Former Adelaide Crows coach Neil Craig one win away from being part of England’s Rugby World Cup triumph as team’s high-performance manager
As new Crows coach Matthew Nicks settles in at the club, former Adelaide mentor Neil Craig has been quietly helping England reach the Rugby World Cup final. But what is his role there?
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Neil Craig came close but never achieved the ultimate success as an AFL coach.
Now the former Adelaide Crows mentor is one win away from international glory – as England’s high-performance manager at the Rugby World Cup.
Craig has been with the Lions for two years, working alongside their head coach Eddie Jones and with players part-time throughout the year but full-time during the tournament in Japan.
An England victory against South Africa in the Cup final in Tokyo on Saturday will add another highlight to Craig’s lengthy CV that includes two flags in 319 SANFL games for Norwood and Sturt, 11 state matches, sports science work with Australia’s cycling squad, coaching Adelaide from 2005-11, including to two preliminary finals, and a stint as Melbourne’s caretaker in 2013.
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His long-time friend, former national track cycling coach Charlie Walsh, has watched every England game this competition and been “pestering” Craig with texts and the odd call.
After the Lions’ 19-7 semi-final triumph over New Zealand last Saturday, Walsh messaged him saying: “Magnificent. I loved the fierceness, the relentlessness and the toughness”.
Craig replied with a cheerful text featuring several emojis.
“I’m not normally one to hassle people, I leave them to themselves and to get on with the job,” says Walsh, who worked with Craig in cycling and was the Crows’ performance coach under him.
“But Craigy’s a little bit special.
“To me, he was really unlucky in his role with Adelaide.
“If you ask me, I don’t think you’ll get anybody better in the world (for that England position).
“As a competitor he’s fierce, he’s very smart … and he has really good capability – and I used to admire it – to have light moments, but if we want to be the best, there’s no walking away from this.”
Craig joined England from Carlton, where he was director of development, coaching and performance.
Walsh says Craig began with the Lions as a mentor to former Wallabies coach Jones before getting the chance to work one-on-one with players.
Learning Craig is involved in international rugby may surprise some onlookers, but not Walsh.
“The basic fundamentals of all sports have the similar requirement that you have to equip the players to satisfy the game demands from the physical side and psychological side,” Walsh tells The Advertiser.
“If you don’t get those two right, you can forget about strategy and forget about skill, and techniques.”
Walsh is also not shocked to see Craig working with Australia’s fierce rivals.
“Even when you look back on my coaching history, we had Japan work through the Australian Institute of Sport, I had Americans, Trinidadians,” Walsh says.
“As a coach, if you’ve got people, it doesn’t matter where they come from.
“If they fiercely want to be good, you enjoy working with them.”
Walsh will watch the final, “not for England as such, but for Craigy and Eddie”.
“Those two I have great respect for and I’ve only met Eddie the once but it was enough to know I really like him,” he says.
“Isn’t it amazing? You get a group of Australians involved that have done a remarkable job with England – Eddie, a couple of assistant coaches and Craigy, not a bad lot.”
Walsh has just one piece of advice for his great mate ahead of the match.
“You can have enjoyable moments but you can never lose sight in your mind that you are going there to perform,” he says.
“Craigy’s well aware of all that anyhow because we’re not that dissimilar in that regard.”
If England wins the World Cup, Walsh is certain Craig’s biggest satisfaction will come from helping Jones and the rest of the squad.
“Craigy’s not one of these people that it’s all about me, Craigy’s all about ‘what can I do for somebody else’,” he says.
It was 13 years ago that Craig was last on the brink of premiership success as an AFL coach.
His Crows finished second on the ladder with a 16-6 record then lost a preliminary final to West Coast in Adelaide by 10 points.
A year earlier, the Crows had been minor premier with a 17-5 mark before a 16-point preliminary final defeat to the Eagles in Perth.
But success with the Lions on Saturday would not make up for falling short at Adelaide, according to Walsh.
“You never ever replace those that you missed out on – this becomes another part of being involved in something good,” Walsh says.
“Whatever happened in history you cannot change but what you can do is reflect on that.
“You’ve got to make sure that anything you thought bit you doesn’t happen again.
“There was some things Craigy couldn’t change in that regard (at Adelaide), that was just how things went.”
Originally published as Former Adelaide Crows coach Neil Craig one win away from being part of England’s Rugby World Cup triumph as team’s high-performance manager
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