore both those built-in bonuses when he threw Beale to the lions by naming him at 10 for the first two Bledisloe Cup clashes. When it didn’t work – and it was never going to with Nic White the halfback – McKenzie didn’t see the light and move Beale to 12, he dropped Beale to the bench.
That decision didn’t show Beale any respect for services rendered, and don’t tell me Tests are any different to Super Rugby, because Beale is a tried and tested Wallaby, but played out of position.
I’d venture to say if Cheika was the Wallaby coach at the start of the Rugby Championship, Nick Phipps would have been the half, Bernard Foley 10, Rob Horne 11, Beale 12, Adam Ashley-Cooper 13, Tevita Kuridrani 14, and Folau 15.
Beale wouldn’t be facing a career-defining Code of Conduct hearing, and the Wallabies wouldn’t be torn apart.
What a disgraceful mess it’s turned out to be that could have been so easily avoided.
So we await the real Ewen McKenzie story, his replacement, and hearing from Michael Hawker. This week.