The Wallabies and the Springboks both had years to forget in 2016. The “Wobblies” played 15 Tests for six wins while the Boks fared even worse playing 12 and winning just four.
Australia lost a home series against England for the first time, while the Boks recorded unwanted “firsts” in defeats to Italy and Ireland in South Africa.
The way both nations responded to their dire records, however, has been markedly different. In South Africa coach Allister Coetzee, in his first year in charge, faced repeated calls for the axe.
SARU launched an enquiry into his performance and he literally scraped through by the seat of his green and gold tracksuit, and only under the proviso that he made changes to his coaching team.
So out when defence coach Chean Roux and in came two former Boks with excellent coaching credentials – Cheetahs’ Franco Smith in attack and the unorthodox Brendan Venter in defence.
The difference has been stark with the Boks comfortably beating France 3-0 in the June Test series and then notching up an impressive win against Argentina last Saturday.
We won’t really know where they are until they face the All Blacks on September 16 but at this stage there seems to be an improvement.
Cheika, due to the Wallabies good form in 2015, didn’t face as much scrutiny with a cursory, “we’ll do better next year” offered as an excuse.
There was no pressure for a change of direction to his management team so Stephen Larkham remained attack coach and Nathan Grey remained defence coach although both facets were well under par last year.
The reason for this is the ARU, somewhat prematurely, extended Cheika’s contract in May 2016 until the end of World Cup 2019.
Due to the ARU’s financial problems, they simply can’t afford to pay Cheika’s lucrative contract out so he could lose every game from now until the 2019 and his job would be safe.
As a direct result the Wallabies have started 2017 where they left off last year: a loss at home to Scotland, a scratchy win over Italy and a thrashing at the hands of the All Blacks.
Change is hard but the Boks had the courage to make it. Not so the Wallabies. The effect of both responses showing on the field.
