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At 11.30 on Thursday morning, the Waratahs issued a media release announcing Daryl Gibson as head coach of the franchise. That is the easy part of the decision.
The hard part is for Gibson to emulate and, if possible, exceed the successful coaching stint at the Waratahs of their present coach, Michael Cheika.
Until Cheika, the Waratahs had been a graveyard for ambitious coaches. Even Bob Dwyer, the coach of the Wallabies in their winning performance at the 1991 Rugby World Cup tournament, could not win a Super Rugby title for the franchise.
Ewen McKenzie, who won the 2011 Super Rugby title with the Reds, could not get his Waratahs to achieve anything better than losing finalists.
There is not any automatic success that goes with a coach, especially someone like Gibson who is becoming a head coach for the first time.
The media release outlined his coaching history: Glasgow Warriors back coach from 2007-08, Crusaders assistant coach 2008-12, Maori All Blacks assistant coach 2010-2012, Waratahs assistant coach 2013-2015.
Gibson was a skilful inside centre for the All Blacks (19 Tests) and the Crusaders (78 appearances) up to 2002, and part of four Crusaders championships as a player in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002.
He was an assistant coach of the Crusaders the last time they won a Super Rugby title in 2008, Robbie Deans’ last year with the franchise. He was also an assistant coach with the Waratahs last season when they won their first Super Rugby title.
There is one other aspect of Gibson’s CV that is impressive. He has a B.Ed Phys Ed (1996), B.Comm (2000) and M.Ed Distinction (2001), all from Canterbury University. He is obviously intellectually very bright and in terms of education, to top up his playing and coaching experience, has the knowledge that should make him a successful manager/coach of the Waratahs.
Nothing is certain in the coaching game. Wayne Bennett doesn’t have the university or playing credentials of most of the coaches involved in professional sport in Australia, but he is the outstanding coach of his generation.
Mark Hammett came from a similar coaching background as Gibson. He was so highly rated by the New Zealand Rugby Union that they effectively prevented him from being poached by the Melbourne Rebels by forcing him on the Hurricanes franchise. Yet Hammett’s stint with the Hurricanes ended in tears.
A new coaching team of Chris Boyd and John Plumtree has had instant success, at least in terms of successive victories this season, with the Hurricanes. Yet Boyd could hardly win a match with Wellington last season in the ITM tournament.
A plus for Gibson is that he has been part of the Cheika revolution at the Waratahs which is now into its third year. He knows the secret recipe for success, at least.
One of the essential parts of this secret recipe has been an upgrading the Waratah pack’s skills at set pieces. Long-term success for any team in rugby, at any level of the game, is based on a dominant pack. Gibson needs to continue this work that Cheika was started.
Apparently the pack – led by scrum coach, former Argentinian Test hooker Mario Ledesma – have been having endless scrumming sessions at practice. The scrum has improved so much that it is now the base from which the Waratahs over-power their opponents.
Nathan Grey has stated that he is prepared to stay with the Waratahs “under any coach”, a reference to the inevitable choice of his colleague Gibson. Gray is out of contract with the Waratahs at the end of the year. Gibson should snap him up immediately.
There is talk, too, that Gibson wants to sign up a prominent New Zealand forwards coach. I am ambivalent about this.
Of course, Super Rugby franchises want the best coaches going around, but there needs to be commitment to talent within the franchise, and then to other talent within Australia. Super Rugby is where Wallaby coaches are going to come from, so the pool of talent to emerge from this environment needs to be available first and foremost to the Wallabies.
This brings us to the issue of Gibson being a New Zealander with an ambition to coach the All Blacks one day. Waratahs captain Dave Dennis earlier this year stated that he was happy to support Gibson for the Waratahs job, “despite the fact that he is a New Zealander”.
Dennis reckons that Gibson proved his loyalty to the Waratahs when he helped beat his old franchise the Crusaders in last year’s Super Rugby final.
Given the list of possible candidates for the job, Gibson stood out as having the best credentials, and having the best chance of being successful with the Waratahs franchise.
Next year is going to be a transitional year for the Waratahs. A number of the older players, in the forwards and backs, are going to move on to other countries. Gibson is going to have to manage this transition in a seamless manner, and has the advantage of having been involved in the transition process. He has already identified a number of young forwards who will refresh the Waratahs’ bloodlines: Tolu Latu, Hugh Roach, Dave Parecki, Sam Louis and Jed Holloway.
There are in fact 25 Waratahs coming off contract. Gibson now faces the task of ensuring that as much of the current talent as possible is retained.
The chairman of the Waratahs franchise, Roger Davis, says (correctly) that it would be “silly” to put Gibson on a one-year contract. But there would be an “exit provision”.
The point here is that for all the goodwill in the world, there is no sure way of predicting whether a first-time head coach will be successful. In Gibson’s case, too, the first-time element is complicated perhaps by the fact that he is a New Zealander coaching Australian players.
Remy Hassanin, of Gibson’s alma mater Canterbury University, has researched rugby coaches in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
New Zealand coaches, he found, felt they cared about their players on and off the field. They wanted their players to feel as though they were equal to them.
South African coaches said they had to position themselves above their players, and show strong leadership. The more subservient the players, the better the coaches liked it.
The Australian coaches felt they needed to empower their players to think for themselves. There was a strong belief with the Australian coaches that they had to man-manage their teams more than, say, the Kiwis did.
Gibson has the academic training to handle the man-management requirements the Waratahs may require. He also has the playing and coaching background to apply the New Zealand approach to the importance of rituals, particularly fostering a sense of belonging as a club.
Hopefully this will be a winning combination for the Waratahs in 2016 and onwards.