What do Eddie Jones, John Connolly, Robbie Deans and Ewen McKenzie have in common? They were all great provincial coaches but couldn’t cut it at the national level. What’s the other thing they have in common? Bringing Australian Rugby from the dizzying heights of national popularity to its lowest point in the country’s history. That’s right, the current debacle which is the financial position of the ARU and the popularity of rugby can’t be blamed on a lone game at Eden Park in 2014- it has been building from a decade of poor decisions and underperformance.
Fellow readers, we all know the definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, AND YET, is this not what we are proposing? After ten years of stupid decisions, aren’t we trying to fix the problem with more of the same? Instead of hiring the greatest coach in the professional era; Jake White, how is it that there is overwhelming support for another coach with zero coaching experience at the national level?
Here are three reasons why Jake White is the only option:
1 Experience: not only has the man coached a national side, he has won a Rugby World Cup. Not only has he won a World Cup, but he won the last World Cup staged in the Northern Hemisphere. Enough said.
2 Australian coaching experience: While the man is not an Aussie we know he can coach our players to great success after taking a rabble of Brumbies misfits from the wooden spoon to the Super XV Grand Final and beating the British and Irish Lions along the way.
3 Free agent: By taking Cheika away from the Tah’s you are leaving a gaping hole in NSW. How do you fill the void left by taking away the Tah’s head coach with preseason starting in under a month? White on the other hand has left the Sharks and is sitting about twiddling his thumbs.
Shock and Horror
If the thought of Cheika leaving the Tah’s stranded and trying to turn around the Wallabies was bad enough, things somehow got worse this afternoon. Today the concept has been floated that Cheika will take over both the Wallabies and the Waratah’s. Is Bill Pulver taking crazy pills?
Australian rugby is on its knees and the solution is put in a new coach with no experience at the national level, give him 11 months to turn around the team before they compete in the World Cup group of death AND get him to retain his coaching role of the Waratahs in his spare time!? Unbelievable.
This is how it plays out
| Date | Cheika Commitments | Outcome |
| November/December | Pre-season for Waratahs /Wallabies play Autumn Internationals | Waratahs have a half-arsed pre-season with a head coach in Europe |
| H1 2015 | Super XV commences for Waratahs/Wallabies develop strategy for Rugby Championship | Cheika is solely focused on Waratahs while other national coaches are preparing for the Rugby Championship |
| H2 2015 | Super XV finals/The Rugby Championship/The World Cup | The Waratahs don’t make the finals/ the Wallabies get smashed in the Championship/ the Wallabies don’t make it out of their pool. |
What Pulver should be doing
The solution is staring him smack bang in the face:
1 Give Jake White a 12 months contract to turn around the team before the world cup and leave Cheika to try and win back-to-back titles at the Tah’s.
2 Invite Cheika and Larkham to act as his assistants for the Wallabies so that they can learn from the master.
3 Once we have won the World Cup and the Tah’s have proven they arent one-trick ponies, give appoint Cheiks as the national coach.
What will it take for the ARU to start acting in the best interests of the game? Bankruptcy?
Please Bill, for the sake of the game we love. Make the right call- give the job to Jake White so that we can end a 15 year drought and bring the other Bill back home.
