Cooper won’t walk away Chiefs coach vows to fight on as poor start deepens
Chiefs coach Colin Cooper might be feeling the pressure of his side’s Super Rugby slump, but does believe he is also the man to lead them out of it.
A horrible start to the season got even worse for the club with their record-breaking 57-28 thrashing from the Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday, which leaves the team 0-4 and dead last in the competition.
It’s led to many questioning Cooper’s position, not quite halfway through his three-year contract, with his team looking completely disjointed and lacking intensity and inspiration.
Speaking to yesterday morning and asked for a response to that discontent, he had a blunt reply: ‘‘I’m not going anywhere.’’
While ultimately that may not be Cooper’s call to make, for now there are no thoughts of giving it away on his own terms for the experienced campaigner, despite the carnage unravelling before his eyes.
Instead, he’s intent on finding the answers and getting a response, though it doesn’t get much easier, with the Hurricanes in Hamilton on Friday night.
‘‘It’s been tough,’’ said Cooper, who when asked where this position ranked in terms of testing points in his coaching career, simply labelled it ‘‘a great challenge’’.
‘‘It’s made us determined. We’ve got to keep together. We’ve got a big game coming this week back at home. So the pressure’s
Colin Cooper, above
on for us to perform.’’
While no-one gave the low-onconfidence Chiefs much chance of toppling the two-time defending champion Crusaders, it was the manner in which they disintegrated which continued to ring alarm bells.
Cooper noted
it was ‘‘soft tries’’ and ‘‘poor mistakes’’ which contributed yet again, although he felt the intensity in defence was better than in the loss to the Sunwolves the week before. On attack, there were several kicks over the top which didn’t come off but Cooper felt the players are within their rights to take those opportunities if they see them and it was just a lack of execution which ruined it.
‘‘At 12-7 I thought we were going pretty well and in the game, but, again, errors let them get back in,’’ he said. ‘‘And I guess once a team like that gets a foothold and you make mistakes, you’re going to come second.’’
A late burst with a couple of tries reduced the margin, but by then the Crusaders had parked the Ferrari in the garage. The fact the Chiefs had a dominant scrum against a usually vaunted pack must be tempered due to the hosts playing most of the match without Joe Moody and having rested Owen Franks, with several other frontliners also on the sideline.
The nine tries conceded were the most the Chiefs had ever leaked in defeat. They let in that many in the whacky 72-65 win over the Lions in Johannesburg in 2010, while there were eight two weeks ago in the 54-17 loss to the Brumbies in Canberra and the 61-17 defeat to the Bulls in the 2009 final in Pretoria.
It was also the most points the Chiefs had ever conceded in a New Zealand derby.
With that, the Chiefs have now coughed up a whopping 23 tries (six more than anyone else) and 171 points (48 more than anyone else) this season, which puts the blowtorch on defence coach Neil Barnes, following a change in coaching structure at the club for this year.
With Cooper this year in a more overseeing-type role, Barnes’ previous job as forwards coach is now handled by Nick White – who replaced Carl Hoeft as scrum coach midway through last season. Tabai Matson is the attack coach, Roger Randle has this year been brought in as an assistant backs coach, and Andrew Strawbridge remains a skills coach.
‘‘Players take a little bit to adapt to the changes, but I’m supporting the changes,’’ Cooper said.
‘‘We just have to keep challenging the players and keep working hard with the players.
‘‘We work together. We make sure we work hard to find solutions for issues. It’s taken a bit longer than we’d hoped for, and we’re all feeling it.’’
‘‘I’m not going anywhere.’’