The immediate fate of Wallabies coach Michael Cheika will be decided at Rugby Australia’s board meeting next Monday while former Test hooker Brendan Cannon says the long-term solution to the team’s woes is David Nucifora.
Employed as Ireland’s high performance director, Nucifora has been instrumental to the Grand Slam winners’ climb up the rankings to No.2 to sit among the World Cup favourites alongside New Zealand, who they beat last month.
Cheika will present his case to Rugby Australia (RA) chief executive Raelene Castle and the board while high performance boss Ben Whitaker will also submit a review of the Wallabies’ season.
With nine months until kick-off for the World Cup in Japan, and given RA’s precarious financial situation, it’s unlikely Cheika will be axed.
However, his assistants Simon Raiwalui, Stephen Larkham, Nathan Grey and Mick Byrne are in the firing line.
Cannon said despite their credentials as former Wallabies, Grey and Larkham weren’t immune from criticism with the organisation not wanting to be seen to be sitting on their hands.
“Assistants sadly seem to be the easiest ones to target because they are probably the more affordable expense to get rid of,” Cannon, who played 42 Tests, said.
“Larkham and Grey are two of my former teammates and two outstanding individuals but no one is immune from scrutiny – as good a player as these guys were, they’re all tarred with the same brush.”
Cannon believed RA should immediately bring in an independent selector to help arrest the Wallabies’ slide – after four wins and nine losses in 13 Tests this year.
He said RA should be targeting a return for former Super Rugby-winning Brumbies coach Nucifora, who has been with Ireland since 2014.
Nucifora held a similar position with Australian rugby and tried to introduce a centralised player system to align Super Rugby teams and the Wallabies, but ran into road-blocks before his 2012 departure.
Ireland have developed a streamlined national system under Nucifora with all coaches, players and football-related staff centrally contracted across all the provinces.
All big decisions in player workload, talent pathways and player distribution are overseen with the national team’s interest in mind.
The timing post-World Cup may work in Australia’s favour, with Ireland’s head coach Joe Schmidt, who Nucifora works closely with, already announcing his planned departure after the tournament.
“Rugby Australia should be mortgaging the bank and the house to get David Nucifora back to allow him to implement carte blanch, free rein, a centralised system,” Cannon told AAP.
“He’s spent time overseas and is now looking back at Australia; he’s been a part of the most successful transformation of recent times of a national side.
“Throw the bank at him to get him back.”
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Nah. I don't think Nucifora had anything to do with England and Scotland.
Nigel
Guest
Simon Raiwalui has just started with the Wallabies and he’s finding out these chaps aren’t that tough!!! Hahahaha!! Good luck bro!!!
Lindsay Freeman
Guest
Will someone please come forward and tell the truth Re Beale, AAC & one other player in England.
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
Imo the long term solution is Aust rugby should start with: - replacement of entire RA board. - replacement of entire WB coaching staff. - urgent introduction of the NZ centralised fully aligned structure. - re-introduction of Super Rugby & NRC on free to air TV - supplying it free if necessary. - funding & support for grass roots clubs. - re-introduction of Rugby into the public school system. - relaxation of the overseas player rules - OS players should be eligible after 20 Tests. - community participation and development programs. - cultural change throughout RA. - introduction of quantitative KPI's. For starters - all as part of a comprehensive national plan. Then wait 5 yrs for it to bed down and KPIs to flow.
Jonesy
Guest
And the improvement of one of those teams he has been at least partially responsible for... just because he held the role at some point in the past doesn’t automatically mean he isn’t suitable in the future (doesn’t mean he is either of course)... there is a confluence of factors to consider.
Cliff Bishkek
Roar Rookie
Very instructive article. Points out that structures are the problem. But still Cheika is not a Coach. Even with the structures and having players play together; a Coach does not pick players out of their best position unless absolutely necessary. That is the major problem. The players may be playing together for a long time but when a 10 is playing at 12 and a 12 is playing at 10 - they could know each other to the extent of the number of freckles on each other's backside - but they would paly poorly. You do not move players around on a whim!
Cliff Bishkek
Roar Rookie
Fionn, Auckland have never been good even after Nucifora. That team has burnt many coaches. Also Australian Under 20's - they are pu...ies - too soft and of little impact on anything. Watch the way they play. Like boys when they should be young men. It is coaching mainly and not picking the tough players. And at the Brumbies; they win but Larkham and Gregan and Larkham's Dad got rid of Nucifora. Everybody tries to say the players coached the team to the win; i.e. Brumbies BS Hype!
Cliff Bishkek
Roar Rookie
RA mortage the bank and the house. Funny, I thought that they were broke. Oh" apart from finding 1 plus something million per year for Hooper
Jonesy
Roar Rookie
Please! Please! someone have a serious look at Fischer, Ryan and Thorn... surely with these guys we can get a winning combo together... played the game for a few years ... I know what good coaches look like..MC doesn't have it...
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Or the fact that teams like Ireland, Scotland and England weren't nearly as strong then helped us get better results?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
His title was Skills Coach and it's been reported he was responsible for all skills work. He was also a forwards coach at the Blues.
AllyOz
Roar Rookie
Both Nucifora and Scott Johnson at Scotland proved to be much better coaching and development administrators then they were coaches. When Cannon is talking about Nucifora he is suggesting a return to that sort of role. Nucifora's failures when previously in that role may have been affected by the inability to move towards a centralised system and system that has seen substantial improvement in both Ireland and Scotland where two Australians have played a significant role when not hamstrung by own dysfunctional relationship between the national and state bodies. We also need to look at the composition of the RA board and whether we have the skills on it to administer the game - there is a lot of people with training and experience in corporate governance and diversity etc but fewer who know much about administering a sport. It may take an early exit from RWC next year for the game to take the drastic but necessary acting of tearing down all current structures and rebuilding an organisation that is better suited to the current era.
Tooly
Roar Rookie
Mick Byrne was a kicking and catching coach with NZ ; nothing more.
Tooly
Roar Rookie
Everyone learns ; even Eddie Jones has learnt to coach winning Rugby. Nucifora has obviously learnt a bit as well and is doing a good job with Ireland with Schmidt. He had a lot to learn from his indifferent days at the Brumbies and Auckland. We have tried what Cannon is suggesting in panic before with McKenzie and Chieka ; neither has set the world on fire.
Jonesy
Guest
Our results seemed to be better then too, so perhaps he didn’t perform too badly here either?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Twiggy's involvement in the Force would mean he would not be able to be on the RA board due to the rules of the constitution, which were recommended by the Arbib review.
Machiavelli
Guest
Every disgruntled rugby fan should read this article - https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/driving-a-broken-car-why-sacking-cheika-won-t-fix-the-wallabies-20181205-p50kcw.html My take away is that Ben Darwin's numbers seem to show that we have been declining for years and its clear our pathways are not producing the caliber of player required to sustain a winning team at Test level. So time to address the elephant in the room - the right Governance - yes NSW and QLD, its time to give up power for the greater good of Australian Rugby.
Stu
Roar Rookie
Are you kidding? That won't bother them in the slightest. They've got thicker skin than politicians.
Dontcallmeshirley
Guest
The fact that he is not Michael Chieka.
Ex force fan
Guest
There are a couple of scenarios that can play out and I am sure RA will choose the worst choice: - Keep Cheika and his assistants: Cheika can be the fall guy if the Wallabies crash out of the RWC allowing Clyne and Castle to survive to ruin another couple of years (worst case). Alternatively the Wallabies may get lucky and improve and both Clyne and Castle will then be able to claim that they stood by their "man" - Drop Cheika's assistant/s: If the Wallabies crash out of the RWC Cheika can claim that he had to work with people he did not choose and that RA must share accountability for the RWC failure. It will be more difficult for RA to use Cheika as their scape goat and we may get some much needed change. Alternatively the Wallabies may perform better and Castle and Clyne may claim that it is due to the improvements they made - Drop Cheika: If the Wallabies crash out of the RWC both Clyne and Castle's heads will be on the block as they must take accountability for making changes to late. In the unlikely event that he Wallabies perform better both Clyne and Castle will claim that they made the genius move. With a gutless RA Board I expect them to pick the lowest risk option (the worst one) to stick with Cheika so that Cheika can be the "fall guy" if the RWC 2019 performance is poor. This will allow RA's not to own up to their own failures in the past couple of years. I would normally go to the RWC, however this year I am more interested in how the GRR will be going than the RWC.