RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN
That may be what Eddie Jones wants Japan to do, but change is on the way for coaching staff at all the top nations, to varying degrees
HE’S AT it again. Eddie Jones is positioning himself for a coaching job by warning the team involved will only improve if dramatic change, of the sort in which he specialises, is introduced urgently. Finally acknowledging his interest in the Japan job he has been linked with for weeks, even as the Australian team he led collapsed in a pitiful heap at the World Cup, Jones told a Japanese newspaper in recent days: ‘You’re going to have to be courageous, and you’re going to have to do things differently. You can’t just go along and do what you’re doing now, so that’s the reason I would be interested.’
Those same sentiments accompanied his arrivals at Twickenham and into the Australia job, and his enthusiasm for change extended in both cases to creating unstable environments.
He is not alone in high-performance sport in believing that uncertainty can keep people on edge, and lead to better outcomes. Few take it to the extremes that he does, but change is now sweeping through the coaching staffs of most of the leading teams in the world.
The end of a World Cup cycle presents an obvious time for change at the top, or for refreshing the team underneath the head coach. Ireland are, for now, an exception – but there is growing expectation that Andy Farrell’s coaching group will see at least one change in the coming months.
Mike Catt is expected to leave his role as attack coach at some point in 2024. It is unclear whether he will be involved in the Six Nations campaign in the spring, but recruiting a long-term replacement is likely to be Andy Farrell’s priority as life resumes after the latest World Cup disappointment.
It is over a year since David Nucifora, the IRFU performance director, spoke of the desire within the union to extend the deals of Farrell’s assistants, after the head coach signed a new agreement up to 2025.
‘Look, I would be confident that we will retain that group, but I couldn’t guarantee you that at the moment,’ he said. ‘And if that didn’t happen, would I be worried about that? I would be disappointed but I wouldn’t be worried.’
Nucifora’s attitude was shaped by the appeal of working within the Irish system to high-level coaches globally, and that appeal won’t have diminished after an agonising quarter-final defeat to New Zealand last month.
If Catt does depart, and it’s been reported that he relocated his family to England earlier in the year, then the search for a replacement has likely been underway for months.
Speculation linking Johnny Sexton with the role is inevitable, but highly improbable.
His influence on the team was profound under Farrell, and the relationship between the coach and his captain was strong, but with Farrell dreaming up a new Ireland now, hiring Sexton to wield influence in a new capacity looks ill-advised.
There seems little doubt that Sexton will eventually return to rugby, notwithstanding his plans in the immediate term to work in the business world.
However, if he does move into coaching, it would make sense for all concerned if that was with a group of players he did not play with and lead for years.
Simply hiring Sexton would also constitute a failure of imagination. While Eddie Jones may take the concept of fresh thinking to disastrous ends, the value of new ideas and voices is clear.
So is the particular need of the Irish national team.
Farrell impressed hugely in France, while the defence under Simon Easterby is world-class.
Both Paul O’Connell, as forwards’ coach and John Fogarty, with his responsibility for scrums, will have less stellar memories of what unfolded in France.
Tightening up those two areas is essential if Ireland are to maintain the standards of the past two seasons, let alone reach the level required to meet challenges like the one New Zealand posed in the Stade de France.
An alternative view on the attacking game is required, too.
Sources close to the national setup have suggested that Catt’s role was less about designing attack and more that of a skills coach, with Farrell taking a deep involvement in shaping the attacking game.
He did this to brilliant effect, but with Sexton departing, the opportunity to introduce changes in how Ireland attack is an ideal one.
There are no obvious domestic candidates; Stuart Lancaster, making a fine start to life in charge of Racing 92, is the outstanding figure with experience of the Irish system, but he is now out of reach.
Ronan O’Gara will hardly be expected to step down from a head coach role, especially with the route to eventually succeeding Farrell filled by the formidable shape of O’Connell.
Nucifora’s confidence in the attractiveness is soundly based, though, and Farrell has already shown imagination in hiring O’Connell as forwards’ coach almost three years ago, a shock decision that has, for all the lineout frailties of recent months, worked out.
There is a new team manager to be appointed ahead of the spring, too, but even if Catt does depart, Ireland’s rate of churn is mild compared to rivals.
South Africa announced this week that Rassie Erasmus will be appointed head coach following their World Cup triumph, and the departure of Jacques Nienaber for Leinster.
Erasmus held that title when guiding the team to victory in 2019, and despite being latterly designated director of rugby, few doubted that he was the man in charge of their successful World Cup defence.
Along with losing Nienaber, Felix Jones has also left, joining England.
Steve Borthwick is overseeing a number of changes at Twickenham, and while Jones refused to be drawn on what his role will be when asked in France, it is expected that he will take charge of defence.
Kevin Sinfield was in charge of that for a year under Borthwick, to decidedly mixed effect, and it’s thought that his involvement ended at the World Cup.
New Zealand are undergoing a major overhaul, too. Gone is Ian Foster, as well as Joe Schmidt, with Scott Robertson taking over. He is highly regarded, but it was claimed that he was asked not to attend the All Blacks’ matches in France, where he was at a number of games involving other teams. This was to prevent him overshadowing Foster.
He will retain one member of Foster’s staff – forwards coach Jason Ryan – and has brought in three coaches of his own, including former Munster player Jason Holland.
Fabien Galthié gave an emotional press briefing on Wednesday as he reflected on France’s World Cup disappointment, but the brass tacks of wringing more out of his talented squad has long since begun.
Shaun Edwards and William Servat are the two members of his on-field staff remaining in post, with coaches departing for club jobs and new faces coming in as backs’ coach and forwards’ coach.
The French have also shaken up their medical and sports science staff.
The chaos left by Jones (inset left) in Australia means they are the leading nation in the deepest state of flux after the World Cup. Andy Friend has been linked with the position of head coach, while there is growing support for Stephen Larkham. He was venerated as a player but has had a patchier coaching record, as Munster fans will attest.
However, he has improved the Brumbies and there is a groundswell of support for him.
Italy announced at the start of the year that the luckless Kieran Crowley would be replaced by Gonzalo Quesada after the World Cup. Warren Gatland only returned to Wales last December, so there is no prospect of change in Cardiff, while Gregor Townsend signed a new contract with Scotland three months before the World Cup. Both countries looked in need of new ideas in France, but there isn’t a leading team which would not benefit from fresh thinking.
And it is now, as we slide towards deepest winter, that the dreams of Six Nations and global glory are hatched, and entrusted to the brightest minds in the game.