I am a diehard Waratahs fan. It therefore goes without saying that I am a huge believer in Michael Cheika and his abilities as a coach, a communicator and a winner.
The rugby the Waratahs played this year to win the 2014 Super Rugby competition was the most expansive, exciting and effective I have seen since the 1999-2003 Wallabies era.
In saying that, I would not be picking Cheika as our next Wallabies coach, and I say this for a variety of reasons.
Cheika has a unique style of expansive, fast-paced rugby, which takes time for players to learn and implement into practice. He is the kind of coach that changes under performing organisations by picking them up by the scruff of their necks and shaking off the cobwebs.
I believe he will be an incredible long-term coach for our national rugby team. However I think he should be hired after next year’s World Cup.
Cheika’s coaching history shows that it takes his teams certain adaptation periods to achieve success. As a result, I believe there simply isn’t enough time from now until the 2015 Rugby World Cup for Cheika to fully shape the Wallabies into the team that can win and win regularly.
In his first major club appointment – Leinster in 2005 – he experienced a Heineken Cup semi-final finish in his first year, Heineken Cup quarter-final finish in his second year, and failed to get out of the group stages in his third year. In fact it wasn’t until 2009 that he led Leinster to become champions of Europe. That took four years for Cheika to transform Leinster into a champion club.
After a failed stint in Paris, he of course guided the Waratahs to victory after two seasons at the helm. We all know about the success and dominance of this year’s season, but his first year in charge in 2013 finished with the Waratahs in ninth place with eight wins and eight losses.
This was a season we had to have no doubt, and in that season Cheika was able to experiment with players, examine depth and learn through trial and error. It also showed that the Waratahs needed more than a year to fully adapt to his coaching methods and then implement his methods into on-field results.
While those achievements are extraordinary, the Wallabies do not have the four years that Leinster had, nor the two years the Waratahs could afford to give. We have 11 months until the Rugby World Cup 2015 kicks off and we need a coach who can walk in and provide the Wallabies and their supporters with immediate success.
We need Jake White.
White has won a World Cup. That alone should be an achievement that sets him apart from Cheika. The difficulty and importance of that single dot point on his resume makes him an impossible candidate to refuse. His 2007 Springboks team focused on having impenetrable defence, direct attack and dominant forward play with territory the vital key to victory.
White left the rugby scene altogether before joining the Brumbies in 2013. He implemented the same style of direct, defensive, territory-based rugby in an extremely short period of time. The result was immediate success and a Brumbies side reaching the Super Rugby grand final via an away semi-final victory against the Bulls. The key here was the immediate success, and his ability to implement a effective, simple coaching strategy in less than a year.
The following season he did the same again with a different team. He walked into the Sharks organisation and made immediate changes by naming Bismarck du Plessis as captain and announcing Pat Lambie as fly-half and Francois Steyn as inside centre.
He took them to the semi-finals despite their previous eighth place finish. This achievement is underrated as Pat Lambie, their form player, was ruled out for the season in Round 6.
Jake White will walk into the Wallabies set up and will be able to effectively communicate his coaching strategy in a shorter amount of time than Michael Cheika could. It is a simpler strategy, one that is easily to translate to results on the pitch and won that strengthens defence and wins World Cups.
I can’t wait for Cheika to coach the Wallabies. I can’t wait to see our expansive style take fans back to the days of Mark Ella and David Campese. I can’t wait to see a coach sit at the helm for a long amount of time and create a dynasty to rival Rod McQueen’s.
I just want to see it happen after Jake White delivers immediate results for us over the next 11 months.
Bob
Guest
Two years is not immediate success. It's quick, but not immediate. Cheika and McKenzie both had the same time with the Waratahs and Reds and won them the premiership. And both sides, like the Brumbies, were basket cases before they came along. White could only manage Runners-Up in the same time frame. There's no doubt that White's good, but Cheika's and McKenzie's results were better in the same time frame.
OupaZiggy
Guest
Jake White's time has come and gone. He should enrol as a mature age student to become a lawyer and I recommend he specialise in employment contract law.
mpm
Guest
Statistics show that no coach had won the RWC twice. Therefore Cheika is the logical choice. Ugh. The ARU will roll its dice. Let's analyze the results not guess what might have been. These articles are about as interesting as reading other people's fantasy football picks.
Superba
Guest
You omit to mention the political turmoil JW went through at the hands of SARU . No other coach has had to go through this sort of thing albeit in a World Cup year . You may recall that JW had his job advertised during the RWC. And despite this he pulled it all together . No mean feat .
WhoDis
Roar Rookie
You're forgetting Cheika has already had 2 years with a fair chunk of this playing group, so he already has a head start in some ways. Also, McKenzie's style isn't that far removed from Cheika's. It's not such a big jump in playing styles, it's more psychological difference IMO. What a great way to confuse players: having Cheika coach them expansive rugby at state level then they play Jake White snoreball in the gold jumper. No thanks! I'd rather lose and be entertained!
Johnno
Guest
TahDan Some dirt file on Chieka, he got sacked in France.
Johnno
Guest
Crazy Horse And that's why they call you crazy horse, you'd rather lose playing fun rugby, than winning being boring and ugly. Problem with OZ rugby, the OZ rugby fans demand to be entertained,England,Argentina,South Africa, and other countries do not. Henry changed is style post 2007, to be far more grinding he gave up on the mantra of entertaining, and that's what we saw in the final a grinding affair.
superba
Guest
Agree with this RO7 .The euphoria was the same when Deans took over .The same when EM took over .And again today - euphoria. Coaching at international level is a step up from S15 .A big step .Some coaches can not do this .Let's hope Chieka can .Let's hope the Reds players will play for him like the Tahs .Let's hope .
TahDan
Roar Guru
White clearly isn't a bad coach, but I don't buy that he's a ready made solution just because he won a World Cup - particularly given the circumstances in which he won it.
Mike
Guest
I think White is a good coach. I would have no qualms if he were coaching the Wallabies. But I am even more happy with Cheika. However, I think White was never a realistic option in this situation - the previous coach dumped his resignation on the ARU five days before the touring party is due to fly out. It had to be someone who was immediately at hand to negotiate, Cheika, Larkham, McGahan, Foley etc.
niwdeyaj
Guest
so? were the Bok's #2 at the time? i think not...
TahDan
Roar Guru
Zac, I thought you were making good points until you wrote this: "We need Jake White. White has won a World Cup. That alone should be an achievement that sets him apart from Cheika. " No offence mate, but White's World Cup was the luckiest in the tournament's history. look at who he played: England twice (smashing them in the pools and then beating them in the most dull final ever), Tonga, Samoa, America (all pools), then for the Qtrs they played Fiji, and in the semis they played Argentina - a team then only adept at a power game that was always done better by the Boks. For a little context, the Springboks came last in the Tri Nation for both 2007 and 2008, and White has had two coaching gigs in Super Rugby that have gone well, but ultimately failed - in the most recent instance with his team being effortlessly pulled apart by a clinical Crusaders outfit that the Michael Cheika coached Tahs went on to beat for the title.
Sineosaur
Guest
Me too. No to whight.
Crazy Horse
Guest
He'll no. I'd rather lose than see Jakeball established in Australian rugby.
Golden
Guest
Chieka doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that tolerates nonsense behaviour from his players. I've got no doubt that he may ruffle a few feathers once he's in the mix (which is a good thing) and we might even see a few more departures, but the players will soon learn to put up or shut up under his reign as Wallabies Coach. Cheika's game shape and style isn't too different from Link's, and there are a number of key players already familiar with his approach in the Wallabies set up. I don't think the player adaptation will be as tough as many are speculating. Cheika only has the Spring Tour and 4 tests next year to implement his approach, so I do hope that the Aussie public and fellow roarers have a little patience and give him some time to get the team firing again. Personally, I'm writing the Wallabies Spring Tour off already as an experimental phase (I'm not for a moment suggesting they won't win any games, just that they won't be a true representation of the finished product under Chieka at that stage). The litmus test will be the ABs tests in 2015. If the team is genuinely contesting for a win at that stage I'll be relatively pleased with our run into the World Cup.
sambo
Guest
Jake White! Get ready for a kick-a-thon.
Iwillnotstandby
Guest
Some of you may recall in jake whites time with the brumbues he put back in a whole lot of structures to improve bonding within the team. In the field they did play a fairly territory based game using very basic skills. Because it was apparent that their was too much dropped ball etc and good strong basics got them into the grand final even after doing it the hard way. Bringing larkham in as backs coach was always with a view to expand the gameplay when skills had improved. You can see the brumbies also played more ball in hand this year. I've now talked myself out of jake (possibly not considering his off field impact on team cohesion). The wallabies have shown some pretty good offloading and handling this year. They don't need to go back to basics. Chieka as coach White as team manager?
Who Needs Melon
Roar Guru
Forget the World Cup. I'd prefer to get someone on board now who can build long-term than a Band-Aid 'make do' coach to carry us through. I don't hold out much hope at all for the World Cup but want to be sure we are genuinely in a rebuilding phase.
Rollaway7
Roar Guru
They were a basket case before JW took over the bottom dwellers. No one expected anything from them so how did they choke exactly? After that in 2012 no one though they would make the finals so how did they choke once again? Bob its kind of important points when they make sense in reality not in bob land
Rollaway7
Roar Guru
Because unlike Ewen, White surrounds himself with the right people with the right experience. He knew they lacked attacking flair. Nothing wrong with bringing consultants in.