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The pressure on Darren Coleman over the last few months was both foreseeable and unsurprising.
Much has been written about Coleman not having enough time, about Australian Rugby not learning. Only half is on the mark.
The truth is that Coleman is set up to fail in a role where learning on the job doesn’t cut it.
There was a gaping hole in his CV, where head coaching in a fully professional, elite level competition should have been.
Remarkably, the same can be said about every current head coach of Australian Super Rugby sides, except Les Kiss. Surprise, surprise.
Don’t get me wrong, what Coleman achieved at Shute Shield level with Gordon and the Warringah Rats was arguably unparalleled. But it was in an amateur competition.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 03: Darren Coleman head coach of the Waratahs looks on ahead of the round 15 Super Rugby Pacific match between NSW Waratahs and Moana Pasifika at Allianz Stadium on June 03, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Coleman’s Shute Shield experience was bookended by a player coach role at semi-professional Italian side Benevento and leading the LA Giltinis in US Major League Rugby.
Many of us wanted to see Coleman rewarded for his Shute Shield commitment just like many of us thought Mick Heenan deserved a crack at the Reds.
The harsh reality is that Super Rugby, while perhaps not what it used to be, is a serious provincial competition. There is no room for sentimentality.
Things have also been very uncomfortable for Simon Cron. And you have to feel for him too.
After the Force slumped to four losses from as many games, Cron was forced to admit that his players reverted to “club rugby heroics” at times… in “some of worst rugby I’ve ever seen.”
Could it be that players reverted to “club rugby heroics” because they are being coached by a club rugby coach? That is not meant to be cruel, Cron is the definition of the ‘Man in the Arena.’ He’s toiling, he’s getting up off the canvas again and again.
But was Cron really ready? Did a CV that was almost exclusively domestic with the exception of 3 seasons in Japan, prepare Cron for a job with the Force coaching perhaps the weakest squad in the competition?
The same questions come up with Kevin Foote’s appointment at the Rebels.
Foote is a Cape Town Rugby playing legend and admittedly spent eight seasons playing Sevens for South Africa as well as time as an assistant under Dave Wessels, a coach with a near identical background.
But again, Foote, like Wessels had next to no experience coaching in an elite competition and it should not be shocking that the results are the same.
Playing rugby doesn’t automatically qualify you to coach it. Even the greats find that out, just ask Martin Johnson, Brad Thorn and Stephen Larkham.
(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Larkham had a hugely disappointing stint as attack coach at Munster. When Larkham left, Gavin Cummiskey of the Irish Times commented that “Stephen Larkham the player and Stephen Larkham the coach are two completely different entities, if Larkham was of the same coaching standard as Andy Friend we would have heard or seen it by now as an attack coach. We just simply haven’t. Now he’s off.”
Off the back of Munster, off that kind of criticism, Larkham was handed the keys to one of Australia’s prestige marques. Should that really have happened?
None of this is to say that Larkham or Thorn, Coleman or Heenan, Wessels or Foote, can’t be immensely successful coaches.
But they can’t be set up for failure.
The QRU appears to have recognised this, hiring a head coach who has not only served an apprenticeship but become a master at the highest level of Irish and English Rugby.
Queensland Reds head coach Les Kiss . (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
Les Kiss told the Sydney Morning Herald this year: “My journey, you always felt like you had to earn your stripes, as a leaguie. Coming into union, I was very diligent. I researched the game and I became a student of the game. I was patient and I knew I had, not so much to learn, but I knew I had to gain the experiences I needed.”
One look at the CV of Kiss reveals a wealth of experience at both international and provincial level, in attack and defence. Work placements under both Declan Kidney and Joe Schmidt. Springbok defence consultant alongside a very young assistant coach, Jake White. His time spent overseas was neither fleeting or unsuccessful.
That was all after he left these shores 15 years ago following six years as Waratahs assistant under blokes called Dwyer and McKenzie too.
Who would have thought it?
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.