Australian coach blames ‘disastrous’ New Zealanders for Wallabies losing their ‘unique identity’
Current Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt and former boss Dave Rennie, who are both New Zealanders.
Former Waratahs head coach and outspoken pundit Matt Williams believes that Australia has moved “so far away from its DNA” after hiring several New Zealanders.
The Wallabies had only ever been coached by Australians until former Crusaders boss Robbie Deans took charge in 2007.
Deans lasted six years and led them to the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi-finals, but their style of play was criticised and he was eventually replaced after their series defeat to the British and Irish Lions in 2013.
Australians Ewen McKenzie and Michael Cheika followed before another Kiwi, Dave Rennie, became the Wallabies head coach in 2020.
He ended with a win percentage of under 38 per cent, which led to his sacking, but Rennie’s replacement, Eddie Jones, fared even worse.
Third New Zealander
Ex-All Blacks coach Joe Schmidt has since become the third New Zealander to lead Australia but he was not the “people’s choice for the role”, according to Williams.
“Australian rugby has suffered from a string of wrongly recruited Kiwis, either as coaches or chief executives, who have disastrously driven the game in Australia so far away from its DNA that players of this generation have lost their understanding of Australian rugby’s unique identity,” the ex-Scotland and Leinster boss wrote in his Irish Times column.
“So it is understandable that the Aussie locals are highly sceptical of yet another New Zealander getting the gig as the Wallabies boss.”
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Williams believes that Schmidt will be different, however, and expects the Wallabies to improve under his guidance.
“When a leading RA official asked me for my opinion of Schmidt coaching the Wallabies, I told him that Schmidt is one of the best coaches I have ever seen but he badly lost his way in 2019,” he wrote.
“However, good coaches can learn from their errors and I believe that in time Joe will be a huge positive for the Wallabies.
“The vast majority of Wallaby supporters do not have the same opinion and they sit firmly in the ‘Doubting Thomas’ category. They need to see a lot of wins before they will believe in Schmidt.”
Good start but a lack of quality
Australia began the Schmidt era with three successive victories over Wales (twice) and Georgia to give them some confidence going into the Rugby Championship.
There were a few positive signs from those triumphs but there is still an issue around the player pool that the head coach has at his disposal.
The individual class is a far cry from what they used to produce and Williams insists that Schmidt has a huge challenge on his hands to get them back on track.
“Success will be a struggle for Schmidt because the production line of Australian world-class creative halves has simply stopped,” he added.
“For half a century the Wallabies were renowned for their exceptional halves that could create space and then exploit it. Nick Farr-Jones, George Gregan, Mark Ella, Michael Lynagh and Stephen Larkham are all-time greats.
“Over the past two decades, their legacy has been abandoned by coaches who imposed a Kiwi style of play on to young Australian halves. This has resulted in them losing their understanding of how to play a uniquely Australian style of game.
“None of this was of Schmidt’s making but it is his deepest problem. As they say in boxing, you can only punch with the fists you have, and Schmidt can only select the players at his disposal.”
