Howard's performance a high-wire act

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...012430,00.html

Bret Harris | August 11, 2007

PAT HOWARD's childhood with the carnival has provided him with a good grounding for his new role as the ARU's high performance manager, which has been a tightrope walk for some of his predecessors.

A former Wallabies five-eighth and successful English club coach, Howard is the ARU's fourth high performance manager in five years, replacing Pat Wilson, who was re-assigned in chief executive John O'Neill's recent restructure of the ARU administration.

But Howard brings a unique perspective and experience to the job, having spent his formative years travelling around the countryside in carnival shows.
"My parents were travelling show people and moved around a bit," Howard said.

"I had an interesting upbringing. You travel around. You put up your dodgem cars and your ghost houses and that sort of thing. It gives you a real diversity. You meet some fantastic people in shows. It is just a culturally different place.

"It's a different lifestyle. They are very business-orientated. They don't worry about KPI's and working to budget. They need to make money each week and get people in the door.

"They work hard. They set up overnight. There used to be shows where you would pack up one night and wake up the next day and have to put up the ghost house the next morning.

"It was a great testing ground. My mother and father would get me out and say 'you run this thing today' and you are nine or 10 years old and you get out there and you run it.

"You understand what money is early. You just learn so many things, just about people. You have to interact with people on a one-on-one basis.
"Showmen are a different culture, they're a different group of people. They approach problems from different angles sometimes. Hopefully, that will help."
Perhaps more important is the Howard family's rugby pedigree.

His father Jake Howard was a Wallabies prop and his late grandfather Cyril Towers was the shining light of the celebrated 1927-28 Waratahs, whose influence on backline play is still felt today.

Howard, who represented Queensland and the Brumbies, played 20 Tests at five-eighth and inside centre between 1993 and 1997. After quitting Australian rugby in 2002, Howard played and coached in France and England.
Regarded as one of the best brains in world rugby, Howard guided Leicester Tigers to the domestic double, the Guinness Premiership and EDF Energy Cup, this year, but was denied a historic treble when beaten by Wasps in the final of the Heineken Cup.

He was sounded out by previous ARU chief Gary Flowers about coaching the Wallabies, but returned to Australia to manage his family's pharmaceutical company. O'Neill then approached Howard to take over the high performance unit.

"I was really excited by the opportunity because of its strategic role," Howard said. "Not just the Wallabies, but trying to provide Wallabies for the long term and having a look at how other people do things.

"Short-term, the Wallabies, this is a viewing process for me. I won't get overly involved in the World Cup. I'll sit back and have a look at how things go. Long-term, you've got to look at what's being done well and what needs improvement.

"I definitely will be out there trying to find out what everyone else is doing; what the rest of the world is doing, not just on the field, but off the field, to be at the forefront of the game."

The Wallabies coaching staff will be overhauled after the World Cup with coach John Connolly stepping down.

As an Australian who has coached overseas, Howard is not philosophically opposed to the idea of a foreigner, such as Crusaders coach Robbie Deans, coaching the Wallabies. But Howard is keen to ensure the Wallabies' Australian culture remains intact.

"I'm going to take some thinking time on this," Howard said. "The Australian rugby culture is important.

"I was in England for a long time and I respected their culture. I respected the way they did things and tried to add.
"Can a foreigner do it? Yes, he can, but is it easier for an Australian to do it? Yes, it is easier.
"That's the balance. You want your culture.
"You want the things that make Australian rugby very good to be there."

Howard was unsure whether the Wallabies would maintain the Rod Macqueen-style managerial coaching structure that Connolly is employing or revert to the authoritarian Eddie Jones model.

"I've got no fixed plan because I have seen a lot of things work," Howard said.
"You've seen very different styles of head coach.

"That director of rugby approach - whether or not it's that elevated position of a Clive Woodward, Rod Macqueen or John Connolly - that sort of sitting above with the hands-on approach of people underneath or the guy who comes back down and actually gets his boots on and gets on the paddock.

"There are very different approaches and they all work, depending on the personalities. The biggest thing is culture, getting the right personalities and a team that is working together strongly for a united cause.

"Those things are important."




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