The value of building a cohesive coaching approach for rugby in Australia.

The Wrap: How to fix Australian rugby? It’s all about coaching the coaches (theroar.com.au)

Despite the reappointment of Eddie Jones as the potential saviour of Australian rugby the Wallabies continue to struggle on the international stage losing all four of their test matches in 2023.?In the aftermath of the agonising loss to an experimental All Blacks team he claimed that “When you’ve had a long period of time when you’ve been unsuccessful, you know, you change the players, there’s something more intrinsically wrong”.?Here, Jones is possibly alluding to the lack of clear direction in terms of coaching philosophy which may be a significant contributing factor to the results being experienced and becomes a key feature of this article penned by Geoff Parkes.

Indeed, Rugby Australia (RA) appears to be consistently looking for oversimplified solutions to satisfy problems that are both complicated and endemic.?The shock sacking of Dave Rennie, appointment of Jones and a zest to pursue rugby league players for staggering amounts of financial capital are just examples of this zeitgeist.?These decisions, like many that are made in the interest of short-term gain are unlikely to shift the needle for prolonged success in the highly competitive contact sport arena.

Alternatively, a more thought out, long-term, and sustainable strategy aimed to advance the game at all levels could be discussed to improve the players capabilities that go on to nourish the national team.?One possible solution to achieve this objective is to devise a detailed, collaborative, and co-ordinated coaching approach that is embraced by all echelons of the game.

Some would say that this vision is unattainable, but the reality is, rugby in Australia is only played by a handful of states, clubs, and schools in a few metropolitan areas when you compare it to the monstrous tentacles of the NRL and AFL.?As such, RA could adopt a disposition to worry less about competing against these giants of the winter sporting landscape, in so doing accept its status as more of a niche sport on the sporting calendar and aim to strategically maximise the advantages that this position affords.?The limited number of professional teams, schools and clubs playing the game domestically offers a streamlined structure enabling the implementation of the co-ordinated coaching approach advocated earlier.?This course of action, however, would need to be discussed, agreed upon, and scientifically validated by contemporary athletic, pedagogical and skill acquisition models to achieve success.

Fortunately, such a holistic coaching approach of this nature has been executed on a national scale by a similarly small nation with great success.?In 2009, the Finnish Ice Hockey federation realised that they were falling behind on the international stage in terms of player development, so they invited a wide range of stakeholders to engage in collaborative discussions at a sporting symposium.?From this conference it was decided that for a small country, Finland needed to develop each player’s individual skills and embrace a common philosophy of play.?To operationalise this vision, the federation hired four full-time coaches at important touchpoints along the player pathway (ages 15-20) who worked collaboratively with each other and the club coaches throughout the country building the capacities of their players in way they all wanted to play the game.?Business researcher and Leadership guru, Jim Collins would say that they implemented their “Hedgehog concept” to great affect by concentrating their efforts on the one thing that they were good at, passionate about and was profitable. ?The results were seen just over 5 years down the track in 2019 with Finland claiming both the under 18 and under 20 world championships and placing 2nd in the open men’s competition.?In the eyes of Collins, the Finnish Ice Hockey teams went from “Good to Great” through the powerful environmental constraint of high-quality coaching.??