Rennie was on the right track: New Wallabies scrum coach takes shot at Jones

New Wallabies scrum coach Mike Cron says the Test side was heading in the right direction before Dave Rennie’s axing, and he’s excited to work with fellow Kiwi Joe Schmidt to “try and steer the ship” for Australia.

In a major coup, Schmidt and Rugby Australia enticed Cron out of semi-retirement and onto the Wallabies coaching staff until the end of the British and Irish Lions series in 2025.

Cron is widely regarded as the world’s foremost expert in scrummaging, by virtue of a 35-year coaching career that included more than 200 Tests with the All Blacks between 2004 and 2019, and two Rugby World Cup winners’ medals in 2011 and 2015.

The uncle of Western Force coach Simon Cron, Mike Cron has coached in 14 countries and since “semi-retiring” after the 2019 World Cup, the 69-year-old has been working for World Rugby as a referee consultant across multiple countries. He said on Tuesday he is analysing more rugby now than when he coached.

What Cron doesn’t know about the dark arts of the set-piece can fit on a coaster. At the time of his All Blacks departure, then-New Zealand Rugby boss Steve Tew described him as a “national treasure”. His expertise will be of immense value to strengthening the often-neglected art of scrummaging in Australian rugby.

Cron spent his first official day visiting the Melbourne Rebels with Schmidt, and perhaps tellingly sat down with star Wallabies prop Taniela Tupou.

Mike Cron coaching with the All Blacks.Credit: Getty

Asked if he felt there was still untapped potential in Tupou, Cron said: “Too right. Yeah we had a meeting with Taniela today, a one-on-one, just quietly chatting and seeing where he’s at. You give them your phone numbers – I’ll be based in Christchurch and commuting – and you form these relationships. So you generate this brotherhood. We’re all working together for the common cause, not them and us or whatever. It’s good to sit down and have a one-on-one with a lot of players today.”

As both the scrum coach for the All Blacks and a “resource” coach for New Zealand Rugby, Cron travelled the country and turned the scrum into a weapon for Kiwi sides at both Test and Super Rugby level.

Cron was the first scrum coach to engage with biomechanists in the 1990s, to fully understand the positions required for front-rowers and what strength and technique training was needed to push with maximum power. He also used skills gained from time at ballet schools, cage-fighting arenas and sumo-wrestling camps.

Cron said his goals in Australia will be similarly two-fold: helping educate and develop coaches in the junior pathways and Super Rugby, and then to build a successful Wallabies team. He joked he’d like to sit out the Bledisloe Cup games but said he’d come to appreciate and accept the global nature of rugby coaching.

Mike Cron overlooking the All Blacks scrum in 2016.Credit: Getty

“We are contracted to try and steer the ship around. For various reasons, Australia are in a position they’re not used to and shouldn’t be – ranking wise. We’d like to improve that immensely. If someone had said, ‘did you ever think you’d be in this position?’ No, never. But that’s professional rugby,” he said.

Asked about the Wallabies’ disastrous run in 2023, Cron pointed towards his theory “80 per cent of coaching is in selection”.

“There were a few wildcards, weren’t there, in that World Cup team,” he said.

“I actually thought Dave Rennie was doing a good job. That’s my personal view. We [the All Blacks] could see the Wallabies improving. Now sure, your win-loss ratio didn’t quite match that. But you could see the boys every Test were getting better. That was my humble opinion.

“And then all the staff that were with him and the players – and then whatever happens, happens [replaced by Eddie Jones] – and he’s gone. So I thought they were pretty much heading the right way back then.”

The Wallabies’ scrum has not been highly regarded by Test rivals in recent decades but Cron sidestepped questions about whether his intimate knowledge of the weaknesses of the Australian set-piece would make it easier to strengthen.

“I don’t know how many games I coached against Australia. It would be a lot. And you’re probably correct. We probably come out a wee bit more on top than Australia,” Cron said.

“But what I do know about the Wallabies ... no matter what happens when you get two Tests in a row – you know, like we do in the Rugby Championship – no matter what happened last week, it’s got no relevance to what the Wallabies do next week. Quite often they’re tough, and they come out week two full of vim and vigour, which is a good sign.”

Mike Cron with the Melbourne Rebels.Credit: Afa Polo/Melbourne Rebels

Cron continues the impressive filling out of the Wallabies staff with vastly experienced coaches; names which would have been gleefully accepted by most fans if floated in the weeks after Eddie Jones’ departure.

Beginning with the highly respected Schmidt, the Wallabies have recruited Laurie Fisher as a defence coach, analyst Eoin Toolan and now Cron. The roles of lineout coach, and head of strength and conditioning, are being advertised.

The manager role was also announced on Tuesday as being filled by former Waratahs and Rebels lock Chris Thomson.

Analysis: Why the impact of Cron’s appointment can’t be overstated

It’s not hyperbole to describe the appointment of Mike Cron as one of the most significant in recent history for Australian rugby.

At the time of his All Blacks departure, then-New Zealand Rugby boss Steve Tew described Cron as a “national treasure” and “one of the best rugby coaches in the world”. Former All Blacks coach Graham Henry said: “Crono was an exceptional coach, probably the most knowledgeable scrum coach in world rugby.”

Though Cron isn’t limited to scrummaging, the former police detective is known around the globe as the first, and most successful, full-time expert in the dark arts of scrum coaching.

As both the scrum coach for the All Blacks and a “resource” coach for New Zealand Rugby, Cron brought through hard front-rowers like Tony Woodcock, John Afoa and the Franks brothers, Owen and Ben.

Cron was a pioneer in the 1990s when he used biomechanics to improve scrummaging, as well as lessons from sumo wrestling and ballet.

“It sounds bloody stupid but you’re coaching scrummaging and you don’t know the strongest pushing position biomechanically, so the eureka moment for me was when I found out the strongest position the human body can be in a horizontal position. That’s winning the lotto for a coach,” Cron said in a 2022 interview.

“I now had knowledge. I knew that this was the position that, biomechanically, was the strongest. And I could then equate that. So, say you’re on the squat rack and doing a deep squat. You know when you come up and find that sweet spot and then power out of it – well, if you pause there, that’s the angle I’m talking about. I could then equate the angle to something we do in the gym.

“Sumo wrestling, I picked up about the importance of how you get power from the ground, through their feet, and generate through an opponent. So, that helped me for … well, scrummaging, mauling, tackling, cleanout.

“We have two contact points. Shoulders and feet. And how far apart they should be is important, so I understand all the biomechanics of it, and then you coach it for your sweet spot. For all those activities, they’re all the same.”

Cron’s value to Australian rugby will come in helping raise the standard of scrummaging in the Wallabies and, just as crucially, at all levels below. Though not as weak as it has been in previous decades, the Wallabies’ scrum has been inconsistent as a platform at Test level and is still not feared by major international rivals. When the Wallabies’ top-tier scrummagers – think Taniela Tupou, Allan Alaalatoa and Angus Bell – are fit, the scrum works well enough, but depth drops away alarmingly fast.

Mike Cron has apready spoken to Taniela Tupou.Credit: AP

Cron’s expertise in strength and technique training will help solidify the Wallabies’ scrummaging depth, even if his contract is only for a short period at its outset. His methods to build resolute scrummagers, which involve getting players to do squats with PVC pipes half-filled with water because they’re unstable, are not quick fixes, but there is never a bad time to make a start.

His coaching philosophy is also based on the practice of brutal honesty with players – both ways – so time isn’t wasted in a training environment. He tells players to avoid “bullshit and jellybeans” niceties and get straight to the point.

Cron’s expert eye honed via decades of coaching will be just as valuable, too, and potentially have New Zealanders grinding their teeth this week. He has spoken about keeping strength and weakness dossiers on rival props – along with his own – and alerting his players to “windows of opportunity” when they meet at scrum time.

But just as valuable will be Cron’s work at levels below the Wallabies. Just as he did in New Zealand, Cron will be tasked with getting around the Super Rugby clubs, imparting wisdom and advice to scrum coaches at each of the Australian teams.

Though it is yet to be formalised, Cron’s training methods and techniques will also be deployed in junior pathway teams, male and female, and form the basis of a uniform approach to scrummaging across the nation – as New Zealand has done for decades under the same coach.

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