The sacking of NSW Waratahs coach Rob Penney serves as a severe warning to fellow Kiwi and Wallabies coach Dave Rennie – that a coach is only as good as his players.
It is easy to sympathise with Penney. After one and a half seasons at the Waratahs, he produced a woeful 26% winning record, but no one really knows if he is a good coach or not.
Penney was handed a team this year that has been described as not up to Super Rugby standard. He was desperate to be part of the Waratahs’ rebuild, but after five winless rounds, including four record defeats, his position became untenable amidst a fear he may not attract players.
There are two major reasons players change clubs. The first is money and the second is to become a better player with a view to improving chances of national selection. Only four Waratahs were named in the Wallabies’ 40-man squad on Sunday with notable omissions five-eighth Will Harrison and fullback Jack Maddocks.
Clearly, NSW is currently not the place to be if you want to play for the Wallabies. In hindsight, Penney should have confronted the Waratahs and demanded a stronger commitment to the retention and recruitment of players.
Rennie’s situation is not quite the same, but he faces a similar dilemma. Like Waratahs title-winning coach Michael Cheika, Rennie was known for his ability to recruit talent when he guided the Chiefs to consecutive Super Rugby championships.
But as Wallabies coach, Rennie is restricted to the players at his disposal. The only way he can enlarge the national talent pool is for Rugby Australia to lift restrictions on overseas-based players.
Rennie is resigned to losing John Eales medallist Marika Koroibete at the end of the year, acknowledging Australia cannot compete financially with European and Japanese clubs, and the player drain looks set to continue.
The coach has stated that Australia has to make the Wallabies jersey “something that the players are desperate to get,” but the rugby culture in Australia is not the same as in New Zealand. The All Blacks jersey remains a powerful attraction for Kiwi players to remain in New Zealand because of a historic legacy of success.
If the Wallabies jersey is to mean the ultimate to players, the team must starting winning, but it will be hard for Australia to become the best team in the world again while many of its best players are ineligible for selection.
RA tweaked the so-called Giteau Law last year to allow Rennie to select two overseas locks because the second-row was regarded as an area of need in the Wallabies, but none were brought back. As a result, the Wallabies lost the Bledisloe Cup for the 18th year in a row and finished last in the Rugby Championship behind the All Blacks and Argentina in a tournament that was played entirely in Australia.
With the exception of rugby league convert Sulivasi Vunivalu, the Wallabies’ 40-man squad is much the same playing group Rennie had access to last year, although France-based lock Izack Rodda will be available after signing with the Western Force for 2022.
The Wallabies will be a competitive team this year, but not necessarily a winning team. Unless RA secures a lucrative private equity deal, which may take years to finalise, it will not be able to afford to bring back much needed talent from overseas to play Super Rugby to make themselves eligible for the Wallabies.
Rennie must identify the overseas-based Australians who could help his team win the Bledisloe Cup and the World Cup, and lobby RA to make them available. It may only be two or three players, but they could make all the difference. How could anyone possibly argue that the likes of Rory Arnold, Will Skelton, Samu Kerevi and Sean McMahon would not improve the Wallabies?
At this point RA and Rennie seem disinclined to select too many overseas-based players, but if Rennie does not have Australia’s best talent available to him, he risks suffering the same fate as his Kiwi compatriot at the Waratahs.
The Waratahs did not sack Penney just because of the losses, but because the team was not showing sufficient signs of improvement. No one expects the Waratahs to upset the Brumbies at the SCG on Friday night, but they would be hopeful of some kind of bounce following Penney’s departure.
The Waratahs’ defence has been soft at times and their attack described as predictable, but Penney’s former assistants Jason Gilmore and Chris Whitaker have been promoted to interim co-coaches. Gilmore, who is close to several Waratahs players he coached in the Australian Under-20s, and Whitaker will have the final three games of Super Rugby AU and the trans-Tasman competition, if it goes ahead, to press their claims for the top job.
If the Waratahs show marked improvement, either Gilmore or Whitaker will put himself in a strong position to take over. If not, the Waratahs will go to the marketplace to find a new coach.
It is worth remembering when the Waratahs have been successful they have had charismatic coaches such as Bob Dwyer, Ewen McKenzie and Cheika. Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones may become available if he parts ways with England. Without the best players, however, it will not matter who is coaching the Waratahs – or the Wallabies.
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