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Roll the dice on Larkham for the 2019 World Cup

Roar Guru
1st September, 2018
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Roar Guru
1st September, 2018
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It’s been 20 years since Rod Macqueen made the inspired choice to move Stephen Larkham into the Wallabies number ten jersey, a decision that won Australia the 1999 World Cup.

Now, with the Wallabies’ dire exit from 2018 Bledisloe Cup contention, it’s time for Rugby Australia to make a similarly bold move and promote him to head coach of the Wallabies.

The 2018 and 1998 years bear remarkable similarities in the rugby life of Stephen Larkham. His achievements as Brumbies head coach and Wallabies assistant could be being as modest, as were his achievements as a reserve fullback in Macqueen’s squad prior to the move to flyhalf. However, I prefer to see his coaching record as being full of the same sorts of hints of greatness, as Macqueen did with Larkham as a player.

Schooled as an assistant in the Jake White method of hard, back-to-basics rugby but with a bit of his own attacking flourish, particularly off the lineout, Larkham’s performance as a coach was nothing to be ashamed of. He kept his team playing finals footy with a positive points balance between 2014 and 2017 and won the Australian conference in the final two years despite a horror run of key players leaving for overseas and injuries.

Under the Wallabies attack coach the team scored plenty of tries when the forwards were performing and providing a decent platform. This is most starkly demonstrated by comparing the Bledisloe Cup results from 2017 when the Wallabies scored four tries against the All Blacks in Game 1 and five in Game 2. This year, off the back of insipid forwards performances, they scored one and two tries in the respective games.

The Wallabies’ problem isn’t with the attack coach.

Jeremy Paul

(Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

If Larkham were allowed to coach the Wallabies in the same style that he coached the Brumbies, the Wallabies’ outstanding attacking talent could be unleashed off a platform of strong basics, combining with the Brumbies commitment to staunch defence to make them real contenders in 2019.

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The problem for Larkham is that his coaching reputation is currently shackled by a head coach who coaches with what appears to be a strong rugby league influence, prioritising ball-in-hand brute force over the technical aspects of rugby, such as kicking and the lineout. Michael Cheika’s method influences selections and has only worked until smart teams have worked it out.

The first heads up on that count should have been his failed defence of the Super Rugby trophy in 2015, when the Highlanders beat the Waratahs in a Sydney semi-final by pinching Cheika’s lineout. To be fair to Cheika, he has tried to adapt, but after three years of post-World Cup failure it is time to make the call that he lacks the coaching ability to get onto the front foot and ahead of the competition.

What this means for Larkham is that if he is to continue to act as assistant to Cheika until 2019, his reputation risks being so tarnished that surely his planned succession to the Wallabies coaching role will come into question. This is especially the case given that Rugby Australia is reportedly facing financial pressure – the pressure to look overseas for a foreign coach may become too strong to resist.

Stephen Larkham at the Canberra Vikings

(AJF Photography)

Larkham’s former teammate Daniel Herbert recently highlighted how many good coaches Australia had burnt through in the last couple of decades. Wouldn’t it be devastating to lose a relatively young coach of the stature of Stephen Larkham because he is chained to a head coach who has run out of ideas?

It seems that Rugby Australia would have little to lose by rolling the dice on Larkham. He is already on the payroll, which means the cost of hiring a new coach would be minimised if Michael Cheika insisted on enforcing his four-year contract conditions. If the Wallabies continue on their current course, it is entirely possible that Larkham’s Australian coaching career will end after the 2019 World Cup anyway, so why not see whether he can make a difference?

At the very least it is it is an opportunity for him to establish his international coaching credentials for the next World Cup cycle.

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Most importantly, though, is the Australian rugby public’s view of Larkham. In a rugby landscape devoid of genuine heroes, Larkham is the only Australian coach aside from Brad Thorn, who’s a Kiwi anyway, who has any aura of greatness about him. Put simply, a lot of us like him and want to see him do well.

I reckon that with Larkham coaching the Wallabies people will turn up just to see whether he can pull off the coaching equivalent of a half-blind 48-metre drop kick in a World Cup semi-final.

And if Stephen Larkham can’t pull it off? Well at least none of us will die not knowing and will have enjoyed the process of finding out, which would be far more entertaining than what the Australian rugby public are currently being served up.

By Rhys Bosley.

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