Rugby news 2023: Former All Black Stephen Donald slams Wallabies over Dave Rennie sacking
Former All Black’s star Stephen Donald has torn strips off the Wallabies in the wake of Dave Rennie’s sacking, claiming Australia’s issues go far deeper than coaching.
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The Wallabies’ 2023 World Cup campaign will have a distinct Back To The Future theme.
The coach, Eddie Jones, had the job 20 years ago.
The most likely five-eighth, Quade Cooper, had the job 12 years ago.
Throw in Kurtley Beale – who was training with the squad under Dave Rennie last week – and current skipper James Slipper, both who were alongside Cooper in the 2011 World Cup team, and it appears Australia has a serious talent development issue.
Certainly when it comes to coaches and five-eighths, the Wallabies have failed to bring through a new generation of champions in more than a decade.
So it’s no wonder that global rivals are looking at the recent move to install Jones at the expense of Rennie, who’d spent three years plotting the World Cup campaign, as a reactionary mistake.
None were as cutting as World Cup-winning former All Black five-eighth Stephen Donald, who was coached by Rennie at the Chiefs, and says Australia simply does not have the talent to compete.
“There’s a big problem here, and it’s the fact they’re trying to make it out to be a coach problem, I’m sorry Australian rugby, but take a look at what you’ve got,” Donald said on SENZ.
“For the last, I’m going to say five years, you have had the poorest, and lacking of depth squad and players – and not just Wallabies – Super Rugby as well, that you’ve ever had. Certainly in my lifetime.
“Quite frankly, you don’t have the cattle.
“Of the current regimen, [Marika] Koroibete, an in-form [Michael] Hooper at the peak of his powers, and [Samu] Kerevi would be the only ones who would warrant a selection mention in the last 40 years of an Australian touring squad.
“Koroibete probably wouldn’t get a start, and there’s been better flankers than Hooper, but Hooper would certainly get a consideration for a touring squad of any of the generations that have been in my lifetime.
“But apparently, that’s not the issue. It’s the coaching issue.
“It just doesn’t wash with me.
“I get why you’ve gone the Eddie Jones route, but why now? I don’t think he’s going to be your magic bullet to produce your next [Stephen] Larkham in eight months’ time, or your next Joe Roff, or your next Sterling Mortlock or your next George Gregan, or your next anyone.
“Simply, Australian rugby’s cattle is pretty depleted.”
Rennie himself spoke for the first time on Wednesday, since being sacked as Wallabies coach on Monday morning.
“The support has been immense and much appreciated from the more than 500 messages I’ve received from current and former players, coaches, administrators and friends both here and abroad,” Rennie said.
“I’ve loved my time with the team. They’re outstanding young men who are keen to learn and prepared to work hard.
“The staff I worked with during my time with the Wallabies are some of the best in the world and they played a massive role in creating a quality environment and developing the depth of the playing group.
“I’d like to particularly thank those in the Australian rugby community for their support of the team over the past three years and for all the words of encouragement when we have crossed paths in schools, on the training field or in airports around the country.
“I’m disappointed I won’t be able to see out my contract in the way I agreed to back in 2019 but leave knowing I had the full support of the playing group and the staff.
“I certainly felt we have made massive shifts over the past three years both on and off the field, which is off the back of a hell of a lot of hard work put in by good people.
“I wish Eddie, the staff and the team all the best in what’s a massive year, with the Rugby World Cup less than nine months away.”
DWYER DEFENDS RENNIE’S FATAL MISTAKE
World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer has expressed great sympathy for Dave Rennie, and defending his crucial error in naming a reserve-grade team against Italy that ultimately sealed his fate as Australian coach.
Rennie gambled on a rookie side for the Test against Italy, making 11 changes from the team beaten 30-29 by France the week prior on their 2022 end of year spring tour, including handing debuts to Mark Nawaqanitawase and Ben Donaldson – who missed a penalty after the siren.
The Wallabies lost 28-27 – their first defeat to Italy.
While the Wallabies managed to win their final match of the tour against Wales, the embarrassing loss to Italy and Eddie Jones’ sudden availability after being sacked by England, convinced Rugby Australia powerbrokers to fire Rennie and bring Jones back.
“I thought Dave Rennie did a very good job, he turned the team around and they had a mile of spirit,” said Dwyer, a mentor of Jones.
“Unless you’ve got a good environment and confidence in everything that’s going on around you, your spirit is generally not good.
“They went within a whisker of beating France and Ireland, the one hiccup was against Italy, but I’ve got sympathy for him there because what are you going to do on a tour like that when you’re playing all international matches?
“You take a squad, if you pick your starting 15 or best 18 all the time, then some members of the squad don’t get a game at all. It was different in the old days when you had midweek matches and you had games that weren’t so difficult, and you could develop players.
“We’ve got to consider all of those things.
“I think Eddie will do a good job, he’ll be passionate about it, sometimes he might need to redirect his passion.
“I think Dave did a very good job and we shouldn’t forget that. I think Dave’s left a good legacy.
“But it doesn’t matter how good of a job you do, how good or bad, there’s always a next step and now Eddie must take that step.
“Eddie quoted me as saying you can change in a team in a week, you can have a team reproduce your influence after one week, that’s for sure and certain.”
Rennie was told he no longer had a job in a 6am Zoom call on Monday, and immediately returned to New Zealand.
“I don’t know any good way to get the sack,” said Dwyer, who steered the Wallabies to World Cup glory in 1991.
“I’ve had the sack, got my phone call, I’ve had the sack from a job called into the general manager’s office who said ‘Don’t turn up tomorrow’, so there’s no good way about it.
“It’s tough, you’re in the public eye, everyone discusses your personal business. But if you can’t stand the heat, don’t go in the kitchen.
“Emotionally you feel it, but you do get over it.
“He’ll be disappointed, he’s a passionate person and he loves and game and the role.
“But if he wants to, he can say ‘I did some good things, I brought some good players through and I developed a team with great passion and spirit’, which he certainly did. He can feel good about that, and eventually get over all the things you feel bad about.”
SEIBOLD DEFENDS EDDIE JONES’ METHODS
Manly coach Anthony Seibold has described Eddie Jones as one of the best he’s worked under, and says Wallabies staff should not fear his infamously high standards.
Seibold joined Jones as England’s defence coach after being sacked by the Brisbane Broncos, but returned to the NRL to lead the Sea Eagles this season.
In an unthinkable twist, Jones and Seibold – who led England to a series win over the Wallabies here just last June – are now both back coaching in Australia.
“I learned a stack from Eddie, fortunately I’ve been able to work under two great coaches, Craig Bellamy for three years, and Eddie for two years, those two guys have shaped me the most as a coach,” Seibold told News Corp Australia.
“He’s really curious, that’s the first thing that stands out, he’s forever looking at ways to get better individually, or collectively as a coaching group.
“I do feel as though he’s there serve the players. Tactically he’s really sharp, he’s got very high standards for both staff and players, that drives you.
“He drives you to be a better coach, he drives you to be a better player.
“It’s an elite level sport, he expects high standards from players and staff and that’s a positive thing, you want someone who gives you a role and makes you accountable, he does that exceptionally well.”
When the RFU sacked Jones last December, despite him holding a 73 per cent winning record – the best of any England coach – stories emerged about his difficult working relationships and high turnover of staff.
“Some of that stuff is just paper talk, but Eddie does have high standards, and unless you have that at international level, how can you compete?” Seibold said.
“He wasn’t England’s most winning coach of all time because he had poor standards or couldn’t coach, he’s an elite coach.
“He does make players and staff accountable, but in the two years with Eddie, I learned more about coaching and spent more time developing myself professionally than at any other time in my career.
“There’s a real cluster of teams, eight teams that would go to the World Cup thinking ‘We’re a genuine chance of winning this’. So how do you break that cluster of teams? You need to have high standards and better yourself and always look for a competitive advantage.
“That’s where Eddie’s done such a fantastic job at World Cups, because he just knows how to prepare teams.”
Seibold, who started his NRL career as assistant to Bellamy at Melbourne Storm, revealed just how intense match preparation was under 63-year-old Jones.
“One of the reasons England rugby was so good was the analysts that we had were outstanding, and Eddie is a voracious watcher of rugby,” Seibold said.
“We would watch every single game of Super Rugby, we would know everything about every contracted Australian rugby player.
“Coming from rugby league, spending two years in rugby, I knew everything about every player from countries we were up against because our analysts were world class.
“We had access to every game of professional rugby that was played.
“For that Australian tour, we were exceptionally well prepared. Eddie as the head coach knew all about the top 35, 40 players in Australian rugby.”
Seibold believes the RFU will live to regret their move to sack Jones and elevate his assistant Steve Borthwick to the top job for the World Cup.
“If you talk to players like Owen Farrell and the England playing group, personally I thought it was a strange decision I’ve got to say,” Seibold said.
“Seeing the legwork that he’d done, I just thought he had the group in that sweet spot for the World Cup, but not to be so it’s Australia’s gain.
“There’s genuinely eight teams who can win the World Cup, and Australia will be one of those eight teams. I agree with Eddie, it’s so competitive that any advantage a team gets through cohesion, in a World Cup year, everyone gets a full pre-season.
“That competitive advantage starts to wane.
“I thought it was such a smart decision by Rugby Australia. If they were going to move Dave [Rennie] on – and I hate to see people lose their job – but Eddie was the right choice and I think he’ll put Australian rugby back on the map again.
“The reality is that Eddie is the most winning coach in England rugby history, obviously the only coach to win a series in Australia and he’s won two.
“Certainly at the conclusion of the Australian tour you wouldn’t have expected Eddie to be coaching the Wallabies so soon, but I think it’s a fantastic appointment.
“Eddie is an incredible coach, an elite coach, I think he’s the right person.
“With what’s going with Australian rugby, a World Cup and the British & Irish Lions tour in 2025, and then the home World Cup in 2027, Eddie is made for Australians and he’s made for coming home.
“He’s been away for a long period of time, he left after a really tough Queensland Reds experience, I’ve gone through something similar at the Broncos, it is challenging.
“Sometimes the best thing for you is to go somewhere else, in my case it was England rugby, and Eddie’s been away a lot longer but I think he’s the right person for Rugby Australia, I can’t speak more highly of him.”
Originally published as Rugby news 2023: Former All Black Stephen Donald slams Wallabies over Dave Rennie sacking
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