With yet another Super Rugby title safely locked away in Christchurch, frustrated Australian fans look on and wonder despondently, ‘what is the point of it all?’
The number of Australian franchise winners in crossover games against New Zealand opposition remains stubbornly low (this season, six wins), and while losing margins have shrunk, the competition remains undeniably lop-sided. Despite a valiant effort by the Reds in Hamilton, in 16 finals matches across the Tasman, Australian sides are yet to taste success. At Test level, Australia hasn’t had its hands on the Bledisloe Cup since 2002.
Theories as to why, and possible solutions abound. But the single factor that appeals as the one most likely to shift the dial in any meaningful and sustainable way, is coaching.
It’s an emotive topic; rugby fans tend to focus on individuals, often in a binary way. Scott Robertson, winner of seven straight titles, is lauded as a ‘gun’. Aaron Mauger, by courtesy of being in charge of wooden spooners, Moana Pasifika, is tagged a ‘dud’.
Professional clubs across a range of sports tend to follow a similar path. The cycle starts when a new coach is appointed in an accompanying, social media driven, blaze of optimism. Then, once the honeymoon period is over, if results aren’t as hoped, pressure – real and implied – is applied to the organisation and the coach, by media, sponsors and the fan base.
Richie Mo’unga and coach Scott Robertson (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Inevitably, a losing head coach will be said to ‘have lost the dressing room’, be ‘difficult to deal with’, or ‘is a great guy who unfortunately doesn’t have what it takes’. Soon enough, the obligatory ‘full support of the board’ rears its head, shortly before the hapless coach skulks off into the sunset, and the net is cast once again.
To be clear; just like players, some coaches are more talented and capable than others. But the individual competency spread is far narrower than what most people think. Winning coaching is a culmination of multiple factors.
Feted German football coach Matthias Sammer, commenting in the book, ‘Mensch: Behind the Cones’, by Jonathan Harding, explains how, “the head coach, in the key role, is a component of the system, but they aren’t the system. We have to strengthen systems that simultaneously protect coaches in order to understand how coaches work.”
This means that within a franchise structure, the head coach is just one piece – albeit a critically important one – in a complex puzzle comprising the board, executive management, director of rugby (recruiter), assistant coaches, medical and strength and conditioning staff, player roster, ancillary and other support staff. All underpinned by the infrastructure and financial resources available.
If only one of those blocks is out of place, outcomes are compromised. There wouldn’t be an Australian franchise, since Super Rugby began, that hasn’t had multiple shortcomings in every single season. And while these impediments might be easy enough to identify, they are devilishly hard to overcome.
What is clear however, is that Australian rugby’s coaching ills run far deeper than the goings on at its individual franchises, and the particular merits of each head coach.
Ex-National Head of Athletic Performance for Rugby Australia, Dean Benton, identifies a chronic lack of strategic direction, and the failure to design and implement a cohesive coach development plan, as the biggest impediment facing Australian rugby.
“No sport can progress and grow without good quality coaching,” he tells ‘The Roar’. “These coaches don’t just appear out of nowhere, they must be identified and developed.”
Benton points to examples from overseas, where a focus on coaching has paid dividends. “The success of Finnish Ice Hockey in the last 25 years provides Australian rugby with a clue. Currently ranked #1 and #3 respectively in men’s and women’s Ice Hockey, how does a country of just 5.5 million people compete so well against major Ice Hockey nations with bigger populations, more financial resources and greater rink density per capita?” he asks.
Answering his own question, Benton explains how, prior to hosting the 1997 World Championships, Finland invested heavily, adding more coaching staff into their seven regions, and creating Director of Coaching positions at all major clubs.
These appointments were purposed to coach coaches, not players. All appointments were individuals who met strict criteria; coaching experience at elite level, and demonstrated understanding of teaching, coaching andragogy, and modern learning science.
Dave Hadfield was at the heart of New Zealand rugby’s coach development for 24 years, straddling the transition into professionalism. Now a consultant to World Rugby and the MLB Toronto Blue Jays, Hadfield offers up three points of difference that set New Zealand apart from Australia.
“Firstly, we’ve been doing this for a long time”, he says. “Ever since Bill Freeman was criss-crossing the country in the 1970s, we’ve had a focus on coach development. Then, in 1994 we started running a course developed in conjunction with Massey University, the ‘NZ Rugby Practicum’, out of which came coaches like Wayne Smith, Steve Hansen, Chris Boyd and numerous others, who all rate it as foundational in their development as coaches.”
“Post-2007, that evolved into annual 2 x 3-day workshops, with two separate streams; one specifically for Super Rugby coaches, and another for NPC coaches. That feeds into the second factor, which is that we recognised the importance of collaboration.”
Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
“Blending essential characteristics like leadership, creativity, humility and vulnerability, we developed a sense of everyone being part of something bigger than themselves and their own franchises, provinces or clubs. As a result, creating such a positive environment and culture, with all coaches harbouring a voracious appetite to share and learn from each other, and for that IP to flow down into all reaches of coaching, New Zealand rugby has benefitted,” he explains.
Communication channels between Wallabies and Super Rugby coaches have improved in recent years, but the extent that Australian rugby is overlaid by historic parochialism, silo building and protectionism remains, by comparison, problematic.
Ex-Wallabies skipper Stephen Moore concurs. “We have difficulty getting alignment because of our federated structure. Rugby Australia, over the years, hasn’t really done things well enough for the states to be motivated to follow them,” he says.
“There’s an inherent scepticism about the programs and that doesn’t lend itself to promoting a centralised environment and collaboration around that.”
Moore adds; “Anyone in a central ‘Director of Coaching’ or similar role – and we’ve seen good, smart rugby people like Rod Kafer and Scott Johnson in recent years – is going to find it hard to get buy in because, whatever they do, there’s not that trust that Rugby Australia is at an elite level, and so there’s no alignment there to begin with.”
The third factor Hadfield identifies is, “our emphasis on how to coach rather than what to coach. 90% of the decisions a player makes in a game come from the sub-conscious mind – there’s no time for conscious decision-making, rather players (with an in-depth knowledge of the gameplan, their positional role and the opposition) react to what’s in front of them and what they hear from their team-mates. Accordingly, we try to train coaches to understand how to shine a light into each player’s sub-conscious, so that their intuitive reactions become the right ones.”
The inability of Australian players to continue to develop is something that frustrates Moore. “In Australian Super Rugby programs, we see too many talented players enter the system, and fail to develop year on year. Our Super Rugby programs need to be producing more world class players. The program makes the player, not the other way around. Whilst some of the that is on the players, it’s also reflective of the inability of our coaches, and our coaching system, to develop their skills and improve them,” he says.
It isn’t hard to tick off Mack Hansen, Luke Morahan and Will Skelton as just some of the players who have left Australia and become better, to illustrate Moore’s point.
(Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
Benton also points to a flaw in Australia’s junior pathway system, which affects players and coaches; “Instead of properly developing our emerging players, our academy system warehouses them. This is due to the lack of a centralised approach.
As a result, emerging players spend large portions of the year in school programs and playing club rugby which, as well as being of varying quality depending on location, dilutes coaching effectiveness.”
“If we want emerging talent to enter professional rugby environments far more ready and rounded, this should be via the establishment of designated sports schools and centralised academies, where consistent, high-level coaching can be guaranteed,” he concludes.
In a rugby environment where newer coaches find it very difficult to build sufficient high-level experience, that’s obviously an avenue which can help them get more miles under their belts. To this point, reading Harding’s account of German football’s coaching renaissance, one is struck by the sheer amount of experience able to be gained by developing coaches, before they are thrust into high-pressure, high level head coach positions.
For example; “David Wagner achieved historic success at Huddersfield Town after 150 games in charge of Borussia Dortmund’s reserves, and 50 games in charge of two youth teams at Hoffenheim.”
Among other examples, Harding also cites the heralded appointment of Daniel Stendel as Barnsley coach, having coached 34 first-team games at Hannover, and a lazy 207 U17 and U19 games at the same club.
Ex-Wallaby prop Nick Stiles took on the Reds head coach role in 2017 with a grounding that included Super Rugby assistant roles under Richard Graham and Michael Foley, the NRC, and earlier, four seasons in Japan, with the Kubota Spears. “I probably had as good an apprenticeship as you could get at the time, but even so, taking on the head coach role was very different. It was an incredibly steep learning curve on the job,” he explains.
Stiles also identifies another important factor. “Obviously, with only five professional franchises we don’t have many high-performance head coaches. And yet, we lose too many of them. Graham, Foley, Tony McGahan, Dave Wessels, Andy Friend, Michael Cheika and more; that’s a whole lot of rugby IP gone, replaced by guys on the way up, who have to learn a lot of the same things from scratch.”
Michael Hooper (L) and then Waratahs coach Michael Cheika (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
It remains to be seen whether Dan McKellar, now ensconced in Leicester, will return to the Australian system better for the experience, or will become another name to add to that list.
No better example of Australian coaching expertise being put to better use overseas resides with David Nucifora; since 2014, High Performance Director with the Ireland Rugby Football Union. Nucifora was lost to Australian rugby after his push to adopt a centralised player and coaching contracting and development model was rejected by the states.
With four professional franchises to Australia’s five, Ireland is similar in make-up to Australia. With Ireland ranked #1 and Australia #7 in the current Test nation standings, the similarities end there.
Another departed Super Rugby coach is Rob Penney, whose term at the Waratahs was abruptly severed five games into his second season. Tagged as a failed coach by Waratahs fans, Penney has recently been appointed to replace Robertson as head coach of the Crusaders.
How can someone deemed to be an abject failure on one side of the Tasman be entrusted with the reins of Super Rugby’s undisputed champion across the ditch? It’s not until we understand the value of system over the individual that it begins to make sense.
The same concerns apply to women’s rugby. As evidenced by last year’s World Cup, and last week’s Black Ferns’ 50-0 shutout in Brisbane, the Wallaroos have fallen well behind New Zealand, England and France.
Super W matches are marked by players and coaches who are clearly putting enormous effort in but, because they are starting from a long way back, and because they play so few matches together, display profound technical, tactical and teamwork deficiencies.
(Photo by Richard Heathcote/2022 Getty Images)
That Australian rugby seems to be heading down the same path in the women’s game as the men did is doubly frustrating given the 2016 Olympics women’s sevens success.
Beyond an increase in numbers for what are often short-term, superficial junior and school’s programs, Rugby Australia’s failure to effectively leverage off that success, in promotion, recruitment, and high-performance – including coach development – is damning.
How much of that is due to paucity of vision, commitment to implementation, or money, and whether outcomes can be turned around, remains to be seen.
Whatever the sins of the past, it is the prerogative of each new administration to draw a line in the sand and promise change for the good. Entering the role last year, Matthew Wilkie is Rugby Australia’s National High Performance Coach Development Manager, responsible for the oversight and development of around 50 coaches in charge of all of Australia’s national teams, Super Rugby and Super Rugby academy teams; men’s and women’s.
“The difference between my role and other appointments in the past, is that those roles had a much broader remit,” Wilkie tells me. “My focus is on working with all coaches on individual 12-month development plans, and on the continual improvements that can be made in terms of what we do with our players.”
When pressed on resources and the potential to tap into the looming private equity investment into Australian Rugby, Wilkie is cautiously optimistic. “One of my tasks is to get a feel for what areas we need more resources in and to demonstrate that we can deliver outcomes and get maximum return on investment for whatever new funding might come our way,” he says.
Incoming Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh has so far given every indication that player and coach development will be a priority, but whatever path Wilkie and Waugh embark on, given Australian rugby’s historical structural impediments, and the penchant of chairman Hamish McLennan to operate as the defining driving force for the game, is this something that people in the game trust Rugby Australia to tackle and fix?
Betting the house on the hard-working, charismatic Eddie Jones to deliver a World Cup this year, or Joseph Suaalii to capture hearts and minds from next year, represents a sugar hit.
A full-blooded commitment to a centralised cohesive coaching strategy, owned and supported by all of Australian rugby’s stakeholders nationwide, covering high performance, junior and community rugby, built to be sustainable and self-generating over the long term, is the meat and potatoes.
Or, as they say in the land of rugby’s 2023 World Cup, the Steak Frites.
Mark Berry
Roar Rookie
The development program was NOT about prescribing a game plan. It WAS about developing coaches and players basic skills. The sort of thing we’ve seen lacking in the last 2 games, U21’s v England & WB vs Boks.
Busted Fullback
Roar Rookie
G’day Geoff. Sorry for the delay. I hope you find time for this. I came through the Marks’ system. I thought the major strength was that it gave the coaches a common base from which to grow. Once you had the basics under control you could then feel confident enough to experiment with your own creativity, and if it didn’t work you were confident enough to go back to the basics, re-examine and adjust to suit personal philosophy. Coaches were more inventive and players were exposed to many variations. I feel sorry for coaches like Stephen Meehan who left Australia during the Mark’s years, got the supposed experience that is currently asked for. In his case, 4 years at Stade Francais as an assistant to Nick Mallet with a French championship, 5 years as Head Coach at Bath, a European Challenge Cup and Premiership finals appearances in three of those five seasons, HC in Japan, and an assistant at Toulon. His mistake was coming back to Australia after the Marks years, when positions were given to people who didn’t leave Aus, or mates and former Wallabies who “would be good coaches”. True, some came back earlier but with less success behind them. (I know I’ve been pushing Meehan’s barrow for a while now, but I hate seeing what I think is talent go to waste.) The other point I’d like to make is that at our peak on the international stage, Australia had the best referees in the world, not a group of refs directed to referee in a way that improves the entertainment value and draw the crowds. Not surprisingly, the best refs currently seem to be more in Europe.
Cec
Roar Rookie
Thanks Geoff, what a read! Can we just throw the kitchen sink to get Nucifora back to AUS? I know he already said “No” to Hamish but everyone has a price even if it means moving some members at RA Out to put Nucifora In. As well as the Aussie that lured Nucifora to IRE initially, I forget his name but I understand he lives in QLD now and has Nil involvement in pro rugby. Let’s not reinvent the wheel and just find a way to utilise these two home grown resources that have pushed IRE to #1.
LBJ
Roar Rookie
I disagree, and therefore my view is 'nonsense' in your narrative - thanks for proving my point. You are likely a terrific bloke and mean well - but your ideas are harmful and your methods, well they resemble sky news after dark.
LBJ
Roar Rookie
I am. More than some, less than many - it's what drives me to unfortunately be less affable here than I normally am.
AndyS
Roar Rookie
Absolutely agree on the buy-in side of things. But if everyone is genuinely buying in, there isn’t a problem that centralised control solves, is there? A central and single vision with everyone aligned is absolutely the goal, but giving a single body all the reins to do with as they see fit isn’t how you achieve that. The phrase you used, and many mean when they talk of central control, was ‘compel state unions to follow suit’. That isn’t buy in, that’s ‘my way or the highway’, and it doesn’t work, in rugby any more than at home. I’d just add, don’t get me wrong, as someone who would like to see a properly realised and stable NRC, I would love it if everyone could be told just to pull their head in and do what’s considered best for them. But I’m also realistic enough to know that RA is not necessarily a foolproof judge of what that would be, probably couldn’t and wouldn’t apply that power evenhandedly, and it simply wouldn’t work if they tried any more than it did last time.
Hoy
Roar Guru
Your fears are bordering on Machiavellian but have not been realised in other countries that have central contracting. It isn't necessarily about dictating and direction, but about buying in. At the moment, we don't have buy in, because too many of the states aren't on the same page. The clubs aren't on the same page. They all need to buy in and push in the one direction. Not pull their own direction.
AndyS
Roar Rookie
On the first, I was only thinking initially anyway, as unstoppable backlines don't just happen either. Once RA had been centrally controlling for a couple of years and focused on forward play, no-one would ever have an unstoppable backline as anyone that might belong in one would have gone overseas for a contract. And if the coach and mindset changed, it would take a generation or more to change that direction. I don't think anyone has ever said "Gee, I think head office in the US does a better job of managing our business than we can here". But that is what central control is, for anyone for whom it isn't also local. The current top-up system is a good example - as you say, it is to all intents and purposes central control anyway, as they decide who gets paid what. The issue isn't a lack of control, it is what they do with the control they have. They don't use it to spread and equalise now; why would we expect anything different if they could directly dictate to players and teams? Based on their primary focus on the Wallabies, the current 'cohesion' buzzphrase, and the intent to offload SR onto some other organisation, why mightn't they just decide the best outcome for the WBs would be to have them all in one location, all the most likely A- team members in another, and give the national coaches year-round access to the players? With central control it would only take one bright spark to convincingly pitch it, or a Wallabies coach to demand it... Central control isn't required to force compliance from state unions either. If a state union is obstructing a third tier, it only works because RA lets it work and again, that won't change. If it was Vic or WA said they didn't like it, think that would matter or stop them? If RA really wanted a third tier and was prepared to do something about it, it would need them to lead, not drive from behind. That doesn't work for donkeys, and won't work for....
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Yep Bro, as sadly we'll never see those games again, as at Lancaster Park, & the House of Pain ( or Taine ), Carisbrooke. Loved the terraces or even when we were short of a quid, up on the old railway embankment, overlooking the Brooke. The best game I watched on the embankment was the first test between the Lions & AB's where the score was Don Clarke 18 Lions 17. the Brooke was sell out that day so hence the embankment.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Very true Simon, but just say (that's a good one, here till Thursday) that the RA Board suddenly turned up saying that they identified it as an important issue, presented a credible plan, and started executing against it. That would demonstrate that they were getting a handle of all of the other problems, could work through potential solutions and have the capability to resolve them. I think that is the colloquial use of "just say", canvassing all possibilities, believing lightning could strike twice etc.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
That can be another trap for passing off activity as achievement. Waugh's great strategy for an academy in Western Sydney might be meritorious, but when would that happen anyway? Personally I would not leave a person in charge of Western Sydney whose big idea of promoting the sport is having three GPS games at Allianz. There needs to be land and funding, and there is no chance RA can come up with a strategic purpose that integrates with all of its other marvellous strategies for rugby in NSW. If nothing else changes in Western Sydney then you can probably guarantee few will end up at the Wallabies. RA needs to resource the support to establish an independent district that covers the massive land area and population bounded by Parramatta, Penrith, Hawkesbury and Camden. I would let the Rebels and Force run it and reap the benefits, because NSW and Sydney unions have amply demonstrated they either don't care, or don't have a clue. Experience in starting up in foreign territory dominated by other codes is essential.
piru
Roar Rookie
Even back before those mentioned piru, Canterbury always had some very impressive players, as I remember way back to the late 50’s. Even as a schoolboy, I used to travel up with whanau to Lancaster Park for the Canterbury v Otago encounters, Yep, one of my earliest memories is a Canterbury Otago game in Dunedin, would have been early to mid 80s.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
You can do anything with statistics. I would suggest the numbers look even better if you take it to the peak in 2001, seven years after Marks was canned. George Gregan was the last AIS rugby scholarship holder. To Geoff's point about appointing the best people, it probably would not hurt for it to be an independent body. The national scheme was set up and administered by Rothmans Sports Foundation, and terminated when the government forced Rothmans out of sport, and the ARU and O'Neill took control, banked the money and made Marks redundant. Reminds me of the Yes Prime Minister episode where Humphrey was protecting the tobacco lobby, "smokers are national benefactors, laying down their lives for the country" or something like that.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Yep ORF, back in his own environment, I myself reckon he'll do alright, especially in what we've seen coming through, in the young talent available. Time will tell.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
Good point Geoff. I was going to criticise you for chopping me off at the knees but I am going to classify that as tackling me before I got the ball sir. There is a bloke outside of rugby administration wandering the country communities promoting rugby, and he is continually amazed at the extent of underlying support. I agree if RA produced a credible plan, demonstrated its commitment, appointed the right people, and promised to stay out of the way, there would be both support and funding. 0/4 does not win you anything, even at a primary school athletics carnival. While Dick Marks is alive, and hopefully still with marbles, he remains key. He has achieved it before and, although that does not mean you can guarantee success replicating it, engagement with him is the pathway to credibility. Just sidelining him because he is difficult to deal with, or you refuse to accept you are not the expert yourself, is incomprehensible, but apparently the preferred strategy.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Who's she ATW? As in truth it's far past time he handed in his resignation.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
As many have noticed Jacko, many back home, are breaking out into other sports, as I have a moko back in Auckland, that wants to sail for Team NZ one day. Yes even golfing is going well, amongst others.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Very true ForceFan but many here in Australia need to start realising that Rugby is a Global Game, not a club game, with one only being played in Australia, & the other, the NRL, another club game that's only played in Australia at the top level & only on the East Coast of the Nation. I know which game I'd rather be involved with. The game that we test ourselves against what the world has to offer.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Possibly the best overall franchise Jacko, which includes the home of NZ rugby, Nelson. We all know how good the Canterbury set up, on its own has been over the decades, but now with their overall franchise, they do excel. The other side of the Waitaki, has the talent, but recently, over the last few years, its being going a tad off track.
Wizz
Roar Rookie
Yes Canada knew it wasn't Helsinki..