Ex-Waratah Stephen Hoiles slams club and delivers tough news to fans
The Waratahs have endure their worst season in history, and former Tah Stephen Hoiles has warned that many more years of pain are on the menu.
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Don’t expect to play finals for three years.
That is the dire warning to Waratahs players and fans from former star Stephen Hoiles following the inglorious departure of chief executive Andrew Hore, capping the worst season in NSW history.
Still embroiled in the Israel Folau legal saga, the Waratahs have lost six Wallabies, their head coach, assistant coach following their 12th-place finish in the 2019 Super Rugby season.
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The mass exodus means new coach Rob Penney, appointed by Hore days before he made the call to jump ship to rival Kiwi franchise Auckland Blues, has left the Tahs majorly exposed.
Hoiles has publicly echoed the sentiments of those within the NSW ranks, who are privately seething at the turn of events at the club in the past few months.
“They should have gone with a local coach, the CEO has gone to a rival club without any ramifications,” Hoiles told The Daily Telegraph.
“Why do we keep looking at New Zealanders? We’ve got guys in Australia like Jason Gilmore, Todd Louden, Darren Coleman, Mark Gerrard, who have been in the professional game for more than 20 years who don’t get a look in.
“I don’t know Rob Penney, I wish him all the best. But when a new coach comes in he needs support. When the pressure comes, and the pressure always comes in Sydney, you need allies, and he’s not going to have it because the CEO who appointed him is gone, and the new CEO doesn’t need to support him because he didn’t pick him.
“Realistically, when I look at the Tahs’ roster, I don’t think you can expect them to be playing finals. They look like a mid-table team.
“They’ve got a lot of young players in that squad. Maybe they could look at finals the year after, but most likely these young guys will take three years to come on and then you could definitely look at finals.”
Hore’s three-year tenure in charge came to an acrimonious end this week when news broke that he would be defecting to Auckland before he’d alerted the Waratahs board, prompting chairman Roger Davis to publicly slam the Kiwi-born administrator.
Problems arose mid-season when popular assistant coach Simon Cron was snubbed for the head coaching role by Hore, who elected to keep Daryl Gibson in charge for 2020 as opposed to shifting him to a director of rugby style role, which was the preference of the playing group.
Cron instead chose to join Japanese club Toyota Verblitz at the behest of All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, so highly is he rated.
Yet after all that turmoil, Gibson chose to quit after the horrid 2019 season, leaving players shell-shocked.
Hore then set about finding a replacement, but his failure to disclose that he was talking to the Blues about a job there has angered those within the Tahs set-up.
The Tahs board will commence the search for a fourth chief executive in six years, while Penney will inherit a largely inexperienced squad who he knows little about.
The club is also looking for a new sleeve sponsor after CMC Markets pulled their deal.
Originally published as Ex-Waratah Stephen Hoiles slams club and delivers tough news to fans
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