ARU need to turn farce into Force by starting with Todd Blackadder

[Kalahard]

ARU need to turn farce into Force by starting with Todd Blackadder
April 25, 2016 4:22pm
COMMENT JAMIE PANDARAMThe Daily Telegraph

Force press conference

THE ARU is taking over the Western Force, and the first thing they must do is throw the kitchen sink at Todd Blackadder to take over as coach.

Blackadder will step down as Crusaders coach at the end of this season, and has yet to say what his future plans are, although has already been loosely linked to European clubs Harlequins and Munster.

If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, Australian rugby must finally get serious about turning the farce into a Force, starting with a world-class coach.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...798dd9926ee74d

Interesting line about Kyle Godwin looking to move on.

[MI5_Dog]

Deans came over here and discovered that the idea of 'playing what's in front of you' is only good if you have the skills and rugby brain to do that.
Australians as a rule do not.
They need structure, rules, plays and a plan.
Todd Blackadder has done ok with a team made up of some of the best players the world has to offer.
The Force is a team of 'rejects'
Todd Blackadder is not suitable for the Force
but he's the best available at the moment.

[AndyS]

I've said it before, but take a step back and ask yourself what is really in it for the ARU if the Force were to actually become good? If it is going to happen, it needs to be done on the basis of no help at all, and the possibility of active interference. If it doesn't materialise, all the better. But they've certainly provided little to nothing in the past, quite the opposite if anything. I don't see looking to them for any real help being much of a strategy.

[Alison]

Totally agree with you MI5 Dog about the skills and rugby brain. Every Kiwi SR team seems to have it in spades whereas our (the Force) players look to have been structured and drilled so much that our play is stodgy and totally lacking in spontaneity. We also have zero confidence.

Not sure how you can turn that around in the short term. And without MEANINGFUL and VISIBLE support from the ARU I don't think we ever will. We need a proper circuit breaker, not half-arsed whimpers of support.

[Herbasimplex]

As eddie jones said about gibson at the tahs, blackadder will be another kiwi coach trying to make australians play like kiwis. cant ever see blackadder working even if the ARU threw non-existent rivers of gold at him to come to Perth.

[chibi]

The Force are not playing with the natural instinct of the Kiwi players, I think that Blackadder will struggle with that, just like Mitchell and Robbie Deans. Aussie players do prefer the tactical, structural aspect of the game, so it would be interesting to see who could put a structure on a rag-tag bunch. I can only think of Jake White, but that's not going to create an expansive game at the Force.

I'm concerned about the lack of shining stars coming through the Australian coaching ranks. As much he is seemingly against us, a Bob Dwyer style of coach would have been great, as he was someone who was always very good at getting individuals to lift their own skills and rugby-awareness to naturally play what was in front of them, whether through individual brilliance or instinctively as a unit. If there was someone floating around in Australian rugby who could do that, along with someone who was tactically astute, like a Jake White, we would be heading in a good direction, but are these coaches coming through?

[travelling_gerry]

Thank you Jamie for researching your article on TWF.

[shasta]

From the few articles about Todd Blackadder, it seems he wants to move forward as a coach. With his background would you choose

1. A good contract to coach a NH team, possibly a national one, either immediately or after some time in the NH as a head coach. Then possibly head home to coach the AB's.

2. Take a bucket of money to come to Perth and coach a team that has no much money, bugger all international players and bugger all support from the controlling body and about the same from corporate sponsors?

Bit of a no-brainer really.

[jono]

Depends on what his results are wherever he ends up.

Also depends on what kind of a challenge he wants.
The other side of this is - he was a lock. We need a backs & attack coach.
There's no way to know how much input he has to the backs @ the 'saders