Former Wallabies captain George Gregan set to re-join Brumbies as coaching consultant
Gregan will meet this week with incoming coach Jake White to map out what his precise involvement will be with the Brumbies next season. But all indications are that he will be used periodically as a coaching consultant to work specifically with the team's halves.
"I'd love to be involved, but I haven't had those discussions yet," said Gregan, who was nominated by White on the day of his appointment as Brumbies head coach for the next four seasons as a key ex-player he wanted to get involved.
The former Wallabies captain was loathe to criticise the Brumbies following their loss to the Lions - only the second win for the Johannesburg-based side in 25 matches - and attempted instead to look on the bright side.
"There is only one way to go now and that's up," Gregan said. "It will be good for Jake to get in there and start rebuilding the team."
That process will not begin until the start of July, although White will visit the Brumbies' Canberra base on Tuesday for the first time to meet chief executive Andrew Fagan and other senior officials. He will also make the trip to see the Brumbies take on Western Force match.
During his visit White is expected to lock in his coaching staff for next year, with all indications he will run a lean operation.
Former Brumbies head coach Laurie Fisher will serve as his forwards coach, Steve Larkham as his backs coach and Gregan and former Wallabies boss Eddie Jones acting as consultants and sounding boards.
Former Wallabies strength and conditioning coach Dean Benton, the Brisbane Broncos' former performance director, is expected to be given the task of whipping the Brumbies back into shape.
Former Brumbies and Australia hooker Jeremy Paul admitted one of the saddest sights of his long involvement with the club was that of disillusioned fans leaving Canberra Stadium before the end of the Lions match, the first time he had ever witnessed such a sight.
"It's very difficult for any loyal supporter to stay there and watch that sort of performance," Paul said.
"I thought the criticism that Tony Rea (the Brumbies' interim coach) made after the game was spot-on. The hard things should be said. None of the players is being asked to give more than he can provide."
Historically Canberra is a two-team town. If the Brumbies are going badly, fans stream over to the Raiders. When the Raiders are failing, the Brumbies draw the bumper crowds. But at present both are in the wars.
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Former Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher looks set to return to the franchise under Jake W
By Wayne Smith
May 16, 2011 8:16AM
Former Brumbies head coach Laurie Fisher looks set to return to the troubled franchise as forwards coach next season as part of Jake White's new team.
Fisher, who at one point following Australia's early exit from the 2007 World Cup looked set to become the next Wallabies coach until New Zealand astonishingly passed up the chance to appoint Robbie Deans, has been in discussions with White about a return to Canberra, Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan confirmed.
Luck simply wasn't on Fisher's side during his four-year stint as Brumbies coach.
In his first year, 2005, they finished fifth, just one spot out of the play-offs while in 2006, they were relegated to sixth on a for-and-against countback after finishing equal fourth with the Bulls and Hurricanes. But if anything, 2007 was his unluckiest year.
The Brumbies finished the regular season with nine wins, a tally headed only by the Sharks, yet missed the playoffs because the Crusaders, who had only eight wins, surged into the semi-finals on the strength of 10 bonus points.
A hugely popular figure in the ACT, which he represented as a hooker in the pre-Super Rugby era, Fisher is winding up his association with Munster where he made a significant contribution as forwards coach, not least in the midweek match last November when the Irish provincial pack monstered the Wallabies in Limerick.
Confirmation that White is holding talks with him must send a chill through former Brumbies players Justin Harrison and Marco Caputo, who are currently coaching the lineout and scrum respectively, although after the lame performance of the pack in Saturday's humiliating 29-20 loss to the bottom-placed Lions, it would be hard for anyone to argue a massive shake-up is not in order.Indeed, the disgraceful defeat presents White, the 2007 World Cup-winning coach, with a blank sheet on which to sketch a complete re-build of the once-proud Brumbies.
Certainly interim coach Tony Rea did not spare anyone on Saturday night with savage criticism of a team and an organisation that constantly take the easy option.
"We are just a mob without any fight in us when it gets tough, even if we win," Rea told a post-match press conference.
"It has been pretty much since day one of pre-season, pretty much all laid bare.
"(Using) smoke and mirrors, we have tried to get through there for a while but if it's not in you, it's not in you. You are not going to find it under pressure."
Asked if the side could lift for its remaining five games, against Western Force, the Stormers, Queensland Reds, Melbourne Rebels and New South Wales Waratahs, a disillusioned Rea replied: "No, no chance. These blokes are not going to find something that is not there.
"We have just too many people and an organisation that makes too many soft decisions too often and now they're the bulk and the norm. It's in the wood now."
Asked whether his criticism had been directed at chief executive Andrew Fagan, the man who had pulled the trigger to fire head coach Andy Friend after only two rounds this season and then had travelled to South Africa to sound out White about taking the job, Rea replied: "No, it wasn't an attack on any one individual . . . it was personal, but to everyone in this place . . . everyone should look at themselves, including me."
Rea was especially disappointed that the players didn't dig deep enough to ensure that their hard-working captain Matt Giteau celebrated his 100th Super Rugby match with a win.
"They talk up as a group that they wanted to do that (for Giteau) but you can't magic it up if it's not in you," Rea said.
"In many ways they've spat in his face. He's put the effort in, he's continued to do it and they haven't."
And there was serious injury to go with the insult. Test tighthead Salesi Ma'afu will face surgery after breaking his arm while another 2010 Wallabies player, hooker Huia Edmonds, came off with a leg injury.
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