Peter Bills: Two words put Deans' Aussie reign at risk

Australia rugby coach Robbie Deans. Photo / Dean Purcell

He must wish, now, he had never said them. Just two little words - rolling over - but will they come back to haunt Robbie Deans and ultimately condemn to failure his Australian coaching tenure?

It was the words uttered by Deans last September to describe his Australian rugby team in the light of their 33-6 Tri-Nations defeat by the All Blacks in Wellington that remain a painful sore that won't heal on Australian bodies.

Deans accused his players of the worst sin an Australian sportsman can commit. He went on: "The most disappointing thing from our perspective was, we essentially capitulated once the game was gone."

Some Australians have never forgiven him for those words. Perhaps some of them still inhabit the present Wallaby dressing room; we do not know. Did Deans' stinging criticism open wounds that cannot be healed? To hear such words from the lips of an Australian would be bad enough. Coming from a New Zealander, they were hated.

A couple of Australian internationals said privately, "Who does this bloke think he is?"

Perhaps not coincidentally, since that day Australian rugby has lurched unconvincingly from pillar to post. Incredibly, in Britain last spring they even lost to Scotland and could only draw with Ireland. More recently, they scrambled to an unconvincing win over a weary Ireland in Brisbane and then lost to England, hitherto hopeless, in their own Sydney backyard ...

They've been a proud, feisty people, these Aussies, from the moment the first convict stumbled ashore long ago. To recharge the national fervour in times of need, Australians have gone to great lengths. Former cricket captain Steve Waugh once took his Ashes-bound touring party, headed for England, to Gallipoli to see where so many one-time young Australians perished. Many talked later of the profound effect the experience had upon them.

It may seem bizarre to say in a professional age but the fate of Deans as a foreign national coach of the Australian rugby team is probably wrapped up in this delicate topic.

And on the evidence of the past 18 months, you would have to say the jury remains out on whether Deans' tenure as Wallaby coach will go down as successful or, at an estimated A$800,000 ($985,765) a year, a costly failure.

As the Wallabies prepare for today's Tri-Nations clash with South Africa in Brisbane, analysing the current state of Australian rugby under Deans is revealing. It quickly becomes clear the whole Deans venture remains open to considerable doubt in some minds.

Indeed, rugby in Australia seems finely balanced between potential triumph or tragedy. The pressure was heaped on Deans this season when Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill declared the Wallaby coach's honeymoon period "was over".

He insisted an Australian win ratio under Deans of 56 per cent wasn't good enough, it had to improve. That meant that even if the Wallabies, who lost five of their six Tri-Nations tests last year, now won three of their six games in this season's competition, it still wouldn't be sufficient to satisfy O'Neill.

By his own statistics, O'Neill made it clear Australia had to win at least four of their six games this season for Deans to measure up. But they not only have to face a rampant All Blacks side that has made a compelling start to the tournament, but also play two tests at altitude in South Africa in a few weeks.

The Wallabies may well start with a win over the weary, demoralised Springboks at Brisbane this weekend. But spying three further victories for them this season looks tough.

Yet there appears to be an inconsistency in policy from the top in Australian rugby. This week, O'Neill suddenly appeared to back track from his tough stance on Deans, saying "Robbie Deans' job is totally safe until after the World Cup".

So what happened to the "56 per cent win ratio is unacceptable" line ... ? If there is confusion at the top of Aussie rugby, it's likely there is some lower down, with the players.

But if O'Neill has a problem, Deans may have a greater one. His entire culture was rooted in Canterbury rugby. He played, coached and enjoyed huge success there. But apart from a brief playing spell in Grenoble, he spent little time elsewhere.

Is it not possible that when one person has had such success in one specific culture, he finds it hard to adapt to other circumstances, especially a different country where different philosophies abound? Is the cultural difference the other side of the Tasman proving too much for him?

It was clear by his words in Wellington last year that Robbie Deans clearly did not understand Australians' acute sensitivities, especially to words of criticism by a New Zealander.

Now comes the Tri-Nations. The Springboks this week, the All Blacks, to whom Australia have lost every one of their past seven test matches, next weekend in Melbourne.

Yet two and a half years into Robbie Deans' reign as Wallaby coach and just 14 months out from the Rugby World Cup, many questions still remain about the Australians' maddening inconsistency and even personnel.

Berrick Barnes, chosen as vice-captain for the Northern Hemisphere tour in November but forced to return home early through injury, cannot now even win a place in the side.

Kurtley Beale played well at full-back against Fiji in the opening test of the year, after a good Super 14 season. Yet he was summarily dropped.

Lote Tuqiri was thrown out of Australian rugby for some alleged misdemeanour and Lachie Turner, last season a regular, cannot even make the squad now. Another wing, Drew Mitchell, was dropped after the Ireland and England tests but is now rushed back because of injuries.

This apparent turmoil will melt away as a concern if the Wallabies make a flying start to the Tri-Nations by beating South Africa today and then climb into the All Blacks next week.

But if they don't, O'Neill's demand for a better than 56 per cent win ratio looks a busted flush. And in a land where rugby is only No 4 in interest and losers are avoided like lepers, Deans and his Wallabies could have problems clinging to not just the interest of Australians, but their respect.