The unchecked rise and rise of the rugby's 'super' coaches
The unchecked rise and rise of the rugby's 'super' coaches
Plus, the Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
A learned, rugby-loving friend of mine believes the sport is, to its detriment, being slowly and systematically controlled by a cabal of ‘super’ coaches who have become bigger than the game.
Having watched recent events, it’s easier to see where he’s coming from.
The move to appoint Eddie Jones coach of the Wallabies through to 2027 (and to oversee the Wallaroos’ programme for the next World Cup cycle), makes sense on some levels, but it’s also a painful reflection on where rugby is at. As is parachuting Warren Gatland into the Wales’ role involuntarily vacated by Wayne Pivac.
There’s been few people pimping for Dave Rennie this week, including Stephen Donald who described him as the best coach he’s ever played under. That’s all well and good but you could mount an equally compelling case that with a win record below 40 per cent, Rugby Australia could have been accused of being asleep at the wheel if a “better option” came along and they didn’t take it - the exact same argument that has been used against NZ Rugby as Ian Foster’s record hovers around 70 per cent.
I’d put short odds on the irascible Jones getting another payout before 2027 rolls along, but are the Wallabies a better chance of going deep in France later this year than they were a week ago? I’d say so, and that’s the metric that matters when we live in a rugby world that measures itself on a four-yearly basis.
More than that, what Jones reappointment reinforces is the idea, perpetuated by a coterie of coaches themselves, that you have to have coached international rugby to coach international rugby. It does not take a genius to decipher the circularity and self-interest of that theory.
It places untold power in the hands of a few who, aided and abetted by compliant administrators and media who slurp up their every word, retain their influence - even when their own careers have finished.
The more I think about the rugby world, the more I start to think my mate not only has an intriguing theory, but he’s probably right. I mean, could a Brendon McCullum situation ever happen in rugby? Fat chance.
If you want a starting point for when this “accepted wisdom” took root, you can look at Graham Henry’s departure to Wales, his subsequent return and all that followed.
He appointed Steve Hansen as assistant, who had followed Henry’s path to Wales and that pair, either through appointment or influence, have maintained a stranglehold on the All Blacks role that continues today. New Zealand Rugby is now coming up 16 years of the same coaching ethos controlling their flagship brand. Is it any wonder the All Blacks have started to look so stale?
It sent a signal to the rest of the world that certain coaches are an untouchable breed with a rugby IQ that remains incomprehensible for those who haven’t coached at the sharpest end of the game. It’s been consciously or subconsciously seized upon by men like Gatland, who is already agitating for the return of one of his disgraced favourites, Jones, Rassie Erasmus (who, let’s face it, is still Springboks coach without the title) and even Joe Schmidt, who had a chance to change the direction of the All Blacks but went with the inside man.
It’s why outsiders without high-profile patronage find it so hard to get a look in, even ones with devastatingly good domestic records.
Rennie should take comfort in one key point: he’s been there and while he hasn’t quite done that, he’s coached a big team in test rugby and, yep, you can’t coach in international rugby unless you’ve coached in international rugby.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
More than 55 former amateur players have begun legal action against the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union and World Rugby, citing negligence in the governing bodies’ failure to protect them from brain injuries during their playing careers.
The group includes the family of one deceased male player who was diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) postmortem.
The action is separate to the case involving a group of 225 former professional union players, which is already under way. The players, who include females, have been diagnosed with a range a neurological impairments, including early-onset dementia, probable CTE, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and motor neurone disease, which they attribute to the effects of the concussive and subconcussive blows they suffered while playing the sport.
Because people who are likely suffering from chronic neurodegenerative diseases like CTE are continually bombarded by the idea that their genes or their lifestyle is to blame for the disease, there’s a few lines from the end of an interview with Alex Abbey, one of the amateur players suing World Rugby, it feels important to include even if it really should be unnecessary.
Abbey knows what some people in the game say; he has heard it all already. There are plenty of people who still don’t seem to believe what is happening or who blame it on genetics or behaviour away from the pitch. It came up again recently, when the England forward Courtney Lawes said: “Generally it’s your genetics which will determine if you get things like dementia and stuff like how much you’re drinking, other recreational things, and how healthy you keep yourself in later life”.
Whoever Lawes has been talking to, maybe he needs to sit down and listen to someone like Abbey. “I didn’t drink. I didn’t take drugs. And I’ve never smoked a cigarette,” Abbey says. “Between ages of 12 and 21 I wouldn’t have drunk more than a dozen times. The guys at university used to find it funny. I never liked it. I still don’t have alcohol in the house.”
He’s mainly a Christmas drinker. He does it maybe half a dozen times a year. “So next they’ll say it’s ‘just bad luck’, that it’s all hereditary. But we’ve got no history of dementia in the family, on either side.” He says his Dad’s just starting to show signs now he’s 75. “The truth is you can’t ascribe the disease I’ve got to anything else other than playing rugby.”
Refusing to back your team’s efforts at inclusivity for the LGBTQ+ community is not just a Manly Sea Eagles problem. Here, Philadelphia Flyers player Ivan Provorov of the NHL refused to warm up in a rainbow-themed jersey citing the teachings of the Russian Orthodox church. Everybody lost, according to this piece in SB Nation.
“Willy Gnonto, Willy Gnonto / He eats spaghetti / He drinks Moretti / His cock’s f***ing massive.”
I didn’t wake up today expecting to read a story about demeaning football chants referencing black football players’ penises, but I did and it was pretty bloody sad. From The Athletic ($).
Wilfried Gnonto’s first goal for the club was supposed to strengthen his bond with those supporters. However, a section of the crowd at Elland Road felt it appropriate to celebrate by singing, to the tune of La Bamba, about the supposed size of his penis.
Amad Diallo is excelling at Sunderland in the Championship, on loan from Manchester United. He has been subjected to the same treatment. Before the 3-0 victory over Millwall on December 3, the winger released a video on Sunderland’s social media channels asking for it to stop.
It didn’t.
Michael Clarke wasn’t the only Australian sports star in a bit of strife this week. The story of Olympic diving gold medallist Chantelle Newbery’s descent into drug abuse and petty crime is, unfortunately, an all-too-familiar cautionary tale.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
What I plan on watching this weekend
I really couldn’t give two hoots about the cricket, but the Black Clash is a kind of pop-culture phenomenon that, whether they admit it or not, reawakened NZC’s eyes to the free-to-air audience for cricket that wasn’t being serviced. Five years in, the appetite for this festival shows no sign of abating.
Team Cricket v Team Rugby, Black Clash V, Christchurch, tonight 6.30pm, TVNZ 1
If an understrength Black Caps can steal one of three ODIs in India they’ll feel they’ve done okay. They meet in the second match in Raipur, a city I’ve never heard of and, from what I can tell, one that has never produced an international cricketer. Its most famous citizen is Veer Narayan Singh, a landlord and freedom fighter who was arrested by the British in 1856 for looting grain stocks and giving it to the poor to ward off famine. A year later, following his escape, he spearheaded the Chhattisgarh War of Independence. He was captured and hanged in December, 18571. I’m not sure what he has to do with cricket, but as a name for a stadium, it sure beats the Kennards Hire Community Oval.
India v NZ, 2nd ODI, Raipur, tomorrow 9pm, Sky Sport 2
I finally had a chance to sit down and watch some Australian Open tennis yesterday and watched a decent match involving the women’s No 4 seed who… I had never heard of. I’m aware that the fact I’ve never registered 29 year old French player Caroline Garcia says more about me than the state of women’s tennis but even so, that draw appears wide open. In the mens, Andy Murray and Thanasi Kokkinakis played until 4am, which is a “farce”, but it did lead to this angry yet somehow classy exchange (you may need to click through to get the full monologue).
I won’t point you to any particular match this weekend, but it’s all over Sky all the time this weekend. You can even watch mixed doubles, if you have absolutely nothing going on in your life.
Australian Open, Melbourne, all weekend, multiple Sky channels
A tip for watching NFL: start a half an hour after kickoff and fast forward through the interminable breaks. Spark is a more enjoyable platform, because you don’t get the endless promos on repeat during the breaks. Here’s a divisional round playoff between two old school franchises.
Philadelphia Eagles v New York Giants, NFC, Sunday 2.10pm, Spark Sport
There’s a bit going on this weekend, most of which will pass me by, but the sevens are on in Hamilton; the Football Ferns are playing USA in the second of two internationals; there’s the hockey world cup in Bhubaneswar, India, where the Black Sticks men had a disappointing 2-3 loss to Malaysia; and our best men’s professional golfers Ryan Fox and Danny Lee are in action on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour; the netball Quad Series featuring the Silver Ferns starts in a really unfriendly time zone in South Africa; while the EPL and NBA are starting to reach pivotal points in the season.
READING RECOMMENDATIONS, PLEASE
I’m keen to get stuck into a few good sports books this summer, so I am taking in recommendations. I’ve read most of the classic sports books and biographies but if there’s anything new you can suggest, let me know. At the moment, I’m devouring Jimmy Barnes’ Working Class Man, which isn’t sport and it isn’t new, but it’s well worth a scan if you have any interest in music, or the personal excesses of musicians.
Source: Wikipedia
The phenomenal impact that Wayne Smith had turning the NZ women's team around from an absolute shower to World Champions indicates that there are sometimes great coaches that are worth parachuting in.
Keen to see your views on what killed NZ Sevens. How did it go from being an annual party event to being cancelled? Why did people stop showing up? Was it just the fun police?
Can't help but think that one ref call may have been proverbial straw that broke the camels back for Rennie. Had the ref not blown for time wasting, Aussie would have likely won and may well have had a head of steam up for the last Bledisloe - and who knows in that scenario? You could argue that he opened himself up to that vulnerability over the last 3 years - but had that call not happened, the 'Sliding Doors' alternate world couldve been very different.