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Connolly linked to Waratahs
By Wayne Smith
May 22, 2008
FORMER Wallabies coach John Connolly could come into the reckoning for a role as Waratahs director of coaching if the NSWRU stands by its decision to move Ewen McKenzie on but is then left with a field of untried replacements.
All indications are that the NSWRU will not re-think its stand on McKenzie, even at the risk of weathering a growing storm of protest should the Waratahs win their Super 14 semi-final against the Sharks on Saturday, a storm certain to double in intensity if they then win their first Super title.
But with veteran hooker and team leader Adam Freier supporting the "there is no going back" stance of the NSWRU, McKenzie's backers have been robbed of the argument that the Waratahs have surged into the play-offs on a wave of emotion to win the title for their coach.
But while resolve seems to be hardening against McKenzie, the underlying problem of who will replace him is no closer to resolution.
NSWRU bosses Arvid Petersen and Jim L'Estrange maintain they are "comfortable" with where they are in finding the next Waratahs coach, but unless they are keeping an ace up their sleeve, their list of contenders runs no further than Eastwood coach Chris Hickey, Waratahs defence coach Les Kiss and Junior Waratahs coach Joe Barakat.
While all three have impressive credentials, none has filled a head coaching role in senior professional rugby and their inexperience is causing concern around the boardroom table.
It is understood one of the solutions being canvassed is that a senior coaching figure like Connolly or Laurie Fisher be approached to come in as a director of coaching to work for a season or two mentoring Hickey - or whoever is chosen as Waratahs coach. Ironically, in his Sydney newspaper column recently, Connolly nominated Hickey as the best man to coach the Waratahs.
Significantly, too, Connolly has a good working relationship with Waratahs manager Chris Webb, previously his assistant Wallabies manager.
L'Estrange refused to discuss the coaching issue, insisting all his energies were concentrated on assisting the Waratahs' drive for a first Super title.
"When the Waratahs' season finishes, we'll deal with that, but the biggest story right now is that we have pre-sold around 28,000 tickets for Saturday's semi-final," L'Estrange said.
It has been the NSWRU's clumsiness in allowing uncertainty about its next coach to drag on into the business end of the Super 14 that has created this distraction. Significantly, McKenzie keeps being linked to other jobs.
The New Zealand Herald suggested he may throw his hat into the ring for the soon-to-be-vacant Crusaders and Blues jobs.
However, the NSWRU could deflect some of the criticism which has come its way if it were to unveil a 2009 coaching team that boasted the sort of experience Connolly or Fisher could bring to the team.
Connolly yesterday declined to comment on the director of coaching idea but it is understood he would be prepared to discuss the concept with the NSWRU if the organisation felt comfortable in dealing with him.
That's far from a given. Although he enjoyed a 65 per cent win ratio in his two years as Wallabies coach, the stark reality is that under him Australia crashed out of the World Cup with a shocking loss to England in the quarter-finals last September.
It was a defeat that could be attributed directly to Australia's scrummaging woes. While Connolly's supporters would argue two seasons was insufficient to rectify years of neglect of the Wallabies' set piece, as head coach he nonetheless bore the brunt of the criticism.
What the NSWRU might be even less comfortable with is Connolly's reputation for becoming a political player in any organisation he joins. It's a valid, if often overblown, criticism of the man known as 'Knuckles' although, conversely, Connolly would surely have his own reservations about the NSWRU, arguably the most political sporting body in the country.
Like Connolly, who was teaching his young son to fish in the Maroochy River when contacted yesterday, Fisher is "between engagements" after the Brumbies ended their season with a second-half capitulation to Western Force last weekend.
After initially expressing an interest in March in the Waratahs coaching job, he did not bother to lodge an application because at the time it was being touted as a certainty that McKenzie's assistant Todd Louden had been promised the position.
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