Deans out of his depth?
The walls are seemingly closing in on Robbie Deans with the Wallaby coach receiving wide-swept criticism ahead of Saturday's Rugby Championship clash with the All Blacks.
Former Australian coach Alan Jones, World Cup-winning All Black coaches Graham Henry and Wayne Smith and Wales coach Warren Gatland have joined ex Wallaby flyhalf Mark Ella in suggesting Deans was out of his depth at international level.
Jones had particular choice words for Deans, labelling him a "provincial coach" and blaming him for Australia’s recent failures.
"Our team is badly coached, there's no other way of putting it. Sometimes you're better off being not coached than badly coached," Jones told New Zealand's LiveSPORT in a frank interview.
"The whole system here is a failure and the players are suffering… basically, at this level, he's not up to it.
"Some people are provincial coaches and that's fine. On the other hand, when he coached Canterbury he had most of the All Blacks in his side… you can quite clearly see there was more to it than just the bloke in charge," he said of Deans’ tenure at the helm of the Crusaders.
Jones also lambasted Deans’ lack of continuity in team selection and his decision to do away with Australia’s traditional attacking game plan.
"Many of the boys in the Australian team believe the preoccupation is with trying to avoid defeat rather than trying to secure victory," said Jones.
"You can't win a game of football without the football. What do we do? We kick it away."
In response to what advice he would give Deans, Jones replied: "Put them on the paddock and let them organise it… shut up and stay at home in bed.”
He added: "Who the hell invited a New Zealander to coach Australia? That's ridiculous.”
Henry, in turn, said New Zealand would widen their winning margin in Auckland on Saturday. "I think the gap will widen here and it could be quite significant," he said.
Smith and Gatland echoed Henry’s sentiments.
"There is a good chance that the All Blacks could put Australia away with something to spare this weekend,” commented Smith.
"If the All Blacks have a good week analytically, they will see a lot of opportunities off the set-piece. If they can tidy up some of their timing issues, particularly on the offload, then it could be ominous for Australia."
Gatland said of last weekend’s Test in Sydney: "The All Blacks should have been 15, 20 points in front, I think the Wallabies will find Eden Park really tough this weekend."
