I still find it unbelieveable that the professional rugby coach of a full-time professional rugby team can go into a season without an experienced back up in a key position. At least some of the problems currently besetting the Reds come from this basic mistake. The nature of professional rugby means that every side has to cope with injuries and while they are always going to have an impact, the idea that any team can go into the start of the season with only one competent option at 10 is mind-blowing.
And just as the Waratahs train wreck of 2011 played its part in derailing RWC 2011, the Reds current predicament is bad for Australian rugby, particularly in a RWC year.
QH - recall that after the disastrous Reds 2014 season, the Carmichael-Graham duo soon turned to the 'explanation' that this was largely due to 'we didn't refresh the squad adequately after the 2011 win'. The next phase was the mini-program to recruit new players allegedly to execute the team refresh that 'should have been done a bit earlier'.
That is, coaching was 'not the problem', the decline since 2012 was always the fault of player staleness or decline.
So, these new players were recruited, often at high cost. But the cost of the new 'stars' plus the many that were jettisoned clearly unbalanced the potential to build a complete and proper back squad to cover all key positions.
The root of the whole situation is the wishful, but reckless, delusion that the coaches bore no real responsibility for the 2014 season outcome. So, the 'big squad upgrade with so much new talent' carried the burden of proof that 2015 would be the essential turnaround. It was a an assumption of unbalanced folly, and a poor reflection on the governance maturity and objectivity of the QRU board.
