Former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains has blamed player power within the Wallabies squad for their test rugby struggles.
In the wake of Dave Rennie’s sacking as the Wallaby boss, Mains said a former Aussie coach had told him that some top Wallabies wanted to run the team.
Mains believes new Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has no chance of turning their fortunes around at the World Cup.
“We’ll see what Eddie Jones comes up with but I don’t think he’s going to make any difference,” Mains told Newstalk ZB’s Tim Dower.
“I’m staggered over [the sacking of] Dave Rennie … there are a lot more issues in Australian rugby than Dave Rennie.”
Mains said Robbie Deans, like Rennie, had also struggled in charge of the Wallabies after a superb Super Rugby coaching career.
Former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains. Photo / Getty
There might be some resistance to a Kiwi coach among Australian players, but Mains did not seem to think that was the big issue.
“You’ve got to ask yourself is it the players who just do not want to be coached, want to do everything their own way, some of the leaders in their players’ group?
“Or is it that they just don’t have players good enough to be at the top at international level.
“I won’t name names … but it appears Australia had some leaders in players, after their great era, who could well be the problem, who wanted to run the team themselves.
“I won’t mention his name either but I knew a former Australian coach pretty well who said he struggled like hell with the fact that the players want to run their ship, they don’t really want a coach there.
“If that is the case, I suspect that’s what has happened to Dave Rennie.”
Mains said Jones’ style of coaching was only effective in the short term, and any success then began to fade.
But even that would not be enough to save Australia at this year’s World Cup.
“France, South Africa and England are our major concern,” he said.
“With the group of players Australia has got, I don’t think Eddie Jones can do wonders with them at all. They won’t be the main concern for the All Blacks.”
