Latham says Deans is a must for Wallabies
Latham says Deans is a must for Wallabies
John Matheson | December 9, 2007
Wallabies star Chris Latham has sent out a plea to rugby supremo John O'Neill - sign up Robbie Deans immediately.
Latham is so determined that Deans be the next coach that he was unconcerned about upsetting the five Australian contenders for the job.
"Every Wallaby wants the best man for the job and that man is Robbie Deans," Latham told The Sun-Herald last night.
"You only have to look at his record and the style of play of the teams that he has coached and is coaching.
"They play an attractive brand of rugby, an attacking style of rugby, where he used pretty much all 15 players on the field.
"He obviously has a very high emphasis on skill level - that's evident. I think he would be very suited to getting us to achieve the standards we've been striving to achieve.
"He would help us move forward. Like any of the applicants, he would be trying to improve us - but with Robbie, you certainly know he brings a tremendous track record with him and he'd probably have the best chance of any of being successful with the Wallabies."
Latham said Deans wouldn't suffer any backlash from any Wallabies because he was a New Zealander.
"It's not an issue," he said. "Rugby is a professional sport and we're at the elite end of that.
"And when you are at that elite end, you need a coach with the greatest credentials and with the best ability to bring out the best in the team.
"If that's Robbie Deans and he happens to be a New Zealander, it doesn't matter. He would be inducted into the Wallabies fold pretty quickly.
"I am sure Robbie would do everything he could to ensure that we reached our full potential, even if it meant beating the All Blacks."
Deans will officially enter the Wallabies coaching race this week. If successful, he will be paid more than $1 million a year including bonuses.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun-Herald yesterday, Deans - who 24 hours earlier had been cast aside by New Zealand Rugby Union bosses who reinstated Graham Henry to the All Blacks post on Friday - said "there's no doubt" he is seriously considering offering his services to the Aussies.
"They are aware I am ready and keen to coach at international level again," Deans said. "They've always known that once the All Blacks decision was resolved, [the Wallabies] could interest me."
He said he had discussed some aspects of the job at a meeting with O'Neill before he missed out on the All Blacks job.
"It was informal coffee," Deans said. "It went no further than that in terms of dialogue. I have huge respect for the way they [the ARU] have gone about things because while they were keen for me to go through that process [applying for the All Blacks coaching role], they've kept their respectful distance.
"At the time, I recognised that I was taking a risk in taking that stance - the Australian job could have been taken up in the meantime.
"Whether it's still available or not will become evident in the next wee while. I suspect this week will drag on a bit."
Deans was the people's choice to win the All Blacks post after Henry led the All Blacks to their worst ever World Cup performance - a quarter-final exit. But his road to the getting the top job was always going to be difficult.
Deans's relationship with Steve Tew, the NZRU's deputy CEO who takes on the top job next month, has been described as "challenging".
"You enter these processes in good faith and you hope that you have a good chance, and present yourself in a way that launches a bit of belief on the other side of the table," Deans said. "What I was seeking from the process was to find out what they [the NZRU] wanted. If they wanted me, that would have been great - but I found out they didn't. So I learned what I went into it to learn, and now it's time to move on."
Deans, who played 24 games for the All Blacks from 1983 to '85, said he would have no problem coaching against New Zealand.
"I am constantly coaching against players that I have coached and coaching against coaches that I have worked with," he said. "I've been in SANZAR for 11 years so I know as many people in Africa and Australia as I do in NZ. So it's not an issue."
Source: The Sun-Herald
