Enough to make grown men weep: Nine games, seven losses, six by five points or less, three by clock-in-the-red scores
It’s a good job Benetton boss Kieran Crowley is a glass-half-full sort of guy. Nine matches, seven defeats, six losses by five points or less, three due to last-gasp, clock-in-the-red scores. That would leave most coaches pulling their hair out in despair.
The pattern has been tough for the Italian club boss. Just last May he received the Guinness PRO14’s coach of the year award at a gala event in Dublin.
Now the 58-year-old is tasked with a very different challenge, repeatedly picking his players up off the canvas after some devastatingly late league and cup hits.
For instance, it was an 80th minute Dan Jones penalty that gave Scarlets their 18-16 PRO14 win on November 9. Two weeks later, the Italians relinquished a 25-8 Heineken Champions Cup lead over Gallagher Premiership pace-setters Northampton. They were beaten 35-32 with an 80th minute Dan Biggar penalty.
Then came their latest end-game calamity, their 28-17 lead after an hour ultimately getting scrubbed out last Saturday by Jason Harries’ last-second converted try. That agonisingly made it 31-28 to Cardiff on the whistle in the PRO14.
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Enough to make grown men weep? Yes, but that negative is ironically also a positive given where the Treviso-based club were only a few years ago, happy just to make up the numbers rather than produce any semblance of a performance to take pride in.
“I looked at the changing room after the Northampton game and then I put ourselves in that same position three years ago,” said Crowley to RugbyPass ahead of this weekend’s return to European action, an away Saturday at Top 14 leaders Lyon.
“I would have looked at the changing room and they would have had smiles on their faces, but they are now just gutted and that is the (positive) thing. We hurt big time and that result really stung for us.
‘Most teams in Europe have fines if you arrive late, but we think making players understand that to be on time is a value is more important’
– @MarcoBortolami tells @heagneyl about the transformation at @BenettonRugby to get back into @ChampionsCup https://t.co/utb25EvECk— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 16, 2019
“It’s about letting it sting because it needs to. But then there was also a hell of a lot of good stuff in there, so you have got to balance it and that is where we have been with it. Hopefully, when we get in those sort of situations or those big moments in games we manage them better.
“What we are lacking at the moment is consistency. I know consistency is an overused thing but we are lacking consistency in key moments. Like, for example, if I take the Northampton game, we were well in control of it.
“We then had three or four incidents in the period from 30 minutes to 60 minutes which cost us big time because players just went slightly out of the system or slightly didn’t understand the time of the game or things like that.
#THURSDAYVIBES ??? pic.twitter.com/wTsgyRgwAN
— Benetton Rugby ? (@BenettonRugby) December 5, 2019
“People come back and say, ‘oh you gave away a penalty in the last minute to lose’ but we should never have been in that position. It’s the consistency in big moments,” he explained, adding how Benetton’s run to last season’s PRO14 quarter-finals, another fixture they lost late on when they should have won at Munster, has raised the premium on producing wins.
“They [the crowd] expect it, we expect it. We are now starting to expect things but also with that expectation, you can’t just think it is going to happen. You have got to work hard at it and we have just got to keep doing the things that we are doing.
“When things don’t go right, and we have only had a couple of wins this year, you don’t chuck everything out, don’t chuck what did work for us. Maybe we are just not as clinical as we should be in this area at training or whatever. Those are the things we have got to do.”
Time to see if Monty Ioane and Benetton Rugby can take Munster down as he promised https://t.co/i4CcaWID4t
— liam heagney (@heagneyl) May 4, 2019
Conscious of the need to set the tone at the start of a week, Crowley is becoming a dab hand at picking up the pieces and getting on with it with a smile. “The coaching philosophy is very much around accentuating the positives rather than concentrating on the negatives,” he said, reflecting on Benetton’s current ‘unlucky losers’ patch.
“I very much think that the staff provide the energy, the staff have to come in each day and be up and they have to provide that for the team. You have little games, you have little meetings, you can’t have death by meeting, things like that.
“We try and make those things fun or a lot more enjoyable and try to have only one or two points in those meetings or whatever, not a whole lot of things. I don’t know what might be different because I’m in any other environments at the moment. What we are doing might be exactly the same as other teams, but it’s just the way we do it.
? @SaintsRugby and @BenettonRugby put on quite the show when they met in Round 2 of the #HeinekenChampionsCup ?
Young-gun Ollie Sleightholme went over for this effort as his side pulled off a classy comeback ?
Genuine contenders for glory this season?? ? pic.twitter.com/01fx6SeY8J
— Heineken Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) December 2, 2019
“Players have to buy into it. You can’t go in and tell them how to act or how to do it. They have to come up with those sort of things, so they have to be invested in what they are doing and that is our big thing now.
“They are invested in the culture, they are invested in the way they play, they are invested in the way they train, they are invested in the standards and if you can get all those things right and then you get a couple of results on the field they get self-belief in it. So they believe in the investment that they are doing. It’s good.”
Having arrived in 2016, it was just last September when Crowley agreed to a contract extension that will keep him at the club until June 2022. In the meantime, the situation above him has changed, Conor O’Shea stepping aside as Italy boss and Franco Smith stepping in on an interim basis for the 2020 Six Nations.
The pure drama of this ?
With the clock in the red, Rey Lee-Lo danced his way through and put @jasonharries13 in to win it for @cardiff_blues ?
Tough on @BenettonRugby or a fair result in #GuinnessPRO14 Round 7?? pic.twitter.com/rOMZPkaLhH
— PRO14 RUGBY (@PRO14Official) December 5, 2019
As a former coach of Canada, Crowley is well versed on what is needed at Test level but he is unsure what the Azzurri’s recent change at the top might mean for Benetton. “I don’t know. Franco comes in on January 1 and he is the interim head coach until the end of the Six Nations. I don’t know how that is going to work. They will do what they want to do.”
It was in Japan that New Zealand lost its grip on the trophy first won in 1987 when Crowley was part of the All Blacks set-up as a player. He likes it that their defeat to England was so heavily debated, suggesting it was a sign the sport remains in rude health.
“It’s still religion back there. The people who were there [involved in the loss] handled it well. You have got to do that because you have got to give credit to the team that beat you. England went great in that game and they deserved to win.
"My boy was playing under-11s rugby and we could barely get nine or ten players to come out and play whereas with football they were scratching two sides together." @ShaneWilliams11 talks regional rugby decline with @heagneyl ???https://t.co/opEhls2mH2
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 1, 2019
“I know they [fans] will still moan about the result. If you lose it is a national disaster in New Zealand but that is what is great about it because everyone has got an opinion and everyone has got a say and if they didn’t have that you wouldn’t have the sport,” he said, adding that nothing really surprised him at the 2019 finals.
“Not really. Teams played as you thought they were going to play. Just the performances of Japan went to another level around that side of things. There is still a place for the physicality of it, but if you can get that balance between how Japan play and how South Africa play it would be a great game.”
WATCH: RugbyPass Rugby Explorer takes a trek through the Italian rugby communities in Rome and Treviso
Comments on RugbyPass
Totally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
1 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
5 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
37 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
37 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
37 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
37 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
37 Go to commentsNo way. If you are trying to picture New Zealand rugby with an All Blacks mindset, there have been two factors instrumental to the decline of NZ rugby to date. Those are the horror that the Blues have become and, probably more so, the fixture that the Crusaders became. I don’t think it was healthy to have one team so dominant for so long, both for lack of proper representation of players from outside that environment and on the over reliance on players from within it. If you are another international side, like Ireland for example, sure. You can copy paste something succinct from one level to the next and experience a huge increase in standards, but ultimately you will not be maximizing it, which is what you need to perform to the level the ABs do. Added to that is the apathy that develops in the whole game as a result of one sides dominance. NZ, Super, and Championship rugby should all experience a boom as a result of things balancing out. That said, there is a lot of bad news happening in NZ rugby recently, and I’m not sure the game can be handled well enough here to postpone the always-there feeling of inevitable decline of rugby.
37 Go to comments