The 2020 Super Rugby and Test season marks the first time that the national side, the Wallabies, and the powerhouse of rugby in Australia, the Waratahs, are being coached by New Zealanders at the same time.
There is no disrespect to the two New Zealand coaches, Dave Rennie and Rob Penney, to say that when their time is up with the Wallabies and the Waratahs, hopefully after successful tenures, that they are replaced by Australians.
The rugby code will be strong again in this country, on and off the field, when every aspect of its management, coaching and playing is run by Australians.
South Africa’s marvellous triumph in the 2019 Rugby World Cup tournament is an example of how a beleaguered rugby administration went back to its own homegrown expertise at every level of the game to create a winning national team.
The Australian rugby community has had its greatest successes with its own locally produced coaches, players and administrators.
After all, the Wallabies’ two Rugby World triumphs in 1991 and 1999 were the product of the amateur era production line of Australian administrators, players and coaches.
Before that, there was arguably Australia’s greatest Test side, the Grand Slam Wallabies of 1984.
And let us not forget that the last time the Wallabies defeated the All Blacks at Eden Park was in 1986.
No foreign-born head coach has won the Rugby World Cup or Super Rugby.
This is the context in which the appointments of Dave Rennie and Rob Penney need to be placed.
Wales and Ireland, with New Zealand-born coaches and Six Nations Grand Slams to their credit, have been unsuccessful in the last two Rugby World Cups.
England won their only tournament in 2003 when Sir Clive Woodward, a former England player, was the coach.
The evidence is powerful that the major rugby countries weaken their World Cup chances when they import the head coaches of their national sides.
For the future success of the Wallabies and of the Waratahs there needs to be a rule that the head coaches of the Wallabies and the Super Rugby sides must be Australians or identify as Australians by holding Australian passports.
Notice this rule should only apply to head coaches.
Dave Rennie. (Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)
There is nothing wrong, indeed the proposal has a great deal of merit, of using overseas coaching talent in other specific roles. The Crusaders, for instance, benefited greatly from having Ronan O’Gara as their attack coach last season.
In the professional era, the head coach rules the roost because he controls the roster.
Admittedly, I was all for Robbie Deans, with his stellar record of winning Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders, taking over the Wallabies.
But the experiment was not a success, even though it seemed an attractive option for Australian rugby at the time.
The Bledisloe Cup was not regained, even for a season. The British and Irish Lions won their series here. The Wallabies did make the semi-final of the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, but they also lost a pool round match to Ireland.
Deans, unfortunately, was never accepted by a significant part of the rugby community, especially a number of media commentators.
He was accused of being a ‘Trojan Horse‘ for the New Zealand rugby by a former Wallaby in his capacity as an influential commentator.
The accusation gets to the heart of the difficulty facing an outsider, especially a New Zealander.
The local patriots believe that the coach, in his heart of hearts, would prefer being the coach of the All Blacks.
The history of success for Australian rugby has come from Australian coaches who have come through the ranks, graduating from the club and representative levels and then through to the national side.
There are only three such coaches: Alan Jones, Bob Dwyer and Rod Macqueen (who coached the 1991 NSW Waratahs to an undefeated season). The professional era has yet to produce a successor to these three giants.
Alan Jones. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
A possible reason for this is that there is no clear and or obvious pathway for Australian coaches, as there was in the past, from coaching at schools, clubs, to the state levels, and then to the Test level.
This lack of a clear pathway through to the highest coaching levels has been accentuated by the fact administrators are beginning to look for quick fixes by appointing outsiders.
This is how Dave Rennie and Rob Penney were selected.
Rob Penney. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
We do not know who the other candidates were for those positions. Were there any Australian candidates? How well qualified were they?
What makes the appointment of Penney all the more disappointing is that Daryl Gibson was given an extension as head coach less than a year ago, which created an opportunity for an Australian to be found to replace him.
But Gibson left his position early, along with the chief executive of the Waratahs, Andrew Hore. Hore left the Waratahs to become the chief executive of the Auckland Blues.
Two of the last four Wallabies head coaches have been New Zealanders. The last two Waratahs head coaches have been New Zealanders.
Last year, a Rugby World Cup year, the chief executives of Rugby Australia and the Waratahs, Raelene Castle and Andrew Hore, were New Zealanders.
These are all jobs that should go to Australians.
Fox Sports screens its Super Rugby Special Launch on Thursday, which will be hosted by the excellent Greg Clark.
This launch looks like being the sort of exciting event that Fox Sports does well. It will feature interviews with the new Wallabies coach, Dave Rennie, and the chief executive of Rugby Australia, Raelene Castle.
Perhaps Castle might be asked to explain what system has been put in place by Rugby Australia to ensure that head coaches and top administrators are Australians or identify as Australians by committing to live in this country permanently.
Bringing in New Zealand head coaches and chief executives is not the way to save Australian rugby.
The South African and New Zealand way of using their own rugby talent, on and off the field, is the way forward for Rugby Australia.
Sydney Slug
Roar Rookie
Spiro missed my Grandfather Arnold Tancred of the 47/48 Wallabies in his wrap of great coaches of the past: Journalist Phil Tressider accompanied the touring party and wrote of Tancred "I remember Tancred as a grim, brooding man who not only managed the team but coached it and was sole selector. He would brook no interference and he kept the press at arm's length. He was fortified by his experiences as a player with the 1927–28 Waratahs and he had an aching ambition for victory", Shehadie wrote of Tancred. "[He] was a very strict disciplinarian who was determined that we would win as many matches as possible. He would constantly remind us that we would only be remembered for the number of matches we won" and goes on to quote Jack Pollard: "The only criticism of Tancred was that relied perhaps too heavily on the team's proven stars and did not give newcomers many opportunities. He barred sportswriters travelling with the team from staying in the same hotel, was uncooperative with the press, and the team did not enjoy very sympathetic media coverage". Sounds a lot like the most recent Aussie coach, except that he had proven stars as favourites rather than the bete-noirs of the Roar like AAC.
Derm
Roar Guru
Oh - I don't know - Wales were pretty damn good in the seventies, and Scotland were far better in the nineties than they are now in terms of actually winning things. Ireland on the other hand were dismal in the late eighties and all of the nineties until 2001 and professionalism was finally adopted and practised. They still only reach quarterfinals in the RWC though.
brokendown
Guest
ha ha,you forgot to mention his batting average for wellington
Peter Garner
Guest
Hmm Spiro a fella with the same name used to write fo NZ Truth, back in the 70s, Perhaps you should look at it's way, as there were no Aussies to coach the Wallabies so Kiwis were, and still are needed, where would Australian rugby be now?
ShaghaiDoc
Roar Rookie
PS Kiwi coaches for Ireland, Wales and Scotland improved them out of sight. None of these teams have been so successful or ranked higher in their history as when they had Kiwi coaches.
ShaghaiDoc
Roar Rookie
Weak arguments. They lost to the Lions because Beale fell over taking the winning kick. Deans could never have been the All Blacks coach and to say he would have preferred to be the AB coach is a contradiction of history. The world's best coach ever, Hansen, said that he did not prepare for the interview and appeared to be "not interested". As for claiming only Australian born coaches can win RWC's is to ignore that Bill Hayden and his Drover's Dog could have coached victory by those exceptionally talented teams.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Yeah. KCOL. Aus Rugby is doing some things right at the moment. It's important that they keep doing those things right, and also, do a few more things right progressively along the way. The last thing we need is for good changes to be considered job done and left behind as the world evolves around us further.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Not purely on the basis of taking the only full time pro NRC team to a title.
sheek
Roar Guru
Brian, What's the powerhouse of self-interest? All the Wallabies head coaches, even Cheika, had the best intentions. Simple fact, if the national team is successful, you keep your job. None of E.Jones, Connolly, Deans, McKenzie or Cheika deliberately did themselves out of the top job. If being Wallabies head coach was so easy, we would all be doing it.
sheek
Roar Guru
Spiro, I agree with your broad argument. We need to develop our own leading coaches. This is one of many areas we lost sight of over the past 15 years.
Mac
Guest
Are you going to have the same rules for the players? At the moment Australian passport must be very similar to the Fijian passport.
Harry Jones
Expert
The Man of the Match in Rugby World Cup finals is just about always a 30+ year old guy who was or should have been close to retirement: Jonny in 2003, Matfield in 2007, Dusatoir in 2011, Carter in 2015, Vermeulen in 2019. Maybe Australia needs to find its local captain more than its local coach.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
I’ve avoided reading this article till now, probably because of the oversimplification of the headline. Sure, it has some mangled Spiro logic but it’s not as bad as the headline which was unnecessarily sensationalist imo (editors). The article actually points to our pressing need to develop local coaching talent. Ironically this development may require working with non-Oz teams. We do need coaching pathways from club to pro level. Someone has already pointed out Rennie’s 6 years experience coaching at Tier3 level. We haven’t had a continuous 6 years of a Tier3 comp yet, let alone a coach developing there so thoroughly. Australian rugby is doing a few things right atm, The Rennie appointment is just one, imo. Johnson seems to have his head screwed on. And Gilmore looks to have developed some balanced culture within the U/20’s. All is not lost by hiring NZers at high levels. Once upon a time the best rugby writer at the SMH was a NZer.
Gigs20
Guest
So Tim Sampson should be the next Super Rugby head coach?
Gigs20
Guest
Interesting read Spiro but you forget to mention the worst performing wallabies coach in the modern era, Michael Cheika, if I were to draw as long a bow, I think if be able to find enough what-ifs to argue that the entire wallabies set up be moved to Europe and staffed by anybody but Australians.
jcmasher
Roar Rookie
Bang on MaxP. That’s exactly what is needed. I’d even take it so that coaches get jobs overseas as part of the pathway so they can grow further
jcmasher
Roar Rookie
While I tend to agree with you Spiro, I think that until the rugby administrators in QLD and NSW get rid of their parochial attitudes and allow a true national pathway for Players, coaches, administrators and referees this won’t happen. I agree RA should be sorting this out but when the state administrators fight RA at every turn, hold onto their pathetic little empires and continue to act like a big fish in a small pond Then it’s a difficult path. They all say they want a true “Australian” coach, but only if it’s their one. While I agree you can blame RA for a lot of the issues I think more blame lies at the state level of QLD and NSW and that’s what really needs to change
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
The only time nationality should come into it is if you have two equal candidates.
Brian
Guest
Randwick, Waratahs, Shute Shield. All the same thing aren’t they?
GhostFacePilfer
Guest
"the powerhouse of rugby in Australia"... lol Don't bother reading any further. This extremely boring article doesn't get more entertaining than this cracker in the first paragraph