Wallabies appoint new forwards coach

...didnt realise he was NZ-born...another one taken by the Aussies....must be a paucity of good forward coaches there...?

I'm not seeing it as a negative. Other than you can't relate better to a certain section of people by virtue of your background without relating worse to other sections (the groups another individual may have related to better). Last year 10 or the 18 on the EOYT were from primarily anglo backgrounds and then many of the players of islander descent were born and schooled in Australia and aren't exactly from the same backgrounds as overseas players. You can't be better at dealing with a certain subsection without what makes you better affecting you somewhere else.

Its about being rounded TWAS. Islanders typically adopt both the island and non island cultures in their day to day lives as a matter of survival because both are required to fulfil both a professional and social livelihood. Many speak two or more languages. Most europeans, particularly in NZ and oz, speak one, have one culture. If anything it is a European who is less likely to have rapport with a heavily island presence in his side. So being an islander is more likely to have a better rapport with either. With a language usually comes a culture and even though hes fijian much of the PI cultures are similar. Here you are seeing the comment as a negative yet you see no issue with Thorn or Hansen having no idea what some of his team might even be saying to eachother. Widen your thinking twas.

If a person's backgrounds gives them a better rapport with a certain group of people, I fail to see how it's not offset by a lesser rapport with others. There's no such thing as a free lunch. For everything you gain, you likely lose something, somewhere else. The comment implies he will have a better rapport than those guys essentially. I don't necessarily believe that. My point is that if somebody has better rapport than others will some people, it will likely come at the expense of having lesser with others.

Why? Youre assuming Thorn, Hansen, Cheika have no rapport with the Islanders in their teams?. Bit of an obtuse comment TWAS. Commonality is about things similar, not about the assumption of the absence of things because theyre different.

But doesn't that mean he probably won't have a good rapport with the majority Australian born forwards in the squad?

Good point, might not sound like a good thing to say but when you're in that sort of environment commonality with a lot of day to day things can go a long way. It also has its drawbacks so its more about balance, as is everything.

its not the best sign if one of the key things that Cheika had to say about him when the appointment was announced is that he is an islander, so will be able to have good rapport with the islanders in the squad..... Just like it was important that Maria Ledesma could effectively communicate with all the Argentinians in the Wallaby squad...right? Ethnicity is clearly one of the key things to look for in a modern Rugby coach......apparently.....

I don't care how he plays. His careers seems to indicate he was a more accomplished players than Dwyer, McQueen, Henry, White, Jones, Hansen, Cotter and Schmidt. But playing career isn't entirely relevant.

I've seen him play during his years for Fiji. A journeyman is the best way to describe him; neither here nor there. The cultural fit will be interesting; he could very well prove to be a yes man but his background will be most likely to make him a team player.

hope we see more moves off the back of the scrum ala "WILLI O OFF THE BACK"......from this bloke. don't know why this platform dried up in recent years???

@Train without a station isn't poor means not good! Or Bad.

QLD doing better than expected? Or just yet to face top half teams? I’ve never met a supposed Reds fan that hates Queenslanders the way you do.

You lost me at “played”. We aren’t talking about players. We are talking about coaches. Stiles had an excellent record coaching set piece. The Reds has one of the strongest set pieces in Super Rugby Under him. A poor year as a head coach doesn’t change that. It’s not even relevant to that. This guy has been all over the world. Would be great if passport stamps were what was needed to be a good coach. How have the forwards performed in any of his teams when he coached?

Whilst I suspect he was 2nd choice after Jono Gibbes knocked Cheika back, Simon has coached at Top 14 for a long time, and knows set pieces very well. The natural challenge for him will be the step up from Top 14 to International standard, just like it would be for Larkham and Grey to step up from Super. Good luck to him.

don't hate stiles.. don't hate anyone.. played against and with and i know his character personally.. and i am not a fan.. as for simon's track record compared to stiles... one has played and coached all over the world .. could be good, could be bad.. we know what stiles can bring, that is limited..let's see what someone else can bring.. not many people knocking down stile's door for a job.. les kiss got the chop and he picked up one within a couple of weeks..

Yeah mate we get it. You hate Stiles. Definitely better off having a guy with basically no track record...

well that puts a pie in a few guru faces who thought it was going to be stiles or gibbes.. wouldn't have minded gibbes... very happy it isn't stiles.. quite like having a forwards coach who isn't an ex front rower for a change.. has been a long time coming..

They have been down near the relegation places the past three season.

Montpellier have played 22 games lost 7 of them.