Australian rugby’s top coaches to come together to develop ways of reclaiming the sport’s major titles.

AUSTRALIA’S top rugby coaches will meet in one room this week for the first time as part of a plan to win back titles like the Bledisloe Cup and World Cup.

Portrait of Rod Kafer, former Wallaby and Brumbies star who is being appointed as coaching director of ARU. Picture. Phil Hillyard

FOR the first time in history, all of Australia’s top professional coaches and high performance staff will meet in one room to work out how to develop the next generation of Wallabies stars and reclaim major trophies like the World Cup and Bledisloe Cup.

The unprecedented two-day meeting in Sydney, on Wednesday and Thursday, will see Wallabies and Super Rugby coaches and assistants undergo leadership training and profiling run by UTS’ business faculty and the Australian Institute of Sport.

This is the brainchild of Rod Kafer and Ben Whitaker.

Kafer took up the role of head of special projects in the ARU’s high performance department, which is run by Whitaker.

The pair had to convince every Super Rugby franchise’s coaching and analysis staff to put distrust and rivalry aside for the greater good of Australian rugby.

“It is borne out of the fact that we had no Super Rugby wins against the Kiwis and 15 years of Bledisloe Cup losses,” Kafer told the Daily Telegraph.

“People at some point have got to say ‘Maybe we need to do something a little bit differently’, and I reckon we’re at that point.

Rod Kafer has brought together Australia’s top coaches. Picture. Phil Hillyard

“Ben Whitaker’s done a really good job of bringing the various constituents into one room and it’s been a process of developing trust.

“It’s early stages, and it needs to be proven, but there’s certainly a higher level of trust and understanding in the game.”

Different leadership programs will be held for head coaches and assistant coaches of the four Australian Super Rugby franchises; NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds, Brumbies and Melbourne Rebels.

“There’s been a series of coaching get-togethers but this is the first time we’re getting all of the participants of high performance rugby in Australia together; head coaches, assistant coaches, team analysts, athletic performance, team managers, general managers of high performance,” Kafer said.

“We’re trying to answer the question of what does the player of the future look like, and are we preparing for the player of the future; that will be a core concept of those two days.

“We’ve profiled about 30 coaches in Australia.

“We want to make change, change wants to happen, and they all want to get on with it.

“The profiling will identify skills gaps, and potential weaknesses that might exist within our current people, and what I’ll then look at is try to plug those holes and fast-track the gaps that we’ve got by creating programs and education tools and self-learning opportunities for our coaches.”

Kafer is also keen to implement mentoring programs for experienced and rookie coaches.

“As part of that leadership comes mentoring and ensuring that we align all of our coaches to mentors who might be able to value in areas they might not be that skilled in,” he said.

“And equally, it’s about ensuring that our coaches have the capacity to mentor a number of coaches underneath them so we get this sharing of IP (intellectual property) up and down the system.”

Originally published as Australian rugby’s top coaches to come together to develop ways of reclaiming the sport’s major titles.