Local Rugby Union Alan Jones on Robbie Deans
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Jones himself was a divisive coach who went on to secure 4th place in the 87 World Cup after beating an All Blacks side in 86 that was in disarray as a result of the fallout from the Cavaliers Tour. Still, if anyone was to know about coaches being unpopular with their players it would be Jones. A grain of salt. For all that, Jones had his moments and Deans is no Rod Macqueen.
I think you'll find that a lot of rugby officials in Australia have the same view. Some of the most well-respected and knowledgeable rugby people are the most vocal opponents of Deans. Rod Macqueen saw this coming during the Welsh game in Melbourne, I happen to be in the same corporate box as him and even though we were winning, he was disguised by the tactics employed by the Wallabies and the way the were playing. He said something along the lines of " 4 years and we haven't improved one bit".
I was a big fan of Deans. But his inability to devise and implement some sort of gameplan and his inability to choose teams that suit his gameplan was the last straw. He's a dud. I simply can't see the Wallabies improving with Deans as coach, he's a dead man walking. Although I don't particularly like Alan Jones or his opinions, I can't help but agree with him. Australia are currently better off without a coach, similar to France at the WC. We're underachieving with the talent we've got.
You've also got to remember that Deans was overlooked for the All Blacks job after the 2007 World Cup, even though the majority of the NZRU wanted him. Deans has some serious detractors within the NZRU, ironically Steve Hansen was one of the most vocal. This is largely due to his role in the AB's demise at the 2003 World Cup, where Deans made the mistake of playing Leon MacDonald out of position at 13.
I was a big fan of Deans. But his inability to devise and implement some sort of gameplan and his inability to choose teams that suit his gameplan was the last straw. He's a dud. I simply can't see the Wallabies improving with Deans as coach, he's a dead man walking. Although I don't particularly like Alan Jones or his opinions, I can't help but agree with him. Australia are currently better off without a coach, similar to France at the WC. We're underachieving with the talent we've got.
You've also got to remember that Deans was overlooked for the All Blacks job after the 2007 World Cup, even though the majority of the NZRU wanted him. Deans has some serious detractors within the NZRU, ironically Steve Hansen was one of the most vocal. This is largely due to his role in the AB's demise at the 2003 World Cup, where Deans made the mistake of playing Leon MacDonald out of position at 13.
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That's a very fair and reasonable summation.
I think Alan Jones has been vindicated.
Last nights game was just classic Robbie Deans. Everything that went wrong was partly due to his incompetence. Just a few blunders:
Last nights game was just classic Robbie Deans. Everything that went wrong was partly due to his incompetence. Just a few blunders:
- Selecting Drew Mitchell in the starting team. As I said previously, a lot of Wallabies officials didn't think he was up for it and that he was struggling in training. It's staggering that he was selected when it was so blatantly obvious that he wasn't ready or fit enough.
- Replacing Rob Horne at half-time. Why would you? You're wasting a subsitution and A Faingaa is a carbon copy of Rob Horne. It isn't as if A Faingaa is going to do anything that Rob Horne won't do. Staggering, we wasted a substitution for absolutely nothing. We could've at least replaced Cooper.
- Playing Barnes at flyhalf and Cooper as an inside centre (if you could call it that). Absolutely speechless on this one. You're bringing in a defensive liability so that he can play as decoy? Absolute joke.
- Dropping Beale. Deans has set a very dangerous precedent, I think Beale will have a smug smile after that game. Using the same standards, Barnes should be dropped for the next game.
- Deans has killed Barnes. Berrick is currently a dud. Unable to kick, pass or think.I'm not sure whether Deans indicated to Barnes that he wanted him to play that way, but Barnes was horrible. Very similar to the Barnes was saw earlier this year, the one that was nearly dropped for the Tahs.
- Replacing Benn Robinson two minutes in to the second half. Why bother? Robinson had actually started to look half-decent at the end of the first half. Would be close to getting dropped.
- Replacing Higgers and Dennis. One strength we had in the first half was our lineout. What does Deans do? He removes our two lineout options, leaving Samo (who has rarely jumped this year) and Sharpe. Replacing Dennis with a skinny ball scavenger is just idiotic, especially when we caught out physicality in the first half.
- Kicking tactic. What the hell was Deans thinking gifting Israel Dagg the ball? Israel Dagg, one of the best counter-attackers I've seen. FFS, you only try that strategy when you've got a player like Shane Williams or Digby Ioane on the wings.
- The nothing chip, or more commonly known as the Waratah chip. Seems Deans is a fan and has adopted this extremely unsuccessful skill to the Wallabies set-up.
