George Smith back in Wallabies colours - of sorts

Yep, valid points Bakkies. My only thought though is that GS' most valuable post-playing contribution to Australian rugby is most likely to be as a specialist (breakdown and contact-style) skills coach rather than a, more generalist, head coach; as this is where his undeniable subject matter expertise resides. I obviously have no clue what his ultimate ambitions are. But lending a hand to the national team on an informal, short term basis won't harm either party. Selfishly, I'm just happy to witness the Smith Train roll around Australia a few more times. Every weekend is a pleasure. And I'm freakin' loving the ride.

What I have found out from Rugby and other sports is the longer you keep on playing professionally it makes it far tougher to become a full time coach. To many get spat out as they are fast tracked and simply not ready. It was clear that when Smith came back to Australia that he wanted to get in to coaching. He didn't need to sign a two year with a struggling team at 36. What will happen like most coaching appointments in Australia that he will end up on the Reds staff after retiring. Ryan Giggs is a good case in point retired when he was nearly and fast tracked on to the ManUre coaching staff without any experience elsewhere as an assistant and they earmarked him as a future manager. Left the club and I don't think he has a coaching gig at the moment. Steven Gerrard is doing it the right way retiring at the right age of 35 unlike Giggs who took nearly five extra years out of his coaching development and has taken up a role at Milton Keynes. Has started off working with younger players. He doesn't need to play and wants to develop rather than play to he is 40 and get a job on the senior staff at Liverpool.

I understand the concern with a naturally talented player not understanding how to improve from a low base but for mine it is Smith's intelligence that is the key. He is not there to teach strength and conditioning he is there to teach how to make good decisions and to maximise effort. A guy who is still playing top level 7 at his age knows a great deal about how to maximise his impact and get everything you can out of your body. It would probably be hard for him to teach running lines because much of that sort of vision and reading the play would be instinctive. He only needs to be a one on one communicator for an assistant role. Smith has played rugby all over the world and matched up multiple times on Richie McCaw and had to find a way to be just as effective as Richie in the context of McCaw for the most part having the support of a better forward pack. He's also dealt with the big hitters in England. He knows an amazing amount about the details of 7 play and if he can't speak it at least he is still fit enough and tough enough to show it. Smith is a national treasure and if he can't teach/coach then every effort needs to be made to extract whatever knowledge can be extracted from him.

TWAS that's where they should be starting not pro teams. Jobs for the boys just doesn't work it's led to the decline of Toulouse and it was rife in the Brumbies under Andy Friend and Tony Rea

Smith: "I want to know what they're thinking when they go into a breakdown. It's not always about thinking you can get a turnover every breakdown. It's what your effort area is around that breakdown. It's not a person that jackals every ball, it's about being effective." Sounds like a solid coaching approach to the Wallabies breakdown to me.

If we can discard the flawed perception that all those sharing their rugby knowledge should aspire to be an elite Head Coach, the world would become much simpler. Much like his current playing iteration, I suspect a bloke like George Smith is wholly uninterested in the bureaucracy, media scrutiny and political posturing that encapsulates such a gig. On the surface it would appear that the Head Coach does more resource management, strategic planning, motivation and politicking than actual rugby coaching anyway. In a perfect world, the ARU would establish a full time specialist tight forward & loose forward skills training unit, (using the inarguable expertise of guys like George Smith and Topo Rodriguez), that would provide customised training and post-game feedback across all levels of elite rugby (in whatever future iteration that takes) and across all state borders. More importantly, the tangible designation of forward skills training days should be allocated to schoolboy and early age group representative rugby teams. Knowledge is a dying resource when not shared. A conscious investment in rugby playing teenagers today could provide the focus and inspiration for the next generation of Australian rugby superstars tomorrow. We all recognise it is not a perfect rugby world, and the current ARU administration definitely aren't perfect custodians of the game. But anyone denying the value of sharing this experience at any level from one of the true giants of this great game is frankly, bat sh!t crazy.

Not sure how that at all addresses my view that he may be too intense a character to relate to players if he was a senior coach. Helping out at a local club is not the same as being a professional coach.

At face value it would appear that George Smith was asked by the Wallabies coach to lend his vast experience and acute breakdown acumen to assist the training and in-game capabilities of the national side. He said, yes. It doesn't look to be a formal appointment but rather a knowledge share and training opportunity. Nice move Chieks. The bloke is the Reds best player. Don't think he needs to retire on the basis of agreeing to an informal training gig.

Pocock was in my club and spent time with the juniors (including the likes of Dicky Hardwick) whenever he could. A great clubman always willing to contribute wherever and whenever he could, he'd make a great coach. BTW all Force players get Level 2 Coach training sobthey can contribute to grassroots development.

I think having Smith around the camp would be good for the players. He is an example of hard, tough, fair, humble, a fighter and a winner. If some of these rub off on the team - fantastic. What they also need is a defence coach who has the same influence as Smith. Grey hasn't got it. If he had it, it's lost. Maybe a former league player might be the way to go.

Would be awesome if he got invloved in NRC. Would be great for the profile of NRC to have him in there too.

I'm not sure how any legitimate Australian rugby fan can view this development as anything but positive. The Wallabies breakdown and cleanout work, as well as general ruck and maul awareness, continues to be woeful. Might as well leverage the singular rugby IP of the greatest Australian breakdown exponent ever to draw breath. The bloke's not running for president here. Not everyone has to morf into Rod Macqueen and I doubt Smith has any designs to do so. He just loves Australian rugby. And it's not like GS hasn't been able to bring his considerable mentorship and coaching influence to bear before. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/12116721/Six-Nations-2016-George-Smith-will-revive-England-back-row-says-James-Haskell.html https://youtu.be/-7TBhlS2A0E

Yeah Fionn I see him as potentially being a Nathan Buckley from Collingwood type coach where he could be too intense about Rugby, based on how he is as a player, and could find it difficult to relate to players. He does have considerable interests away from Rugby so maybe I'm well off the mark.

You'd rather have him working with the flyhalves on their kicking games would you? I think it's a fair bet Poey will have very little to do with rugby once he retires.

Just keep Pocock away from strength and conditioning. Having watched that documentary that was an awful lot of weights he was doing growing up.

Smith is a legitimate legend of the game in Australia, and there have not been too many that I would put in that bracket with him. In order to be a good coach he will need to be a good communicator. I seem to recall that he did not have much success as a captain at various times. He is a doer rather than a natural leader. However, there is no reason why he cannot learn to be a better communicator. He seemed to have a very positive influence on the Poms last year. I don't see any point in comparing him to Pocock, or any other Wallaby 7 for that matter. His game was so much more complete than any of them, and from an early point in his international career.

yep

He taught the Poms breakdown work well enough that they beat us four times last year.

Really? I reckon Pocock would be super patient, he just might need an assistant coach to put the foot down as he might be too nice.

If he wants to get in to coaching he should retire and get involved with a club and NRC team