Alan Jones claims Kiwi coaches are second-rate

NZ Herald

Today, in his column for The Australian, shock jock Alan Jones hit out at a number of top Kiwi sports administrators and coaches, questioning why they were filling jobs in Australia that Australians could “do better”.

“I must begin this week where I ended last week, in a state of disbelief,” Jones said. “I mentioned then, hoping I was wrong, that the Kiwi CEO running NSW Rugby was going to replace the existing Kiwi Waratahs coach with another Kiwi.

“Let’s be blunt, the NSW CEO, Andrew Hore, is a very average Kiwi administrator.

“These people are not working in New Zealand because they are not good enough. Yet now, it’s widely accepted that a Kiwi, Rob Penney, will coach the Waratahs and Dave Rennie, another Kiwi, will coach the Wallabies in 2020. They most probably can’t believe their luck.

“Penney is an average Kiwi coach who can’t get a job in New Zealand. I suppose being a Kiwi coach is not the end of the world, but they are not world-class.

“Do we interview these people? Who does the interviewing, if there is any?

“We certainly don’t interview people like David Campese, the Bradman of rugby, yet now we look like being lumped with this.

“Dave Rennie was at the Waikato Chiefs and enjoyed success when Wayne Smith was there.

“My New Zealand friends tell me Waikato’s success owed more to master coach Smith than it did to Rennie.

“That makes sense. Wherever Wayne Smith goes, he is successful. Without Wayne Smith, Dave Rennie has won nothing.

“Then there’s Rob Penney. He has had no success at Super Rugby level; in fact, he has never coached at that level. He had success in the relatively obscure Mitre 10 Cup, in New Zealand, about 10 years ago, when he coached with Scott Robertson. Since then, he has
had average success in Ireland and Japan.

“Who interviewed these people and against what criteria were they evaluated?

“Rob Penney has no business coaching the Waratahs. He is an average Kiwi coach replacing an average Kiwi coach in Daryl Gibson.

“This is madness.

“What must the Sydney and Brisbane grand final winning coaches be thinking?

“If Penney and Rennie are world-class, then there is no issue. But they are not.

“And that is a big rugby issue. It is clear that we have no coherent coach development plan and haven’t for ages, and now we are being bitten in the backside.

“For goodness sake, if we are going to take a chance, take a chance with an Australian coach.”

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and is republished with permission.