Photos: Super 14 finalKEY POINTS:
So Robbie Deans' Super 14 coaching has come to an end. It was a fitting way to finish with the Crusaders and it will be fascinating to see if he can replicate his success with the Wallabies.
I believe he can. I think he's got two things going for him - his own, superb judgement and motivating ability as a coach and the way the Waratahs have welded together as a team this year. There's a lot of folk who think this is down to Ewen McKenzie, the Waratahs coach, who was fired by his board for poor results earlier this season - just in time for the team to start performing.
Many think McKenzie knuckled down and did the business but I have heard from reliable sources that it has been the players themselves who have done that. It's not unknown at that level. Sometimes a coach doesn't need to be a coach in the sense that he tells all the players what to do all the time. Sometimes, he just needs to be a facilitator.
I played in a winning Waikato team where that happened. I am not dissing our coach Kevin Greene because he was very good for us that that particular time. Kevin made sure everything was going right; that our environment was conducive to winning; he helped us to be well-oiled.
But he didn't really coach or manage all angles of our on-field performance. The players did that - and it worked very well. There have been other examples - like the Brumbies when they last won the Super 14 under David Nucifora although it was obvious the players were running the show.
Now the Waratahs - and if the player power people have themselves under control, it can make them a very dangerous team indeed. A lot of people might think that is a negative for Robbie to come in and pick up the Wallaby coaching reins when player power has had results.
I don't think so. He will have recognised what is going on and he will harness it - assuming the Waratahs will be the mainstay of any Wallaby selection this year. You just have to look at Robbie Deans' coaching record to see he has an outstanding ability when it comes to taking talented misfits or miscreants and turning them into top-class players, even when other coaches and franchises have given up on them or thought there was no more talent to mine. I'm thinking Norm Berryman, Ron Cribb, even Ali Williams.
So while Wallabies like Lote Tuqiri and Matt Dunning - who are known to like a drink and to get into a bit of trouble - might be looking over their shoulders a bit, Robbie will be looking at them and figuring how to get the best out of them, maybe. It's what he does - and you just have to look at this Crusaders team to underline the point.
They are by no means the best Crusaders team ever, in fact you'd say they were probably one of the weaker ones but Robbie showed his worth again in bringing up not just senior players like Mose Tuiali'i - on whom Auckland gave up - but young ones like winger Kade Poki and little halfback Kahn Fotuali'i.
Over the years with the Crusaders, there has been an enormous churn in the numbers of players but every year Robbie has managed to get results even with wholesale changes in his playing roster.
Now he heads off to the Wallabies and it will be dead interesting to watch him work there. He is going into a good environment. Things haven't been right but Super 14 form shows that Australian rugby is again coming up the curve. All right, they don't have much depth in the front row but they could gain parity or hang in there - and they are very good in other areas.
That back five for the Waratahs are class, James Horwill, the young lock and skipper for the Reds is an up-and-comer and then you have the likes of George Smith and the young No 7 John Mitchell has found at the force, David Pocock. In fact, there are a lot of highly promising young players coming up to Wallaby level to mix with veterans and that is an ideal scenario for a coach like Robbie Deans.
Robbie has also handled himself very well with players, fans and media - and I worked with him and John Mitchell a lot in the run-up to the 2003 World Cup.
I know from that time that Mitch got a hell of a hiding from the media about his so-called 'Mitch-speak.'
Okay, sometimes it wasn't good but he was really only trying to chose his words carefully. Robbie is better at it, and he always talks about what matters.
But why hasn't Graham Henry had a hiding from the media like Mitch got? I mean, why is Henry getting an easy ride?
When I hear Graham Henry talk sometimes, I can't make up my mind whether he is being ignorant or arrogant. Take the Jerry Collins business - why not just let the guy retire rather than make the point that he wasn't going to be selected anyway? For many people, that just sounded like sour grapes.
Henry often has a touch of sarcasm or looking down on people when he talks and it's not a good look. It makes it seem as if Graham Henry is always right and everyone else is always wrong. Well, we know that isn't so after Cardiff 2007.
I always wonder why more people didn't take him to task after France, where he put all our eggs in the World Cup basket; why they didn't pull him up when he said rotation was over but he kept rotating; when he says he always plays his best team when it is clear to most of us that the issue of rotation - and it is an issue - is still with us and we seem not to have learned an awful lot.
You see, I don't think there is any difference between Mitch-speak and Henry-speak.
