Foley has unfinished business
Sunday 13th January 2008
Wallaby forward coach Michael Foley says he has unfinished business with the Australian pack, which he has tried to rebuild since he was appointed by former national team mentor John Connolly in 2006.
There is much speculation as to who new Wallaby coach Robbie Deans will choose as his assistants during his tenure as Australian national coach.
While it seems likely that Western Force coach John Mitchell will take over the Wallaby backline this year, it remains uncertain as to who Deans might appoint to take charge of his pack.
"It would be excellent if that could happen. I haven't spoken to Robbie Deans and [he] is yet to decide on how he will compose his coaching staff," a hopeful Foley told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"[But] from my point of view the first training session [ahead of] the [World Cup] quarter-final was 16 months [before]. You would like another year to really shape things in a way that people could say there is a tangible difference on a consistent basis," said Foley.
Foley said England's demolition of the Wallabies pack in their World Cup quarter-final loss at Marseille last September exposed the challenge still facing them.
"Last year people were excited by the improvements we made and then, rightly so, were extremely disappointed by what we did in the quarter-final," he said.
"We can say that we still have a long way to go, but we are in the process of getting there."
Foley said he had no regrets about trying to play with the vulnerable Wallaby pack during the unsuccessful World Cup campaign and added that it was certainly the way to go for Australian rugby, which has relied heavily on its highly skilful back-line in the past.
"We were ambitious, in a sense, of saying that we have the goal of being the best forward pack in the world," he said. "But that should be the goal of every player, every unit in every team.
"It's not something that has ever been discussed or thought about from an Australian forward's point of view because in the last 10 years we have tended to duck and weave a bit in the true contest for forwards like the scrum," said Foley.
Foley said that while many Australians felt the team shouldn't focus on forward play, especially because of the possible introduction of the Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) in the Tri-Nations, scrums would still be an integral part of the game.
"The contest for the scrum will still be there. And if you are not a strong scrum, people have the options when it comes to free kicks of taking scrums and to try to expose you in that way," said Foley.
