<div class='quotemain'>. The added money package is also something reminiscent of big soccer leagues; indeed even the Herald is making the connection by saying Deans is the Wallabies' "Guus Hiddink'. What a promising association, Hiddink got us to the Quarters too!
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Dude the rugby union world cup compaired to the football world cup is a joke.
Australia had 8 goes at qualifying for the world cup before getting to it.Whereas the wallabies have automatically qualified for.every.single.world cup.
The IRB has 96 member unions which are eligible to qualify FIFA has more nations in it than the olympics AND United Nations and every single one of those nations is eligible to qualify.
Its a helluva more harder to get to the quarters of a football world cup than it is to get into the RWC quarters.
Now you might not be a fan of football but your comparision is way way off the mark.
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It was a comment made with my tongue firmly in cheek. I rarely try to construct a valid analogy (which just so happens to be bursting with hyperbole) in the space of three lines. I was making an abasing reference to the state of Australian rugby at the moment. I respect the progress that the Socceroos have made, but they are by no means a world power. Incidentally, the wallabies weren't either at the world cup, hence my comment. For the record though bro, I don't dislike soccer and i wasn't drying to defame it.
<div class='quotemain'> Can't say I'm too pleased, one of the things I enjoy about Rugby is how it's a primarily national rather than transnational sport.
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Really? If you look at Europe this is not exactly unprecedented globally... Just look at Wales - both Aussie and Kiwi coaches in the last decade. Then of course you had John Mitchell on Clive Woodward's coaching staff and Eddie Jones heading to South Africa for the RWC.
I'm also not too proud of how the ARU has treated the other candidates. They were undergoing testing since September, and Deans just walks in and gets the job, making a complete mockery over what was not a selection process but O'Neill's head hunt.
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Yes but everyone was perfectly aware of the ARU's intention to secure Deans, but it was far from a done deal with Deans still in contention for the All Blacks coaching position, so the ARU had to have a backup plan in case Henry was ousted. O'Neil likes to run rugby like it were a business remember, so he was suring up all his bets and making sure he didn't get caught out in the cold if his first choice became a non-option. He played it smart for mine. In any case, none of the other contenders were anything close to being as qualified as Deans... I mean FFS, for Alan Jones, a man who is little more than a biggot and hasn't coached in 20 years anyway, to have been in serious contention is evidence enough that we're running low on class coaches at the moment.
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Yes as rugby has begun to professionalise there has been a trend to pick candidates upon merit (or adversely hype) regardless of nationality. That does not negate the fact that Australia is not Wales and this is the first foreign coach we've had in nearly 110 years.
As for O'Neill, I agree with you that he does run the ARU like a business, in fact I think that despite how he's a far shot above flowers, that's a major problem in Australian rugby. All profits/losses are being assessed on an extremely short term basis (probably his tenure), accounting for our current predicament where millions will be thrown at players like Tuqiri while grass-roots rugby is forced to function off a charity fund. There is barely any funding or significant initiative by the ARU to cultivate grass-roots rugby. To the extent that privately owned schools are starting to possess the lions share of players, stratifying the sport and creating a situation where those in more rural areas will head to league. Australia has an abundance of talent to choose from (especially throughout rural Australia), but unfortunately such talent will never reach fruition so long as the ARU wastes money on high-profile converts and special money packages for international coaches.
I remember playing for Shoalhaven (pop. around 25000) which had a grand total of one RU club. No Aboriginal players (despite a massive indigenous population) and every player was like me, white guy from a priveliged background, and nothing is being done to change the situation.
It's easy for the ARU to focus solely on hyping the team to put arses on seats, and to state that rugby is declining because all of the sudden parents see it as far too dangerous for their kiddies (A socio-economic trend being bastardised if i've ever seen it done), but it doesn't add up.
As for coaching depth, I agree, it's not too impressive, and if the ARU continues to neglect lower-tier rugby and domestic development, then it will only get worse. Hiring a foreign coach with an individual money-package isn't going to alleviate the problem, nor is it going to engender loyalty amongst the few decent coaches Australia does have; considering they've been subjected to what is quite simply an unfair selection process.
