Campese overlooked as Waratahs head coach
AUSTRALIAN rugby great David Campese has voiced disappointment after failing to make the shortlist for the vacant NSW Waratahs head coach job because of “not enough experience”.
Campese (Pictured with the World Cup in 1991, AFP), the Wallabies’ alltime leading scorer who is widely considered one of the greatest players, revealed on Facebook he had been ruled out as a candidate to take over from former All Black Daryl Gibson.
“I received a call to say that I haven’t made it through to the final 2 candidates for the Waratahs head coach role,” he wrote late on Wednesday.
“Their reason: ‘I don’t have enough experience as a head coach’.
“It seems my ex per ience a s a n internationa l player and coach at a ll levels of r ugby f rom i nter nat iona l level, Super 15 level and right down to grass roots level over the past 40 years, wasn’t enough.”
Gibson quit as coach in June after a tumultuous season overshadowed by the sacking of Israel Folau and the star fullback’s bitter fight with Rugby Australia over homophobic comments.
Gibson had a year left on his cont ract, but opted not to see it out, ending a seven-year involvement with t he Super Rugby club, i nclud i ng winning t he sout her n hemisphere t it le in 2014.
The Sydney Morning Herald said NSW Rugby boss Andrew Hore was believed to have be en i n Ja pa n r e c ent l y
i nt er v ie w i ng potent i a l c a nd idate s. Ca mpese said he felt he had d a lot to of fer.
“My proposal to o NSW Rugby was to overhaul aul the current coaching system stem and invest in a new one that is mirrored from rom the top and at all levels evels right down to grassroots oots level,” he said.
“How do you expect pect to produce talent and d depth without investing g in the systems that produce uce them? I proposed shaking ng up the style of rugby, bringing nging back a winning mentality ty through a c o a c h i n g s t y l e t h a t e n - courages at attacking, running rugby and risk-ta risk-taking.”
The War Waratahs struggled last season and c could only finish 12th on the 15 15-team ladder.
Th Their season started well and they snapped the Crusad saders’ record 19-match w win streak in March, but it hit the skids after that. The Waratahs will go into the 2020 season also without senior players including Test t trio Sekope Kepu, Nick P Phipps and Curtis Rona, wh who are all heading to Lon London Irish.