The problem is Giteau and Ashley-Cooper
Spiro Zavos
March 19, 2011
Here is what Matt Giteau had to say about the performance, or lack of it, by his fellow Brumbies following their 52-10 defeat last week by the Crusaders: ''Whether it is a mental thing, I don't know, we need to be stronger. We need to be more personal in our reviews, we need to name people that are lazy, so that people are accountable when we're doing our reviews … but it has to be more personal. It's time [to] say: 'You weren't here, why weren't you there?'''
Although Giteau did use the word ''we'' there was no real attempt in his comments to associate himself directly with his scathing criticisms of the Brumbies players. The least he could have done is say something along the lines of , ''I include myself in all of this.'' For this is the fact of matter. The grand plan of bringing Giteau back to the Brumbies to guide the team to a third Super Rugby title from the No.10 position has failed already. A reason for this, aside from the franchise imploding in a coaching crisis, is Giteau's own poor play and goal kicking. The outstanding Australian No.10 last week was James O'Connor, not Giteau.
Sherlock Holmes solved one of his cases by noting that a dog that habitually barked did not bark during a specific night. The dog that did not bark in this case of the clueless Brumbies against the Crusaders is the new coach, Tony Rea. He gave the media some anodyne comments along the lines of ''they wanted it more'', and that basically was it. He left it to Giteau to make some direct criticisms of the players. But this surely is what a coach, not one of the players, should do?
The fact the Brumbies coach is not barking is indicative of his invidious position of inheriting his position after senior players pressured their compliant management into getting rid of their previous coach. For if names need to be named then Giteau or Rea would have had to have named and shamed Adam Ashley-Cooper, who was comprehensively monstered in attack and defence by Robbie Fruean. The problem here is that Ashley-Cooper is a senior Brumbies player who is being ''updated'' by the CEO Andrew Fagan on a new coach next season.
The French coach, Marc Lievremont, reacted to France's unexpected 22-21 loss to Italy by dropping his iconic second-rower Sebastien Chabal, who has been playing ineffectually in the Six Nations tournament. A number of other senior players have been told that their guarantees of a place in the World Cup squad have been cancelled. Five other senior players have been dropped for the game against Wales at the Stade de France this weekend.
This is exactly what a coach has to do when his team reaches an unacceptable level of performance. Lievremont, unlike Rea, showed the leadership expected from a coach. Pat Lam, the Blues coach, has also dropped six players after his team's disappointing play against Western Force. Given the power exercised by their senior players, this sort of renewal is beyond the Brumbies coaching staff right now.
Brumbies backs coach Stephen Larkham and forwards coach Justin Harrison (two stalwarts of the old boys' power group) are in their first seasons as coaches. Head coach Rea's playing background was in rugby league. I know of no successful rugby league coach who has become a successful rugby union coach. Chris Anderson, for instance, could not make the transition.
The Brumbies clearly need an experienced head coach, someone who knows their system and their players well enough to immediately make the necessary changes in team selection and method that clearly need to be made. Such a person is readily available. Who other than Andy Friend, the sacked coach who has behaved impeccably throughout the shambles of his dismissal.
spiro@theroar.com.au
