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Supremo sought as skills fade
By Wayne Smith
April 16, 2007
AUSTRALIAN Rugby Union chief executive Gary Flowers intends to push hard for the appointment of a national coaching director in the wake of the bleakest interstate match in memory.
Flowers said yesterday that he would call a brainstorming meeting of ARU president and former Australia captain Paul McLean, rugby manager Pat Wilson, 1999 Rugby World Cup-winning coach Rod Macqueen and John Connolly's Wallabies coaching staff, in coming weeks to address the alarming deterioration of the Australian game.
"I'm not a technical person, but if you watch the other Super 14 games on television, the ones involving New Zealand and South African teams, it's obvious to anyone that they are playing a different game," Flowers said.
"A coaching director's role is something we have to look at.
"I know there is the old bugbear of coaches being territorial and there would be some people who won't want this concept to work, but we're going to have a very close look at it and we'll then put a recommendation to the board."
On the evidence of Saturday's appalling game between New South Wales and Queensland at Aussie Stadium, there is a desperate need for remedial skills coaching.
Even Eddie Jones, whose hapless Reds repeatedly were unable to execute even the most basic of skills as they slid inexorably to defeat, conceded yesterday that New Zealand and South African sides had moved well ahead of Australian teams in terms of catch-pass skills.
"We don't appear as well-skilled as them and we were the best in the world at them," Jones admitted.
"And once, we had the most game sense.
"Not any more."
While there were flashes of inspired opportunism in the interstate match, most spectacularly Waratahs halfback Josh Valentine's stolen try down the narrowest of blindsides and Reds five-eighth Berrick Barnes's deft, if long-overdue, chip kick for Clinton Schifcofske's try, there was no evidence of tactical awareness on either side.
Kick-and-hope and one-out barging were the attacking weapons of choice for both teams; even the one moment of magic in the whole dreary mess, Lachlan Turner's incisive run from the blind wing for a near-try in the 26th minute, was sparked by a blatantly forward pass from Morgan Turinui.
New Zealand referee Kelvin Deaker, appointed to control this match in the forlorn hope that he might help it reach even modest heights, wasn't helped on that occasion, or throughout proceedings generally, by his sleepwalking touch judges.
As has happened across the Super 14 competition this season, both defensive lines spent the match camped offside, exposing already fraught handling skills to an even tougher examination than was necessary.
Roll on 2008, when law changes will push opposing backlines 10 metres apart at scrum time, although 10 metres is soon likely to become 5.5 metres if the standard of Saturday's officiating happens to spill over into next season.
The chagrined Reds took the back door out of Aussie Stadium, leaving only Jones and captain John Roe to face the media.
And the pair faced pointed questions that needed answering about the Reds' aimless performance. For starters: Why were the Reds' two lankiest athletes, lock Hugh McMeniman and blindside flanker Mitchell Chapman, so often stationed out on the wings if no one was bothering to put up crossfield bombs?
Either use their height to soar above Turner and Lote Tuqiri or else re-assign them to the trench warfare, where every bit of cannon fodder would have come in handy.
Small wonder that Australia coach John Connolly was reluctant to discuss the match yesterday, presumably having been taught early not to say anything if he couldn't say anything nice.
But after considerable prompting, he acknowledged that Waratahs flankers Rocky Elsom and Beau Robinson had performed impressively, while McMeniman, who limped off with a worrying recurrence of his early-season ankle injury, had played aggressively, if aimlessly.