Sharks paying the price of player power

Player power appears to have rebounded on the struggling Sharks in Super Rugby this year.

South African journalist Mark Keohane said the departure of former Springboks coach Jake White after only one season with the club was the result of players wanting him out.

Under White the Sharks had won the South African Conference, won two games in New Zealand and three on their Australasian tour and included a first win over the Crusaders in Christchurch.

They were beaten by the Crusaders in the semi-finals. During the 2014 season they conceded 22 tries. But in 2015 they conceded that many in only eight games.

However, the players said he was too much of a disciplinarian who demanded the players report at 8.30 each day for work.

It was reported that there was also a clash in the coaching support given to White by Sharks chief executive and former Springbok captain John Smit. White wasn't prepared to work with Brad MacLeod-Henderson and Paul Anthony who had less than a year of professional coaching experience between them.

White believed the Sharks, with the quality of their squad, their budget and the strength of their brand, should have performed better in the competition and believed only a change of culture would change the results, Keohane said.

After White's departure the franchise's Currie Cup team suffered a 50-point thrashing in the semi-finals but they were retained and joined by Gary Gold just before the start of the Super Rugby season after he had completed a coaching commitment with a Japanese team.

Keohane said: "Smit, Gold and the players don't agree that the Sharks are a squad in crisis. It's all smiles within the group in Durban and the leadership has been dismissive of critique around the coaching appointments and player recruitment."

Meanwhile White, coaching Montpellier in France, has seen his side in with a chance of making the play-offs. His key weapons? Discipline and defence.

Who will win out in the end? At the moment the Sharks are ninth on the ladder, and fourth of the South African sides with one of the worst disciplinary records in the competition.

Perhaps White was right.

Sanzar cop more strife, from within their camp

South African rugby boss Oregan Hoskins has launched a broadside at inconsistencies in disciplinary rulings in Super Rugby.

Hoskins said South African players were being harder hit by the judiciary than New Zealand and Australian players. He had made his objections 'loud and clear' at an emergency meeting with key figures in judicial and disciplinary structures.

Hoskins said the decisions against Bismarck du Plessis (four weeks), Frans Steyn (five weeks) and Jean Deysel (seven weeks) were heavy compared to those against Australasian players.

He cited Reds lock James Horwill's second red card of the season and the one week he received for a swinging arm on a player's neck, Reds flanker Liam Gill's one match suspension for a tip tackle and Hurricanes lock James Broadhurst's one week for kneeing a player in the face.

Hoskins said he hadn't wanted to speak out but told South African rugby writer Dan Retief he had had enough.

"I feel we, as administrators, are fighting one fight and do not have the support of our judicial and refereeing panels.

"To be absolutely honest with you, I am at my wits-end, because I am seeing how we are being torn apart on the field of play and by judicial decisions, and we are not getting the support we should be getting from these people, who are part of our organisation [Sanzar]," he said.

Hoskins was at the Sharks-Crusaders match and claimed there were several incidents against Sharks players that had gone unpunished.

While Deysel had done a 'stupid thing' in kneeing Matt Todd in the head, it wasn't injurious, he said.

"But still, it's not allowed, and he got a red card and a heavy suspension, while the others were not even cited," he said.

Meanwhile, South Afric's referees' boss Andre Watson has appeared in front of a disciplinary hearing after a list of grievances, including verbal abuse, victimisation and his abrasive management style were made against him by 24 local officials.

Wallabies can still win World Cup in spite of turmoil

Former Wallabies and Crusaders, and All Blacks assistant coach Robbie Deans believes that despite all the turmoil surrounding his own dismissal last year and the resignation of Ewen McKenzie, Australia still have the ability to win next year's World Cup.

While feeling some enmity with McKenzie, who resigned after Saturday's 28-29 defeat by the All Blacks, Deans said international coaching was 'a tough gig' and what was happening in Australia following the Kurtley Beale textgate controversy was not good for the game.

He believed incoming coach Michael Cheika was good enough to get the best out of the side.

"His flame burns hot and he will get a lift out of them," he said.

"If Australia came through their pool well they are a team still capable of becoming the first side to win the World Cup three times. If they come through their pool all right they are very well positioned to go on and win. Australia have got serious X factor but the key area is up front," he said.

Deans said from a New Zealander's point of view it was vital that Australian rugby was strong.

But the game had to be viable.

"They are competing in the world's toughest tournament, [the Rugby Championship] which was a point of advantage so long as the side remained competitive and the game remained viable domestically and that's their biggest challenge.

"They are competing in the toughest sporting environment in the world in terms of other codes [AFL, NRL and the A-League]. And they're all village games, wherever you go people have an interest down the street and that's rugby's challenge in Australia," he said.

Australian rugby was poles apart from New Zealand, however.

"The distinction between Australia and New Zealand is essentially the background of the players – what they've come out of and what they go back to routinely and from that end they are poles apart."

New Zealand had a much more competitive structure right through the grades. There was a strong schools competition in New Zealand whereas Australia's top schools played about six games a year.

"Players are only as good as the competitions they come out of. It starts from age group because they whole way through there is competition and players become accustomed to competing and accustomed to the fact they need to keep growing and developing because they understand the moment they relent someone will go past them.

There were no guarantees either financially or in playing strength that Australia could remain at the top. Finance was always an issue while there was the prospect of a mass exodus of players after the World Cup.

New Zealand had been through the same situation and it was in 2001 when a high performance meeting was held to set priorities in place. It was something New Zealand had been able to do because the NZR control the revenue streams and control most of the appointments. Through that power they can make decisions in the best interests of the game.

They realised that if the All Blacks jersey suffered they might not have anything to run off.

Deans said he was still enjoying the game and was enjoying the change in Japan with the Panasonic club but he said he didn't know what was around the corner but he was up for whatever was.

"My grandfather stopped me playing basketball once. I suggested I was going to play basketball and he said, 'I don't think so' and closed it down very quickly. Imagine if I told him I was going to coach the Wallabies?"

He said he was much better equipped as a coach now as a result of his experiences for whatever comes.

Tana Umaga tells it like it is

Sports autobiographies, and rugby versions especially, come and go at a great rate of knots in New Zealand but one that has made its mark is that of Tana Umaga, the recently-retired All Blacks captain.

Tana Umaga, Up Close, attracted a deal of post-release publicity for his disclosures on specific aspects of his career.

But it would be a great shame if this effort, written by Paul Thomas, was to escape the attention of those with an ounce of care about the game in New Zealand.

Having read the book, it is no surprise that those at the head of the game have not reacted as quickly as in the past over the failure of the All Blacks at the World Cup.

Umaga was not especially enamoured of the style of coaching contender Robbie Deans, who was tied up with the John Mitchell coaching era which ended in the 20003 World Cup disappointments.

Umaga said that it was tough at the time because players didn't know where they stood with the coaches.

"Despite being a senior player, I got no feedback at all - just, 'No, you're not in this week.' That was pretty typical of the Mitchell/Deans man-management style, which wasn't what I was used to," he said.

Being a non-Crusader also made life difficult in that Crusader dominated era.

"Mitchell and Deans had a core group of players whom they valued and listened to, and it didn't include me," he said.

Umaga's attitude was just to play harder and prove they needed him, which is pretty much the way he approached most aspects of his career.

But he had no sympathy for the pair when they lost their places after the 2003 World Cup.

"I didn't feel sorry for them because I remembered the contemptuous way they cast aside experienced and valuable players. I'm a big believer in karma and that was certainly a case of what goes around, comes around," he said.

Umaga also left no doubts about his feelings with the coaching panel of Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith.

Their set-up was the best he had come across, he said.

Umaga said he supported the concept of conditioning.

"We needed to be innovative because the way we've gone about it for the last four World Cups hasn't worked, but, for whatever reason, the rationale for the rotation system and the conditioning programme hasn't been accepted by some critics.

"Criticism is one thing, but some people seem to be itching for the opportunity to say, 'I told you so', which is a sad indictment," he said.

Umaga was also strong on the point that the transition from Super 14 to All Blacks is tough on players, especially mentally.

While his book was produced before this year's World Cup debacle the points he makes about the state of the game are interesting and concisely put.

Adding lustre to his story is the Samoan connection and its place in the New Zealand game. It is a healthy reminder of the changing face of sport in this country.

Umaga may be off coaching in France but it is very difficult to imagine that his connection with top level rugby in New Zealand is finishing. A coaching career is not beyond the realms of possibility and if it proves half as interesting as his book then All Blacks rugby will still have plenty to offer.

Tana Umaga - Up Close with Paul Thomas. Hodder Moa. Price $49.99