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Should Heads Roll At The Highlanders? 11 views 5 Comments
15 April 2013 by The Swede Eaters

Connected with: Wiki Player Ma'a Nonu

Scotty Donaldson wonders if heads should roll at the Highlanders after their winless start to the Super Rugby 2013 season?

The Highlanders are sitting stonecold motherless last on the Super 15 Rugby ladder with no wins from their seven matches. The worst thing is that they have played the most home games out of anyone with five home losses and all this in a season that promised so much with the high profile signings of several frontline All Blacks (Tony Woodcock, Ma'a Nonu and Brad Thorn) in the off-season.

The Blues on the other hand had at least won one match at this stage last season, before finishing 12th, but their coach Pat Lam was being hounded by the media and was eventually dumped. It is surprising that Jamie Joseph is not receiving the same media scrutiny.

Under coach Jamie Joseph the Highlanders have finished 8th (2011) and 9th (2012), but it seems that with almost half of their games played, they would have to win every single match from here on in to reach the lofty heights of last year's nine wins. Should Jamie Joseph be dumped? Who would replace him? Could they get someone to be an assistant like Robbie Deans to help him?

Could Robbie "Dingo" Deans be used in a technical role to assistant Jamie Joseph at the Highlanders like Sir Graham Henry and Wayne Smith are doing with the Blues and Chiefs respectively?

The role of the coach
But what difference does a good coach make? It is amazing what a difference a year makes. The Blues are now in the Top Six with the amazing coaching of Sir John Kirwan with Sir Graham Henry getting plenty out of their young squad. It also seems amazing that Dave Rennie with former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith are also able to coach the Chiefs to the lead in the New Zealand conference. It seems that both the Blues and Chiefs are nothing special on paper, but great coaching staff can turn a good team into a great team. There are players in both the Blues and Chiefs who weren't wanted by other teams, but a great coach is able to give them a specific role within a team and use them to get great results. Some examples of these types of players are Chris Noakes (Blues) and Craig Clarke (Chiefs).

Jamie Joseph is an honest toiler of a coach, but he doesn't have the support of a Rugby World Cup winning All Blacks coach in his corner to help him. He got some good results out of his team in his previous two seasons where they won about half of their games, but why is he struggling to get anything out of a team that on paper is actually stronger than previous seasons? Did Simon Culhane as assistant coach leave a gap in the Highlanders coaching resources?

The Highlanders are struggling with the basics this season. They are turning the ball over more than they should, their lineouts are a mixed bag and they just don't seem to be able to score tries despite making some nice breaks at times. Their defence isn't very well organised and they concede too many long range tries. They also don't seem to be able turnover opposition ball by using their strong counter-rucking like they used to. They seem to be struggling to gel in either attack or defence. They are definitely missing the departed Adam Thomson and injured players like Tamati Ellison and Nasi Manu, but they have more big names than previously. They have had injury problems for the last three seasons, but still at least won plenty of games in 2011 and 2012, although it is hard to know whether these injuries are because of the training or the fact that several of their players are more injury prone than most?

It is difficult to know how to get the best out of their players. What has happened to the form of All Blacks Aaron Smith, Andrew Hore, Tony Woodcock and Ma'a Nonu?I wonder if Ma'a Nonu has something to do with it? Has Nonu been undermining Jamie Joseph?

He was part of the toxic environment at the Hurricanes that saw half the team leave when coach Mark Hammett started coaching them. He then went to the Blues and we all know what happened with them last season. But I thought that Jamie Joseph might get the best out of Nonu. He has shown glimpses of form, but also made plenty of stupid mistakes like being yellow carded against the Blues, missed tackles, throwing terribly forward cut out passes and several handling mistakes this season. While he isn't the only one making mistakes just when the Highlanders look like winning, you wonder what influence he has over other players behind the scenes. Is Nonu's personality causing problems behind the scenes? I think Nonu should be benched. The problem is that there are other Highlanders who should also be benched, but with their lack of depth, they may not have enough players to take the field if all out of form players were axed. I wonder if they could look at starting Phil Burleigh at 12 and Jason Emery at 13? The Highlanders have nothing to lose now, so they may as well give some new guys a chance to gain experience at Super Rugby level. Dumping Aaron Smith worked wonders for his game against the Brumbies, I wonder if it could do the same for Nonu.

Should heads roll at the Highlanders? Should Jamie Joseph be axed or Ma'a Nonu? Or do you think the Highlanders can turn some of these disappointing losses into victories with the status quo?

http://www.superrugbytips.com/2013/04/should-heads-roll-at-highlanders.html

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Tags: Super Rugby

Comments (5)

Rating:

	5 . locky9 21 Apr 2013 12:32 PM how can all of say that nonu is playing like rubbish higlanders dont get the ball so he cant bust many takles and go forward ball, so he has been quiet however his defense has been out standing have any of you actually looked at nonu stats off the ball they are up there in the top ten in the competition, at least the guy is trying in a losing team he is still the best 2nd five in the world at international level no one comes close to what he does, just watch at the end of year you will see best of nonu
	4 . Bulpil 16 Apr 2013 10:49 PM Lack of depth can be a problem, but don't need to be the end all. But then, I have seen the inability of coaches to drop non-performers here in SA as well. The Stormers as example. They obtained the services of Jantjes and Taute among others when the Lions exited S15. Jantjes was picked over Peter Grant and Taute over Joe Pietersen. Grant picked up an injury a little later. Jantjes struggles with form and Taute is played out of position initially. Only the 3rd game, the coach decided to return Pietersen. There are alternatives to Jantjes - heh, heh - Catrakillis was in the Stormer camp last year and even had a little game time in the S15. But not preferred over Jantjes. Coach Coetzee's continuation with Jantjes (now injured) and Taute (also injured) cost them a number of games at the beginning of the season. This is the thing that I don't understand about many a coach - they refuse to see when a star doesn't shine. It is as if they can't see that not dropping the expensive player is resulting in a more expensive result (paying for the rest of the players, but getting no results from them). Having non-performing stars and lack of depth by injury, is not an excuse for the coach. There are more players available, e.g. in the various NZ academies. They WANT to play, they or not trying to nurse there age or stretch their playing time as some of the falling stars are doing.
	3 . deep 16 Apr 2013 09:51 PM The Highlanders are suffering in the same way the Blues did last year. Pat Lam is a very good coach, as is Jamie Joseph, but when you don't have good support coaches and/or supporting organisation you can struggle. And when the 'nearly' games consistently go the wrong way a team can lose belief. For sure the Blues wouldn't be where they are today if JK hadn't pulled together a world class support crew. Likewise Dave Rennie with the Chiefs having Wayne Smith as his right hand. Mark Hammett has his board's support otherwise he'd never have pulled off the sweep out before last year. We all know what a well oiled machine the Crusaders have. (Don't mean to exclude Oz and SA - just sticking to what I know.) The Highlanders are currently flat and without ideas. They have the personnel, so I don't really know what the problem is. Reffing like that in the weekend just gone doesn't help. It was totally against the home team - how was Gear's try not awarded? A blind man on a galloping horse could see that he controllably forced it. You'd have thought they were deep in enemy territory with the local officiates giving their boys a little bonus support. What happened to the home ground advantage recently discussed? To single out Nonu is a bit harsh, but I have to admit that all I've seen him as in the last year and a half is an average player going through the motion of turning up so he can take home a wage. Haven't seen any attitude or spark on that front for some time. The best coaches manage to sort these things out - look at Weepu this year. The Blues finally changed things by changing the coaching regime. I'm sure there is more than one way to sort these things, and maybe it's just about giving Joseph a better support structure. Right now he's struggling.
	2 . The Swede Eaters 16 Apr 2013 11:59 AM I think the other problem is that they don't have enough backup to get rid of Nonu and Hore especially. It is great seeing Jamie "Whoppa" Mackintosh get some gametime, but there is only one other hooker in the squad, with Brayden Mitchell being injured. Same with the backline, it would be great to have some more depth to actually put pressure on Nonu's starting position and give us the luxury of giving him the chop, knowing we had an adequate replacement. Unfortunately Treeby and Ellison are still injured.
	1 . Bulpil 16 Apr 2013 05:04 AM Very interesting. I believe the H'landers have internal issues. A coach having problems shows when he continues to choose non-contributing players and talks nonsense during press releases. But then, a coach is a part of the equation, very influential, but not the biggest impact. Players nowadays play for pay. They want good pay, they have to play good. But we all know, same as in any workplace, there are those who trundle along on the coat tails of the good ones. There is also the aspect of a player's 'use by' date. This is directly influenced by the amount of rugby that is being played. I believe that S15 is the worst culprit here. Pity, because I like S15 a lot, at the same time :-) Nonu last had a good season in 2010. In 2011 and 2012 he performed at a steady downward rate. On or two good things at the start of 2013, but no more. Could he be that influential? Possible. Jamie is still selecting him for his team. There is the problem. I don't know who signed Nonu on (management or Jamie) but that would also bear on the situation. You don't say it directly, but I believe Nonu should not play. The others that I believe should not be missed out for possible influence, are Andrew Hore and Tony Woodcock. Hard as nails, but there is a definite shift in their games from hard play to bullying. And they make selection as well. So, yes. I agree with a lot you said. I will not have anyone of the 3 in my fantasy team - they are bad news. Point is that Jamie keeps the 3 guys in the team. They have the wrong approach and he keeps on choosing them. That is why I believe the Highlanders are split and struggle to perform as a team. If someone starts firing, they have 4 names to fire. But firing is not always the answer. I do pity players in that awesome back line. People may argue, but I believe that the back trio is the best in S15.

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