Va’a keen to carry on as coach of Wellington
Earl Va’a can be thankful it’s just Wellington.
Once upon a time provincial rugby enjoyed an exalted status in New Zealand and the fortunes of sides were followed very closely. Now it’s an afterthought, which might ensure Va’a retains his job as Lions coach.
Losing four games in succession to bow out of the Mitre 10 Cup promotion race is a very poor outcome for a union of Wellington’s stature. But the honest truth is few people care about this level of footy nowadays and the Hurricanes’ Super Rugby title win has probably satisfied the city’s thirst for rugby success this year.
Va’a has guided the Lions to a final and semifinal in his two years as head coach and is hopeful of being reappointed.
‘‘Oh yeah, I’m definitely keen,’’ Va’a said after the team’s 2016 campaign ended in 40-37 defeat to North Harbour on Saturday.
He said he was off-contract and would save his sales pitch for an upcoming review with Wellington Rugby Football Union (WRFU) management. But he was confident that progress had been made this season.
"It was always a three-year plan with this team and nothing's changed in terms of my mindset or our development of players." Earl Va's, above, centre
‘‘It was always a three-year plan with this team and nothing’s changed in terms of my mindset or our development of players.’’
That’s one of the few - perhaps only - times such a plan has been mentioned. Until now winning promotion from the championship to premiership had been the only stated aim.
Wellington fell agonisingly close in 2015, losing 26-25 to Hawke’s Bay in the final, before failing to get that far this time around. That doesn’t feel especially good given the calibre of players the Lions had at their disposal.
‘‘No, it’s not good. Like every other organisation we’ll go through a review process and see what happens,’’ Va’a said.
The Lions only had one game to get to - and then win - this year and they failed to do that. Va’a insisted the season still produced positives, though.
‘‘The amount of players who came through club rugby and our academy system, we were second in the championship, had a home semifinal. We’re just disappointed about how things ended today.’’
Given that third year Va’a talked about, he believed this team would go on to reap the rewards of this season’s labour. ‘‘Yes I do.’’ It remains to be seen if Va’a is given that chance. It’s worth noting that under his watch Wellington have struggled to close games out and regularly produced glaring defensive errors.
Systems and structures are among rugby’s modern buzzwords and - from the outside looking in Wellington’s appeared to break down all too regularly. Instead of knowing where to be and what to do in fairly routine defensive situations, the Lions often looked lost and that comes down to their coaching group.
Va’a talked about individual errors following Saturday’s semifinal, primarily bad offloads and the like. But the three tries Wellington conceded from set pieces suggested more widespread issues.