ON THE BALL: Do coaches no matter how good they are have a sell-by date like cabbages in a supermarket, wonders Lucky Maree.
It is said in the movie business, that you’re only as good as your last movie. You’re only as good as your last fight, they say in boxing. You’re only as good as your last race, they say in Formula One.
Does that mean that coaches are only as good as their last matches?
Eddie Jones was on the rack for some time as he was criticised left and right by experts and fans from all over the world. If anybody wondered about the feelings of the English rugby fans, the events after the Springboks ripped the Red Rose apart, left nobody in doubt. The spectators at Twickenham booed the English team off the pitch like a blood-seeking crowd at a Roman colosseum.
Yet, the day he was fired, the English crowd, experts and keyboard warriors alike, proclaimed that “England has just fired its most successful coach, ever.”
The most successful ever? It depends on how you do the sums. A 73% success ratio for the entire period is as good as it gets, and taking England to the semi-final in the 2019 World Cup is considered an achievement these days.
But then came 2022 and the wheels came off — with a helluva clang!
England lost three matches out of five in the Six Nations. In the Autumn Internationals, they lost to Australia, Argentina and South Africa and drew with New Zealand. Dismal by any standard.
Since Eddie has been thrown under the bus, suddenly the rumours are popping up, specifically that he is dictatorial.
“The atmosphere in the change room is toxic,” say some of the players (predictably).
A much less hectic example of a coach possibly reaching a sell-by date is Neil Powell.
For ten glorious years he was the beloved coach of the Blitzboks. Then he resigned, maybe just in time.
Besides the dismal statistics of his last few matches, the way the Blitzboks played at the Olympic Games and cost South Africa its best chance of winning gold was nothing less than sad.
Then came Hong Kong (among other tournaments) and finally the Cape Town World Cup and all the time we heard that they would do better — but they never did.
When Sandile Ngcobo took over, the Blitzboks started winning matches. Strange as it may seem, when Neil Powell took over as director at the Sharks things improved there as well. Now with Sean Everitt being fired (why is not yet clear), Powell has stepped in as the coach of the Sharks’ top side. We’ll see how that works out but so far it seems good
Rumour has it that Eddie Jones is going to coach the American Eagles. Don’t be surprised if he does for them what he did for Japan.
Does this mean that coaches simply have a sell-by date? Supermarkets don’t try to extend the life of the cabbage on the shelf. They make sure it is sold before the sell-by date (or suffer the curses of the customers).
Perhaps rugby’s top countries around the world should accept that reality and not be tempted to extend contracts. Perhaps they should at least make it less shameful for coaches to walk away — before they get rotten.
Pictured above: Neil Powell, Sharks director of rugby
Image source: @RugbyBits
