Wallabies Assistant Coaches

[fatprop]

All change with Wallabies as coaching reshuffle begins to take shape

Greg Growden

February 28, 2012


ROBBIE DEANS will be surrounded by different faces in the Wallabies coaching box this season, including at least three new assistant coaches.
Former Brumbies assistant coach, Edinburgh and Scotland A coach Nick Scrivener is in contention for one position, focusing on skills, and is expected to work alongside Deans. Former Test prop Andrew Blades and Munster coach Tony McGahan are also expected to be appointed as back-up coaches.
The make-up of the Wallabies' coaching and off-field staff will be finalised within the next month, but assistant coach Jim Williams and conditioning coach Peter Harding have already departed.
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The appointment of new coaches follows a 2011 season review by four ARU directors, Michael Hawker, Brett Robinson, Mark Connors and John Eales, who are all former Wallabies.
While the review focused on all aspects of the Wallabies' performances last year, in particular the World Cup, there was a special emphasis on the calibre of the Australian coaching staff and if there were any shortcomings.
The review compared the Wallabies coaching contingent with the World Cup-winning New Zealand team, where Graham Henry was supported by two high-profile coaches with international experience - Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith. Hansen has coached Wales, while Smith is a former All Blacks coach.
It is understood those involved in the review talked to numerous Wallabies and officials seeking their views, before making their recommendations to the ARU board last Friday.
David Nucifora, who worked as an assistant to Deans in the lead-up to the World Cup, will revert to his usual full-time role as the ARU's high performance unit manager. Patricio Noriega, the Wallabies' scrum coach last year, will also continue working with the ARU.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/all-change-with-wallabies-as-coaching-reshuffle-begins-to-take-shape-20120227-1tyxd.html#ixzz1ncgpJNoa

shit, I am agreeing with Grumbles

Deans has ensured no radical opinions of his processes

 

[spooony]

Australia are in no way a complete outfit but in 4 to 5 years time they will be. I see where Deans is going with his plans and its very clear to see he is building for the next world cup. So do not be hard on him just give him time as he is a very good coach.

 

[kiap]

just give him time

By 2013 Deans will have had SIX YEARS.

Even many good coaches become stale in the same job in that time frame. He has done some good things in rebuilding the side, but has by no means been outstanding. He's got two seasons left to deliver. His time here will then probably be up.

 

[spooony]

By 2013 Deans will have had SIX YEARS.

Even many good coaches become stale in the same job in that time frame. He has done some good things in rebuilding the side, but has by no means been outstanding. He's got two seasons left to deliver. His time here will then probably be up.

No one has been outstanding in rebuilding. Jake White, Clive Woodward rings a bell. We lost what 49 - 0 against Australia got beaten by the french at home but it came all together a year later. Even if his contract says six years does not mean your going to struggle for that time.

 

[kiap]

The rebuild is done and we are in the next phase now. There will be a few players coming in and going out to reward form and replace natural attrition but the core squad is in place. The coach is not indispensable. He could be one of those 'players' coming in and going out.

 

[Bruce Ross]

Australia are in no way a complete outfit but in 4 to 5 years time they will be. I see where Deans is going with his plans and its very clear to see he is building for the next world cup. So do not be hard on him just give him time as he is a very good coach.

I don't spend a lot of time in art galleries other than occasionally sheltering from the rain there but I am reliably told that if you stand too close to a painting you cannot understand it.

So I am mightily reassured, spooony, to be informed that from a distance of 11,000 kms you can "see where Deans is going with his plans and its very clear to see he is building for the next world cup." From a range of 11kms, give or take, the only Deans plan I have been able to discern is to hang around in the job for as long as possible.

I am also heartened by your view that Australia will be "a complete outfit ... in 4 or 5 years time". That will probably be a little late for the next World Cup but your message is clear - we should have patience. It takes time to create a masterpiece. I am reminded of the fact that it took Edward Gibbon thirteen years to complete The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and he only did half the job. If he had started with The Origin and Rise ... it would have taken him twenty-six years.

If it takes a coach a couple of World Cups to get the hang of coaching a winning team how come you blokes didn't give Pieter de Villiers another four years to learn how to do it?

 

[fatprop]

The squad is pretty well done as far as I care, the next few years will be pretty stable squad wise.

The only old men at the RWC were Sharpie, Vickerman & Samo

So we have a young team that we need to instill with some brains under pressure and consistency.

What demonstrated skills do these three guys have to do that?

 

[Bardon]

de Villiers was/is a clown. Deans is a much better coach than him but shouldn't automatically be given the next WC. I look at this reshuffle as similar to MJ with England. He was given a chance to select his own coaching team on the understanding that any failure to meet targets were on his head.

Realistically the ARU need to make a call within the next 12-18 month if Deans is the man to lead them to the next WC. That would give a new coach about 2 years to prepare for 2015 which I think is the minimum any coach would want.

Deans should know his best team by now and the squad is young enough that there's no major post-WC rebuilding required. Therefore all focus should be on results from now. Finishing in the top 2 in the new rugby championship would be a minimum and Aus should be competitive against NZ away from home. Losing to Argentina, which isn't beyond the realms of possibility, could be the end of him with Aus.

 

[daz]

While the Wallaby coaching structure is indeed worthy of a thread and I don't want to distract from that discussion too much, never-the-less I found I'm actually more interested in the second half of that same article:

Meanwhile, Sharks coach John Plumtree has complained that South African teams are at a disadvantage because there are too many local derbies.
''We're playing way too often against the other South African teams,'' Plumtree said after his team lost to the Bulls.
''It wears the players down to play against each other so often. For SANZAR it's obviously fantastic because it boosts revenue.''
Plumtree said SANZAR enjoyed the concept because it led to large South African crowds, such as the 46,000 spectators at the Bulls-Sharks match in Pretoria.
''You'll never achieve that with the derby games in Australia and New Zealand. The standard of their derbies isn't nearly as intense as ours here in South Africa,'' he said.
Plumtree said the long list of local clashes guaranteed that key Springboks were either injured or burnt out when the international season began.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/all-change-with-wallabies-as-coaching-reshuffle-begins-to-take-shape-20120227-1tyxd.html#ixzz1ndlP1iDA​

Forgetting the patronising tone by suggesting SA derbies are much tougher and a better spectacle than anything in Oz and Kiwiland (which in itself is enough for me to give him the evil eye), name me any year when either Oz, Kiwi or Saffer teams did not have a starting 15 player out during the international window due to injury sustained during the provincial tournament.

Lucky I don't play the man, or I might suggest Mr Plumtree should take that same-named fruit out of his rectal area.

 

[cyclopath]

Poor old John, having all the rugby gods aligned against their put-upon teams. What a load of bollocks.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

After seeing the boys up close in NZ last year I can't help but think that they weren't ready to be world champs, though I gave them a real chance going into the tournament. There were some tactical blunders made by Deans and Co., like having no backup at openside and a game plan that revolved around far too much kicking and he's probably a little fortunate to still have his job.

The squad is young and talented, however. I think they can be world number one, especially with the rebuilding that a couple of key rivals are going to have to do in the next couple of years.

 

[spooony]

I don't spend a lot of time in art galleries other than occasionally sheltering from the rain there but I am reliably told that if you stand too close to a painting you cannot understand it.

So I am mightily reassured, spooony, to be informed that from a distance of 11,000 kms you can "see where Deans is going with his plans and its very clear to see he is building for the next world cup." From a range of 11kms, give or take, the only Deans plan I have been able to discern is to hang around in the job for as long as possible.

I am also heartened by your view that Australia will be "a complete outfit ... in 4 or 5 years time". That will probably be a little late for the next World Cup but your message is clear - we should have patience. It takes time to create a masterpiece. I am reminded of the fact that it took Edward Gibbon thirteen years to complete The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and he only did half the job. If he had started with The Origin and Rise ... it would have taken him twenty-six years.

If it takes a coach a couple of World Cups to get the hang of coaching a winning team how come you blokes didn't give Pieter de Villiers another four years to learn how to do it?

I have good eyes. Ate a lot of carrots when I was knee height

 

[Gagger]

The review compared the Wallabies coaching contingent with the World Cup-winning New Zealand team, where Graham Henry was supported by two high-profile coaches with international experience - Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith. Hansen has coached Wales, while Smith is a former All Blacks coach.
It is understood those involved in the review talked to numerous Wallabies and officials seeking their views, before making their recommendations to the ARU board last Friday.

So which Australian coaches with international experience are we looking at? I don't see much change in the profile with the new setup

I have good eyes. Ate a lot of carrots when I was knee height

I think it was the dropping on your head that did the damage

 

[spooony]

So which Australian coaches with international experience are we looking at? I don't see much change in the profile with the new setup



I think it was the dropping on your head that did the damage

Is that what your dad told you?

 

[Newter]

The NZ cartel of three experienced Test coaches has given me a dangerous thought:

Wallabies coaching dreamteam: Ewen McKenzie head coach, with assistants Eddie Jones and Jake White.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

You could be on to something there Newter. So long as Eddie is never head coach again. He is brilliant as a consultant and gets on very well with Jake.

 

[Gagger]

One for the Kiwis - did Graham Henry choose (or at least have a big say in) his assistants?

 

[Bardon]

Henry would seem to have been the driving force behind their appointment according to comments he made at the time.

Graham Henry put the finishing touches to one of the most formidable coaching teams ever assembled yesterday when he announced that Northampton's Wayne Smith and Wales' Steve Hansen would be his assistants in the New Zealand camp.
Smith is a former All Blacks head coach who was succeeded by John Mitchell, while Hansen has just begun to turn things around for Wales, who built on their promising World Cup with a comfortable win over Scotland on Saturday.

Henry - himself a former Wales and Lions coach - had made no secret of his determination to secure the services of the two New Zealanders who were working in Britain.

Hansen, 44, will return to New Zealand once his contract with Wales expires at the end of the Six Nations Championship, while Smith, 46, a former All Blacks fly-half, will leave Northampton at the end of the season.

Henry said: "I have worked with Steve and Wayne in the past in a variety of capacities and found them to be up with the best technical and man management coaches in the game."

Smith acknowledged that he would miss Northampton. "This is a special club with extraordinary fans and a great group of players," he said. "I will never forget my time here. My accepting this new role in no way undervalues how much Saints means to me.

"However, I love the All Blacks. I have been striving to play for them or coach them for a large part of my life. They have asked me to go back and the fact is I cannot contribute from here."

 

[Gagger]

That was my impression as well.

If I were to be a head coach (or head of anything), I'd want a pretty big say over who my assistants were. From what I can pick up, Dingo has fuck all input into who these guys are going to be. It seems some ARU committee or bod draws up the list and Deans says "yeah, whatever".

Is it a surprise there's no cohesion at the top?

 

[spooony]

Henry and them were pretty clever. He knew he is going to step down after the WC so he had the next guy in the line as a assistant. So what happens is that he moves out and the assistant moves up. That way what they build and the direction stay in the same path without a new coach coming in chopping and changing too much destroying on what they have build.