Super Rugby AU: Blaming coach is not always the right answer

It took only until 9.30 on Saturday morning for the talk to start. Rob Penney has to go as coach of the Waratahs.

The Waratahs were listless and uninspired against the Rebels. Picture: Getty Images

It took only until 9.30 on Saturday morning, barely 12 hours after Marika Koroibete had sealed the highest-scoring Melbourne Rebels victory ever over NSW, for the talk to start. Rob Penney has to go as coach of the Waratahs.

“About the only positive thing about rugby league is that they hold their coaches to account,” was part of the message that landed in my inbox. Not from one of the usual nutters who can be relied upon to find fault in everything. This was from a well-reasoned, sensible Sydney club official.

At that particular moment, Penney himself would probably have agreed with him. The Tahs’ performance the night before had been as listless and uninspired as the Rebels were upbeat and energetic and if there is one thing that coaches should be responsible for, it surely is the mental preparation of their side.

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Still, even this is a fickle science. For every coach who sends his team out with fury in their eyes and murder in their hearts – think Dave Brockhoff, for example – there is another coach – think, say, Dave Wessels – who believes that a clear, uncluttered mind makes the best decisions. And, of course, that doesn’t take into account the various personalities of the players. Some respond best to a Brockhoff, some to a Wessels and it can get darn complicated for the coach when those two footballers are playing side-by-side in the centres.

Yet, as I pointed out in my reply to the reader, it was only a week ago that I was praising Penney for having produced the best coaching display of his time with the Waratahs, even if they did lose at the death to the Brumbies.

And who knows how the Waratahs might have performed had Lachie Swinton recognised the danger posed by Issak Fines and launched himself at him without mercy? It was the 77th minute of the game and perhaps had he forced a knock-on produced a turnover, the Waratahs’ performance against the Rebels would have been laced with “We beat the Brumbies last week … who the hell do you Rebels think you are?”

But he didn’t. I’m certainly not picking on Swinton. He had multiple threats to weigh up in defence and he was attempting to cover them all. By the time, he recognised that Fines wasn’t a feint but the real danger, he launched himself at him but by then the replacement Brumbies halfback was about to place the ball beside the posts for the match-winning try. And how that changed the dynamic against Melbourne.

You can, of course, over-complicate these things. Penney was coach. The Tahs lost, miserably. And he wears the blame. Full stop. His record, two wins out of nine this season, is worse than embattled Broncos coach Anthony Seibolt, three out of 11.

Except that everyone knew the Tahs were going to be in for a tough year in 2020. It’s for that reason that Penney banned the word “rebuilding”, even though everyone knew that was precisely the sort of year he faced. Then there is the fickleness of supporters. Waratahs fans can tell themselves in advance not to expect too much, to lower expectations, but the moment their side runs out in that famous sky blue jumpers, what they are expecting to see is Matt Burke and Phil Waugh and Mark Ella.

Wallabies fans, take note. It may well be that the only Test football the Wallabies play this year will be against the All Blacks. Four Tests. Not one other country in the world faces that sort of challenge these days, except for the British and Irish Lions and then, as they say, they are pitting the power of four against the dark forces of NZ rugby.

So it could get ugly for the men in gold. It almost certainly will get ugly. When it does, the critics will note that the All Blacks seem to be playing a different game to the Wallabies, that they are playing with more skills, that they do everything at pace, that their kicking game is more purposeful – why do you think Aaron Smith nearly always starts ahead of TJ Perenera? – that their tactics, while discernible, are almost unstoppable. These are all things we can predict right now with almost absolute certainty. Yet, when they happen, we will point an accusing finger at Dave Rennie and ask what the hell he has been doing!

Yet Rennie hasn’t coached a single player in this country at this point. Even if he wanted to, at this moment, they are committed to their Super Rugby AU sides. No doubt those coaches are attempting to raise the speed of the Australian game but it constantly breaks down because the skill level is not there. So they work on the skills and sometimes they are there and sometimes not. So they raise the level of intensity at training and then players get hurt.

Even the Brumbies only played with NZ-like intensity for about the first 10 minutes of their match against the Western Force. Everything was happening at pace, the support runners were lining up, the handling was crisp and precise. And then, almost imperceptibly, the Brumbies went off the boil and they soon found themselves embroiled in a tough, gritty contest with a brave but overmatched opponent. Who was to blame for that drop-off in intensity? Coach Dan McKellar? Really?

So it is not as simple as saying that Penney is at fault. Yes, that was a performance against the Rebels which will have placed him on notice. It will be worse for him because he has no capital stored away from past victories. And he is a New Zealander, so that will hardly work in his favour.

But each coach is building on the work of his predecessors. Sometimes solid foundations have been laid, sometimes they remind me of the steps leading up to the press tribune at the new swimming pool built for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, which were crumbling beneath my (reasonably) modest weight.

This column probably won’t pass muster with all those who bay for blood the moment their teams goes bad. And you do have to consider that the coach truly is the man responsible. But make allowances, also, for the fact that he inherited a mess and it will take time to repair it.

I don’t think that going after losing coaches is the most positive thing about rugby league. When I think favourably of rugby league, I think of ferocity in defence and the Queensland State of Origin team.

But that’s just me.