The pong of eau de bullshit still hangs heavily over this Wallaby coach selection, and I’m not talking about the wheelbarrow loads that Alan Gloria Jones has been generating.
Yesterday the Head Wallaby Coach interviews took place, with the full ARU selection panel, oh just minus the CEO John O’Neil! Obviously more than a slight problem, which performance director Pat Howard admitted:
Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill missed the interviews as he is still recuperating in hospital from surgery on a pinched nerve in his neck.
O’Neill had originally hoped the successful candidate would be announced by the end of November, but ARU high performance unit general manager Pat Howard said the decision could be delayed until December depending on O’Neill’s recuperation.
“It’s an extremely important decision and you need your CEO to be fully involved with this, so I’m sure John will want to see one or two of the candidates.”
So this was an emergency pinched nerve operation was it? No way that it could have just waited one afternoon for the most important decision process he will need to be involved in?
On top of this it’s going to take 3 weeks to ‘recuperate’ enough to make a decision – is this open heart surgery or what? Is he heavily sedated in an isolation ward? Couldn’t they have just videoed the interviews for him to watch next week?
Or could it be that this is a nice convenient delay that could give the Kiwis enough time to finally rule the candidate that O’Neill has publicly endorsed – Deans – in or out for good? Here’s the word from RugbyHeaven.co.nz regarding the timing of the appointment on the other side of the ‘dutch’
The NZRU will complete its review of the All Blacks coaches over the next couple of weeks board chairman Jock Hobbs told the Sunday Star-Times he was aiming for a “mid-November” conclusion and then will initiate the appointment process.
It’s said that the Australian union may well put its whole coaching appointment process on the back-burner for a month simply to wait and see how Deans’ All Black tango plays out. They’re that keen to land him.
Looks like I’m not the only one seeing through JO’Ns face-saving neck trouble. It also looks like Scott Johnson figured this out and decided not to waste his breath at the interview. If Deans is still at $6, they’re not bad odds considering the only thing stopping him becoming the next Wallaby coach is whether he gets the ABs job or not.
If Deans is ruled out, I wonder how the next Wallaby coach will feel about being considered clearly second best to his key international rival by his own boss and union?
Out of all of this circus, the best line has undoubtedly come from Fuggleton about Gloria:
“I’ve got an advantage over Alan because I’ve coached this century,”
Nice.
Tags: injury, john muggleton, john o'neill, pat howard, robbie deans, scott johnson, wallaby coach selection
Matt a.k.a Gagger or GAGR (short for GreenAndGoldRugby, not a fetish)
Matt started G&GR just before the 2007 Rugby World Cup and has been enslaved ever since. You can follow him on Twitter here http://www.twitter.com/Matt_Gagger 
At least your review process is semi-transparent.
The only way we can piece some jigsaw pieces together is via Deans’s deadlines with the Wallaby job.. Sadly, the best candidate for the All Black job has just taken that suicide post in Wales.
sounds as if mr o’neill is sleeping on the wrong kind of bed… spending 8 hours a night laid on an inappropriate mattress is thought to be one of the primary causes of such injuries [in addition to spending long periods sat in crippling positions at a computer!]
The ARU should get there wallets out and invest in one of the many memory foam mattresses available today. Then he could be improve the chances of being present at such crucial meetings!
Update and views on the NZ situation on this thread:
http://www.sportsfreak.co.nz/forum/forum-posts.asp?TID=2084&PN=1
In summary, unless Hansen ditches Henry and breaks up the “Dream Team” then it’s all Robbie’s…
Hey Matt, out of idle curiosity, how many of your compatriots are playing rugby in the English premiership? Who were the most notable signees over the summer and fall?
you guys have got nothing. you should take a gander at the dogshow they’re calling a selection process we’ve got going on in the republic. jake brought the cup home and they won’t consider him because they didn’t receive his application before the cutoff date which was somewhere in the middle of the knockout stages. it wasn’t like he was busy with anything important at the time.
Hey Nursedude,
Unlike the AB team that now resides over here, It’s not exactly raining with Aussie players. Probably a sign of the depth we don’t have.
There’s Matt Burke (knee currently bust) who repeatedly wins Newcastle’s player of the year (wouldn’t have been such a crazy idea for the RWC).
Shane Drahm at Northampton is one of their stars and won them the match this weekend apparently, and of course Peter Hewat at London Irish who kicked 6 conversions and a penalty on Saturday.
They’re the only ones at top of mind – I believe there are a few over in Ireland as well.
3rm – yep, yours is the most fucked up process and union but that’s kind of taken for granted these days and the great surprise would be if they actually did anything useful.
Well there we go…
Henry reappointed by the same board that appointed him 4 years ago and approved the ridiculous rotation policy.
Presumably O’Neill and Deans are sorting out the fine print at the moment.
you beat me to it SF.
Big news