Dave Wessels the one thing the ARU got right at the Western Force
WAYNE SMITH
Senior sport writerBrisbane
@WayneKeithSmith
It was a year ago, pretty much to the day, that Dave Wessels was named coach of the Western Force, an appointment that at the time the cynics — well, me — suggested was the cheap option for the club’s new owners, the Australian Rugby Union.
Wessels had been the Force’s assistant coach to Michael Foley and when Foley was sacked three games out from the end of the 2016 Super Rugby season, it made good financial sense to simply promote him to the job, especially as even then SANZAAR and the ARU were making noises about eliminating the Perth club from the competition.
In my first phone interview with Wessels, he vowed he would not be the Force’s last coach, but certainly if the intention was to shut down the club, he would be the easiest and most convenient “fall guy”.
That’s when the phone rang. It was Rob Clarke, at that time the chief operations officer of the ARU. He had been the person most responsible for appointing Wessels and he set me a challenge — to call in on the Wessels while I was in Perth for the Argentina Test that month and then call Clarke back with my impressions.
So I did. And when I made the return call, it was with a whole new mindset.
Wessels might have been the cheapest and most convenient candidate, but after talking with him, I came to understand how Clarke had taken a punt on him. A more impressive 33-year-old it would be hard to find. Recently-deposed Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer had applied for the job, so too England World Cup coach Stuart Lancaster and Reds co-coach Matt O’Connor, but Wessels had outshone them all. And as this dreadful 2017 season has unfolded, Clarke’s call has come to look more and more astute, to the point where Wessels has even been touted as a future Wallabies coach.
The ARU has come in for all manner of criticisms regarding its dealings with the Force, many of them justified, but the head coaching appointment was one thing it did do exceptionally well. Indeed, the whole process in which they put experienced coaches around Wessels in the shape of Joe Barakat, Shaun Berne and Kevin Foote, has become a case study for Australian rugby.
For such a vitally important element of the rugby landscape, coaching is terribly neglected in this country. One of the prime reasons the ARU is so intent on culling the Force is that Australia has become so uncompetitive on the rugby field, which is nothing more than code for the failure of our coaches. So their only solution is to cut five teams to four and hopefully the talent will not be spread so thinly.
There are no formal pathways for those who want to make rugby coaching their profession and while Rod Kafer has been brought in to tidy up this appalling oversight, it’s going to take years to produce meaningful results.
More and more, Australian rugby is coming to model itself on the centralist model that exists in New Zealand but the ARU is negligently dragging the chain when it comes to implementing the Kiwi coaching pathway.
Take for instance the course Scott Robertson followed on the way to winning his first Super Rugby title with the Crusaders this season: Having played 23 Tests for the All Blacks, he then played professional rugby in Ards (Ireland), Perpignan (France) and Ricoh Black Rams (Japan), before retiring to turn his hand to coaching at the Sumner Rugby Club in Christchurch; assistant coaching roles with the Canterbury ITM Cup side followed before he moved on to become NZ under-20 coach; he then took over the Canterbury ITM Cup side, winning the trophy, before this year becoming head coach of the Crusaders.
Each step has been a logical development of the one which came before it. And presumably he only stepped up to a higher level when he had mastered the level under it. It would be foolish to suggest that dud coaches don’t get passed up the line in New Zealand as they do in Australia, but certainly it seems to happen with far less frequency.
Or look at how the All Blacks went about selecting their new defence coach, Scott McLeod. He too coached at New Zealand under-20 level and has been assistant coach of the Chiefs and the Highlanders in Super Rugby before beating a high-quality field to replace the legendary Wayne Smith. But first he must be mentored by Smith through the current Rugby Championship.
Now take Queensland, who have already had more Super Rugby coaches than any other Australian side and now is contemplating making yet another change. Word leaked out last Thursday that the Reds were contemplating replacing Nick Stiles with rookie Brad Thorn, backed up by senior assistant coach Tony McGahan. It’s potentially a bold move, given that Thorn has coached precisely one top class match in his entire career, overseeing Queensland Country in a narrow loss to the Canberra Vikings in the National Rugby Championship on Saturday.
Still, if the Reds have faith in him, they should be prepared to back him all the way.
But now there are whispers that Queensland are getting cold feet on the idea, as criticism hits home about the lack of due process in the change. Why Thorn and not, for instance, Mick Heenan, who has coached University to three Hospitals Cups? Why is it all being done by stealth? And who is picking the coach and what coaching qualifications do they possess? It’s all become so sticky, so much so that the word is that the Reds might very well stick with Stiles.
There is no order in any of this, no central planning. If Australia intends going down the centralist model, then the ARU has to make certain that the Wallabies are assigned the best coaches in the country, with the Super Rugby sides also well serviced. It can’t be done on a hit-and-miss basis or mates looking after mates. If an exceptional coach is fast-tracked, there had better be compelling reasons for it. And from there, the ARU’s reach should extend down to NRC appointments and from there into the best coaches that club rugby throws up.
The ARU got it right with Wessels and the Force but there is a long, long way to go.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...b8d2ad207b58bd
Wayne, while we appreciate your dabbling in investigative journalism, there are some glaring problems with your article. The most glaring being how Dave Wessels came to be at the Force. Prior to heading to Australia, Wessels was a defensive consultant for the Stormers. After Jake White was appointed Brumbies coach, Wessels was brought in as defense consultant in Canberra. After Michael Foley was appointed coach at the Force, Wessels and Foote were brought in as assistant coaches. After Foley moved on Wessels was appointed head coach under strong recommendation by Mark Sinderberry. The same Mark Sinderberry who helped establish the Brumbies success in the early years, the same Mark Sinderberry who established the Saracens academy whose graduates include Maro Itoje and the Future Force Foundation whose graduates include Richard Hardwick, Kane Koteka and James Verity-Amm. Thats not where Mark Sinderberry's influence on the Force stopped. He also led the recruiting charge that landed players like Meakes, Rona, Peni, Ruru and Naisarani. Another of Mark Sinderberry's iniatives includes the Own the Force campaign, with the underwriting from Twiggy Forrest, has made the Force the most stable financial prospect of all the Australian franchises.
So please forgive me if i don't buy the spin put on the article to glorify Rob Clarke. Lets look at Rob Clarkes achievements in Rugby. He helped set up the Rebels which has subsequently gone on to lose circa $30 million in 7 seasons. Clarke was also the ARU COO who oversaw the $28 million of unbudgeted expenditure which has sent Australian Rugby to the wall. The same Rob Clarke sold the Rebels for a loss of $5.999 million to the ARU, so not only was he overspending propping up his mates business with ARU money, he was digging the ARU a deeper hole by selling the Rebels for such a loss. During Clarkes involvement in the Rebels and ARU, neither organization has reached anywhere near the pinnacles of their competitions and both are broke. Grassroots rugby under the ARU led by Clarke and Pulver has been forgotten, fans are walking away and Super Rugby has been an abomination. Under Clarke and Pulver, we have seen players wages skyrocket to unsustainable levels and hundreds of Australian players head to Europe. While i give credit to Pulver for setting up the NRC as a vital step in the pathway, the way its been marketed and the fighting between the NSW clubs and the ARU will see this integral competition likely canned before long. Clarke has also been instrumental in the Super Rugby Saga. Despite entering the ARU into an alliance with RugbyWA to help stabilise and grow WA rugby, most people with half a brain know very well that Mr Clarke negotiated this Alliance for one purpose only. To free up money to prop up Melbourne by dismantling the Force. Clarke was in negotiations with his mates North and Gray before the announcement of which team would be cut, into which personel and players were to be parachuted into Melbourne once they closed the Force. This happened before the April 9th announcement by the ARU of the 48-72 consulting period, which was a sham as Mr Clarke was already finalising plans to close the Force before this time, we know this as has been seen by the ARU getting legal advice on who they can cut back in February and the fact Clarke was on his was to Perth to deliver the bullet on April 9. Hell, even Rebels fans are telling us Clarke was soliciting advice from Tim North on how the ARU could act, the same Tim North who has been at the helm of the VRU.
So Wayne, please investigate this matter openly and with facts. No need to glorify disgraced former ARU employees who have abused their positions to sign the ARU up to multiple dodgy contracts ensuring years of losses trying to crack the AFLs heartland, has spent years overseeing Australian Rugbys demise and has dragged rugby through one of the worst image scandals since the 70s. But thanks for confirming Clarke is the ARUs leak recepticle.
