There was a sign in the bars of the Wild West that read: “Don’t shoot the piano player, he is doing his best.”
After yet another mauling from a rampant, especially in the second half, All Blacks side (40) against a feisty (for one half) Wallabies (12), one wonders whether Michael Cheika should think about wearing a similar sort of sign.
The Wallabies went into the second Bledisloe Cup Test for 2018 with the promise that they would be much better in the lineouts, the scrums, preventing length-of-the-field tries and in stopping the inevitable All Blacks points surge just before and just after half-time.
Rugby Australia and the Wallabies coach himself rejected calls from the veteran stirrer Greg Growden that Cheika had to be relieved of his coaching responsibilities.
Cheika talked about how gutted his kids were after the Sydney debacle, how he himself felt similarly gutted and how his players had it in them to turn things around at Eden Park, a hoodoo ground for visiting Test sides.
He then presented a side at Eden Park that played to keep the score down. The Wallabies were the boring Wallabies. They had no plays or systems that would allow them to score the 20+ points sides need to be at least competitive with the high-scoring All Blacks.
They were lambs rather than lions going to the slaughter.
During the Test, too, Cheika was once again out-coached by the All Blacks management in their astute use of their reserves and in the subtle changes in the team’s alignments that were made at half-time to thwart the Wallabies front-line defensive system.
Michael Cheika (Photo by Jason O’Brien/Getty Images)
Beauden Barrett admitted, for instance, that the backs stood slightly deeper in the second half which gave them that little extra fraction of time to pick the gaps and the weak shoulders of the on-rushing Wallabies to dent their line and compromise their line-speed.
It was evident, too, that the Wallabies had to defensive plans to combat the All Blacks when they ran from deep after forcing a turnover.
The forwards did not start to cover the gaps. The backs did not retreat across the field conceding ground but cutting down the width of the attack, a system used by the All Blacks when they are confronted with a break-out.
This sort of non-coaching is inexcusable for a Test coach like Cheika. It makes you wonder what the Wallabies actually practice when they are supposed to be preparing for a Test.
And here is a damning statistic. The Wallabies have missed 83 tackles against the All Blacks in the two Tests this year.
So much for their improved defence and their commitment to the cause.
So much, too, for the coaching of the defence coach Nathan Grey.
So much for the coaching of the attack coach Stephen Larkham.
So much for the skills coaching of Mick Byrne.
I noticed, for instance, when the Wallabies were doing their warm-ups that they ran drills involving short passes between the forwards.
The All Blacks, at the other end of the field, were practising long passes with players passing accurately on the run, something that is extremely difficult to do but crucial for the success of break-outs.
Guess which side scored crucial break-out tries with players running on to the ball and then delivering long passes on the run to flying outside runners?
Let us be brutally honest here. Michael Cheika, Nathan Grey, Stephen Larkham and Mick Byrne are out of their depth as international coaches.
The Wallabies are a worse team this year than they were last year, which was a dismal year for the team.
Moreover, there is still no contender for Bernard Foley’s number 10 position anywhere in the Australia system. This is a monumental failure on the part of Cheika, Larkham (one of the great number 10s himself) and of Rugby Australia’s High Performance unit.
The All Blacks have three number 10s, all of whom are better players than Foley. It is axiomatic that you can’t win a Rugby World Cup without a world class number 10. Since the Wallabies loss in the final in 2015, Cheika has wasted three years in not trying to find a back-up or a successor to Foley.
This is, in itself, an example of negligent coaching by Cheika.
And Michael Hooper remains captain of the Wallabies, even though he does not have a clue about captaining an international side. As an example of this cluelessness, the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him saying that no All Black would break into his Australian side if he was picking it – including Beauden Barrett!
Michael Hooper of the Wallabies (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
This is like a defeated England cricket team saying in the 1930s that man-for-man they were better than any of the conquering Australians, including Don Bradman.
It shows that Hooper hasn’t got a clue about the rugby – and it was absolutely fabulous rugby – that the All Blacks have turned on in the two Bledisloe Cup Tests this year.
Hooper seems to think badgering a referee about yellow cards is captaincy rather than trying to manage the Tests so that the All Blacks expected onslaught just before and just after half-time does not happen.
He seems to think, too, that talking up his players is somehow the magic spell that will turn his mediocre players into champions.
The thing about the All Blacks (and the Crusaders for that matter) is that they invariably do the right thing at the right time. They unleash the hounds when they want to score from long range positions. They tighten things up with driving mauls and pick-and-goes when the defence begins to spread.
The thing about the Wallabies is that they invariably do the wrong thing when pressure is applied to them. The All Blacks first break-out try at Eden Park came after Bernard Foley kicked the ball away because he had run out of plays to use it effectively.
I have read many stupid statements in my life and have probably written a some myself, but I have to say that this endorsement of a mediocre bunch of Wallabies over some of the greatest players to wear the black jersey is the most stupid comment I have ever read from a person of standing in the Australian rugby hierarchy.
The truth of the matter is that not one Wallaby would make this All Blacks team, including Hooper himself.
And, most importantly, if a Wallaby did make the team he would be expected to play – and would play – much better than he does for the Wallabies or he would be dropped from the squad.
What is happening in the Wallabies is that real coaching is being replaced with super-hype sentiments from the coaches, Rugby Australia officials and the players. Hooper’s statement is an example of trying win a Test with boosterism rather than with skills, tactics and excellent execution of plays (a Wallabies trait in the Macqueen era) on attack and defence.
And to think that Rugby Australia has contracted Hooper for the next five years! Is there anyone in Rugby Australia who has any understanding of the career trajectory of most number sevens?
We get here to the sad truth that there is no one in Rugby Australia, either in the coaching staff, the High Performance unit, or the board who actually has the faintest clue about how to present a national side that can have a chance to win a Rugby World Cup.
How can any thinking Rugby Australia official tolerate the nonsense uttered by Michael Hooper, after his side had conceded a record second half points tally by the All Blacks at Sydney and a hammering at Eden Park which could have reached 50 or 60 points if several judgments about ‘forward’ passes had not gone the way of the Wallabies?
And how can any thinking Rugby Australia tolerate Cheika’s incredible statement to a New Zealand journalist asking him if he would know when it is time to move on from coaching the Wallabies: “If you think there’s a debate going on in your mind, then you need to take some pills to sort it out, because there’s no debate going on in my mind.”
Cheika, who seems to have the wrong temperament for coaching and the actual know-how to do the job, should be searching his conscience for the answer to the question whether he is part of the problem for the Wallabies.
The last time a coach was sacked a year or so before a Rugby World Cup tournament was in 1997 when the Wallabies were monstered 61–22 by the Springboks at Pretoria.
On the plane flying back from South Africa, the chief executive of Rugby Australia, John O’Neill, decided to sack Greg Smith and appoint Rod Macqueen to take the Wallabies on their coming tour of the northern hemisphere and then through to the 1999 Rugby World Cup triumph.
Thirteen of the players who were involved in the debacle against the Springboks were on the field when the Wallabies won their second (and last) Webb Ellis trophy.
The problem with trying to make history repeat itself by doing the same thing with Michael Cheika is that there is no equivalent anywhere in the world of Rod Macqueen for Rugby Australia to entrust the Wallabies to.
And here we get to the terrible truth about the recent history involving the Wallabies since Robbie Deans lost the job in 2013.
The game at the Super Rugby and national level has sank into a mediocrity. There have been too many mates appointed to crucial positions at the Super Rugby and Wallabies level.
Here are just a couple of questions.
Why was Richard Graham appointed a head coach of the Reds?
Why was Daryl Gibson, a New Zealander with ambitions to coach the All Blacks, appointed as head coach for the Waratahs?
Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson (AAP Image/ David Rowland)
How has Nathan Grey retained his position as defence coach of the Wallabies?
Why is Stephen Larkham, with no trophies to show as a coach, the attack coach of the Wallabies and is being groomed as the successor to Michael Cheika?
What has Mick Byrne contributed to the Wallabies in his time as a skills coach with them?
Why has Rod Kafer, a failure as a coach himself, being given the job of leading a coaching revival in Australia?
The answer you will find to some of these questions is that being a ‘mate’ is never a handicap to getting a senior job either on the management side or the coaching side in Rugby Australia.
Cheika’s failure as a Wallabies coach is not the cause of the failure of the national side as it slides down the rankings ladder. But it is a symptom of the problem.
The heart of the problem is a failure of Rugby Australia to manage the rugby game in Australia, from its heartland grassroots, club rugby, professional rugby and the Wallabies, in a way that attracts and nurtures talent and high performance at every level of the game.
There needs to be a spill of all the top management and coaching positions at the national level at the end of the year.
A panel of wise experts, among them former coaches who had success, Alan Jones, Bob Dwyer, Rod Macqueen, also administrators who had success especially in the glorious era of 1999 through to 2003, to examine all the structures and make recommendations for new people to run the game in Australia.
The case is obvious that the piano player (Michael Cheika) and everyone else involved in running the Last Chance Saloon of rugby in Australia needs to be booted out and a new management brought in.
Mike
Guest
No-one cared about AFL in the west either, 15 years ago. Competent sports administrators formulate a plan and follow it through, and generate public support in their code. AFL decided about 30 years ago that they were going to have two first grade teams in each capital city in Australia, as well as less Melbourne teams, and become the premier code in Australia. And they achieved it, not by accident, but by careful realistic and prominent planning. Finding support for rugby in Western Sydney (a huge population as it means anywhere west of Concord) is quite possible, but only for those who are competent business people.
Mike
Guest
"The government’s role is to deliver outcomes for tax payers." I rather think that was Bakkies' point. Why spend tax payers money when RA is just driving rugby into the ground anyway? RA was happy this year when they managed to fill a stadium to less than 80% capacity for the Bledisloe.
Mike
Guest
Right on the money, Cliff. That's it in a nutshell. The AFL manages their code better than Australian rugby does, and with far more foresight and planning. Scots rugby has enjoyed a resurgence since re-making their systems. Unfortunately most fans and officials want to talk ONLY about selections (players and coaching staff) which in the end is no more than rearranging deck chairs, unless we sort out our approach at all levels.
Mike
Guest
And spending more than a few seconds worrying about this comment isn't doing anything for Australian rugby, except wasting time.
Mike
Guest
But whether or not it was asked or answered makes virtually zero difference to the Wallabies performance. Its just not important. Get rid of Hooper, make Pocock captain, do whatever changes you want - it will not alter our standard against the ABs, nor increasingly against other teams, because it is looking at the wrong issue.
Mike
Guest
"many of us think better results might come from different selections and a more traditional game plan" Yes, we keep thinking that, and we keep being wrong. We will keep chasing the right selections and the right coach, while Australian rugby crumbles away beneath us. By the time we are finally prepared to look at the true issue, it will be too late.
Mike
Guest
But soapit, who cares? It is symptomatic of our inability to grapple with the very real and serious questions about Australian rugby, that this irrelevant comment by Hooper becomes the subject of so many posts. It actually says more about the people commenting on it than about Hooper. Australian rugby will not improve until we confront how we have been left behind at all levels of the game by New Zealand, and now it is starting to happen with England, South Africa, France and Ireland as well.
Mike
Guest
Every word of your post is correct, yet doing it all will still not change the result. The main reason NZ is better is because of their systematic approach to rugby, with input from NZRU into coaching, referee and player standards at all levels. The AFL is better at that than Australian rugby! We should have worked on this years ago, instead we have persisted in a search for the mythical team and the mythical coach that will replicate Rod McQueen's performances (or these days we'd even settle for Robbie Deans). Until we improve our systems, we will not see either again.
Mike
Guest
"Australia rugby should look for prodigy coach" Doesn't exist. Nor do prodigy players. Unless we get serious about fixing our systems then we will just continue to decline. We should have done this years ago, but most fans and officials would rather waste time looking for the perfect players and perfect coach.
Mike
Guest
Its a pity about the rant, Spiro - it actually became a good article about 2/3 of the way through. Putting the boot in is easy; coming up with solutions not so much. You are right, the problem is endemic to Australian rugby, and our lack of a systemic approach. Just look at how players like Phipps, Latu and even Jake Gordon look better at basic skills when they return to play for Sydney Uni (interesting too that today Uni did not tolerate bad throwing into the lineout by Latu - they kept him on the field as a wrecking ball but got one of the wingers to throw in. Flexibility and high standards).
DaveR
Guest
Maybe the RA conversation with Cheika goes something like this: "We think your player selections suck, and are contributing to the continuing list of losses for the Wallabies" "We dont want you to resign, but you have failed at the player selection process, and we think we should help you by appointing 2 new selectors to a selection board of 3" And by the way, we are dropping all test requirements for Australian players based overseas, as we now understand that has contributed to our woeful performance. The new selection board can now select any overseas based player.
DaveR
Guest
I have read this article and the comments a number of times and reflected on the title, and I have come to the conclusion I disagree with it. The Australian rugby system is not the problem. It is Rugby Australia's management. I cannot ignore the ongoing stupidity of the RA decision making. The board that caused the game-wide destruction is 2017 is mainly still there. The Hooper contract shows they still cannot make prudent decisions in the interest of the game. The board is distracted by womens rugby/7s/inclusion/political correctness, anything but the Wallabies winning. The board must be heavily renewed now, before more expensive mistakes are made. Chieka is also a major problem. His selections are faulty. Mates and sub-standard or injury-recovering players selected out of position. Old faithfuls instead of current Super rugby form in many positions. Players covering for other players covering for other players. And poor game management options, and slow to react to changing game strategies. Just as the failed Turnbull experiment was let go far too long before being corrected, so is this being let go far too long. Anybody who thinks the Wallabies are close to the winning formula is dreaming. Where are the Sydney forces who were going to upend the RA board?
Jimbo
Guest
Australian rugby union exists in a different world to most other countries. We have FOUR competing codes and three most successful ones are based on a NATIONAL COMPETITION. Until Rugby Australia has a full and sincere evaluation of its marketing of the game and the format of its competition it is not going to see the game grow. It is held up because of the influence the old Shute Shield teams have over RA - the Old Boys network has far too much influence on the decision making process. How has soccer (Association Football) grown from its base in the 1950s to what is it now. A strong national competition with a growing number of teams that locals follow. The same goes for Rugby League and Australian Rules. Get out of Super Rugby and build a strong national competition which could include teams from Asia and, with proper support, Pacific Island countries. Do away with the requirement that players must be contracted to RA and allow overseas players into the national teams. Allow our Australian players to take out contracts in other countries. Soccer doesn't have this requirement and recruiting overseas players would lift the level of the game. If an Australian player is contracted overseas, make sure that they will be released if required for national duties. This would apply to both male and female players. Get real RA - your living in the seventies!!!!!!
double agent
Guest
I think you're dreaming if you think Penrith is an untapped source of players. It's a League town. No one cares about Rugby.
double agent
Guest
I would be surprised if even 5% of viewers of the match stuck around to watch a press conference.
win 4
Guest
Right on the mark my friend, thats what I was subscribing to about, yeah bugger off, we can handle it from here on in!, and just read the latest from RA they are asking him what ever else he needs to win!! he can have anything, you got to be bloody joking!!! its a first for me to hear of a coach that actually runs his association rather than works for it!! bloody amazing, i see know way back for them ralph if thats the road their taking. Sadly its going to be a hard hard, landing.
Ralph
Roar Guru
For what it is worth win, I always thought Deans would struggle in the political whirlpool that is Australian rugby. I agree they didn't understand him at all.
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
I am not a fan of Hoops, but Spiros, this was a take-down piece, plane and simple. The guy gave a response loyal to his teammates, to a baited question by a media tr011, a group you, yourself are a member of. Perhaps it is time your pieces are relegated to the bottom with the rest of the "Roar of the Crowd"
JP
Roar Rookie
Stevo 1991 to 2002 were pretty good.
win 4
Guest
Hi Ralph, Thanks, use to years back when you could actually have a honest conversation about it, but then it turn nasty and just crap and the guys I use to talk to left so I stopped, now come back every six months or so just to see the same old crap! with not a hell of a lot sense still not been written, just the deck chairs been moved around. What some of these idiots dont understand if its broken then fix the bloody thing now, what hell is the use of waiting till after the next world cup?? yes admin has to be held acountable as well,but the way its run here the coach has a huge say in how it works so dont loose sight of that fact he's as much to blame if not more in which direction rugby has taken in Aust, no wherer else in the world is the coach sole selector of the team, I think even England knocked back steady eddy? but get a real rugby coach that UNDERSTANDS the game and how it works!! , I think they do have the players but need a REAL coach just hoping he can fix it is not going to happen, all he is, is another steady eddy in a different guise motavation has its place at the table but its only part of the meal!.BUT! I see a bigger problem for him on the horizon at the moment is a HUGE rift coming between Pocock is he ok??? ( not captain ) and Hooper come on ( is captain) if he doesn't fix it real quick bye bye to everything!! it's been on show in both test's!,and speaking of Pcock man is he trying it on with the refs now, lying on the grouund pretenting to be hurt! all I saw was a guy who was completely stuffed and just couldn't stand up so stuffed he was,as for neck rolls etc best left as is, glas houe's and all that!I hope that was the case trying to get an easier ride is not a good look, simple way round that retire, or maybe ask the coach for another position in the team? even captain then he may even be able to talk to the ref? not a good look if thats the path he's taking. And trying to get players off the field really!!! I agree with you Geoff not a good look. Ralph. They really did not know when they got rid of Deans what they were doing! he was trying to set up the same thing that NZ has and what there trying set up now! he was not well thought of and still not in NZ rugby forwhat he tried to do, for my own shelfish sake and NZ rugby, I'm glad he didnt, how ever for rugbys sake its sad and his detractors here in Aus are still the none wiser what they let go, they have this ability to look outwould to blame never in to ponder/and try an understand why?. Ralph from my first reply, look at nearly all the trys the AB's scored were from missmatched players tha wasn"t through luck, there ability to see that missmatch is unbelievable, that 3 of BB"s tries came, running between forwards he wasn"t their by luck!!. Cheers.