Wallaby Coach after Joe

[Yoda]

So, apart from Cheika, who is out of the running apparently, no other candidate has any Test coaching experience leading into a home World Cup, apart from Lancaster. Lancaster famously leading England to drop out of their home World Cup in the pool stages. Big pressure on Kiss if he gets it and will be interesting to see a Wallaby side with 23 Reds in a Test match squad! Come on fellas.. easy… as Foghorn Leghorn used to say … “ That's a joke son, I say, that’s a joke”!

 

[Tomthumb]

McKellar, Cheika, Cron, Larkham... Lancaster. In this group Les is strong. You might not have liked the possibles list, but that might be the problem there.

The only strong candidate on this list is Cheika. None of the other guys have ever won anything

Amazing how weak the candidate pool is for a 2 time World Cup winning nation

 

[Sully]

There is a stage in everyones career when "they haven't won anything". That doesn't mean they can't or won't.

 

[Strewthcobber]

I suppose the obvious response to that would be, "should you be applying, or be appointed, to the Wallaby head coach role if that's the stage of your career?"

Mind you we have tried going with proven winners for a while now, and the highlights from that seem to be some really positive close losses against good teams, two COVID wins against South Africa and a clean sweep of the worst Wales team in a generation, so I guess why not?

 

[Tomthumb]

That stage isn't usually when a guy is hired to be a top level national coach, or usually when someone is 60 years old with 25 years coaching experience

 

[fatprop]

Cheika is a great short term solution, but he doesn't leave a team in a better place for the next coach

Great possible highs until the low, as the burn out spreads

 

[Tomthumb]

I don't disagree, but his resume and standing in the game put him miles ahead of any of the other candidates

 

[LeCheese]

But there are also several factors in his history related to his approach, willingness to be a 'team player', etc. that would likely drop him well down that list in the eyes of RA, particularly as it seems like they're looking for a long-termer.

Is it the best pool of candidates? Absolutely not, but there's nothing that can be done - we can't force people to apply for the gig. We either select from the options we have, or don't have a coach after the Lions tour.

 

[Pfitzy]

And his list of rampant failures?

 

[Pfitzy]

Give Les Kiss a go.

And hope it isn't Les Miserables.

 

[Tomthumb]

And his list of rampant failures?

What would they be exactly?

 

[Ignoto]

Playing devils advocate here.

If RA had all the money in the world and was the most attractive place to work, who is your ideal candidate who is available?

 

[dillyboy]

This is always the catch when looking for a coach 2 years out from a WC - there's not normally a glut of quality international coaches available.....

 

[Tomthumb]

Hence why unions typically sign coaches to 4 year contracts after World Cups. As opposed to Peter Horne's master tactic of signing a coach to an 18 month contract and blindly hoping he changes his mind

 

[LeCheese]

Schmidt was ostensibly the best option available, and those were his terms. You can't have one without the other.

 

[fatprop]

I don't disagree, but his resume and standing in the game put him miles ahead of any of the other candidates

If you want a short term jump before another rebuild with a load of blaming everyone else

The thing Schmidt appears to have done is get structures back in place, Kiss is the obvious option to build on that

If you look at what he has done at the Reds, he built on and refined on Thorn's base

Phipps described Kiss's processes at London Irish on Stan, a focus on improving every individual and a coherent plan - I think that is what we need

Our team isn't great, we don't have the cattle to get revved up and run through walls, we just get injuries and our lack of depth shines through

IMHO we need calmness, systems, consistency and structure - I don't see that as Cheika

 

[Tomthumb]

I think this is pretty unfair. This didn't happen at Leinster, didn't happen at Stade Francois, didn't happen at the Waratahs, didn't happen at Argentina and isn't happening at Leicester

The end of his Wallabies tenure was bad, but he was hardly the only one at fault for that. Other than that he hasn't really failed anywhere or left any team in a bad situation

He's one of the most successful rugby coaches we have ever produced yet some of you on here treat him as some maniacal buffoon when it really isn't warranted

 

[JRugby2]

In almost all of those tenures there have been incidents and reports of his style being abrasive and maniacal - professional rugby is a complex collection of moving parts and so you need to be able to play nice with others.

I think its becoming more and more obvious that the decision makers within RA - regardless of the resume (which I agree is 1st place, then daylight) - aren't looking for a candidate that has a my way or the highway approach, over someone who is willing to build on the progress made and promote stability within the program.

We haven't had a clean coaching transition since 2002 (I think?) and our results have been fucking terrible throughout most of that period. Hard to blame the 6th edition of the RA administration for wanting to try a new approach.

 

[fatprop]

I think this is pretty unfair. This didn't happen at Leinster, didn't happen at Stade Francois, didn't happen at the Waratahs, didn't happen at Argentina and isn't happening at Leicester

The end of his Wallabies tenure was bad, but he was hardly the only one at fault for that. Other than that he hasn't really failed anywhere or left any team in a bad situation

He's one of the most successful rugby coaches we have ever produced yet some of you on here treat him as some maniacal buffoon when it really isn't warranted

It did happen at the Tahs

 

[Sully]

That stage isn't usually when a guy is hired to be a top level national coach, or usually when someone is 60 years old with 25 years coaching experience

Which top level national team is looking for a coach?