NSW Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson confident he’ll find quick solutions to club’s problems before 2018

WARATAHS coach Daryl Gibson hits back at claims over his coaching ability after a dismal Super Rugby campaign.

DARYL Gibson says the Waratahs’ diabolic 2017 season does not make him a bad coach and he will learn from it as he plans a turnaround for next year.

The Tahs, who are out of the finals race, finish their Super Rugby campaign on Saturday in Perth against Western Force, after which head coach Gibson will plot a new path to revive NSW rugby.

NSW has won just four games this season and Gibson will miss out on the playoffs again, having taken over last year when the Tahs finished 10th with eight wins and seven losses.

This season has been much worse, with the side leaking a record amount of points and potentially equalling their worst ever season of 2012 when they won four from 16 games.

(L-R) Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson and assistant coach Cam Blades.

“It’s certainly been a challenge, one I’ve learned a great deal from - and that’s coaching,” Gibson said.

“Having one bad season doesn’t make me a bad coach.

“You learn from it, treat it all as feedback, and get about trying to transform it and do it quickly.

“As a coaching team we’ve tried a number of different approaches, all looking for those solutions around fixing our problems.”

As well as retaining the head coaching role next season, Gibson will take over as NSW’s defence, with Nathan Grey to join the Wallabies full-time after Saturday.

The Tahs have conceded 40 points or more in four of their past five games, leaving Gibson to ponder some radical shake-ups in the off-season.

“That’s been disappointing, that’s been a number of things but [defence] is an area I’m really excited to get stuck into in terms of coaching,” he said.

“In terms of putting my finger on one thing, I think it’s a number of factors.

“Attitude is always one, defence is always a personal thing, it’s around intent and desire.

“Structures, systems, a whole heap of things we haven’t been able to fix all year.”

While financial restrictions at NSW have forced Gibson to take on the defence role rather than bringing in a specialist, he confirmed that the sports psychologist the Tahs players and staff have worked with throughout this season will be retained in 2018.

“We have someone with us now who is doing an excellent job, it’s one of those things with sports psychology, when you’re under financial constraints it’s usually the first thing that gets axed in a program and one that’s a luxury to have,” Gibson said.

“It’s certainly one we’ve invested in, we recognise the need for one, and going forward it’s certainly going to be part of our program.”

The Force will be highly motivated for the clash, given it could be their last as a club with the ARU seeking to axe the from Super rugby, while they will farewell inspiration skipper Matt Hodgson who is retiring.

But Gibson said his players had their own motivation, to end a horrible season on a good note.

“We know what it means to us, this game, and how important it is to make sure we finish off with a fine performance going into next season,” he said.

WARATAHS: 15. Israel Folau 14. Taqele Naiyaravoro 13. Rob Horne 12. David Horwitz 11. Cam Clark 10. Bernard Foley 9. Jake Gordon 8. Michael Wells 7. Michael Hooper (captain) 6. Jack Dempsey 5. Dean Mumm 4. Ned Hanigan 3. Sekope Kepu 2. Damien Fitzpatrick 1. Tom Robertson.

Reserves: 16. Hugh Roach 17. David Lolohea 18. Angus Ta’avao 19. David McDuling 20. Ryan McCauley 21. Nick Phipps 22. Mack Mason 23. Andrew Kellaway.

Originally published as NSW Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson confident he’ll find quick solutions to club’s problems before 2018