Kurtley Beale has made some errors of judgement in his time, of that there is no doubt. Getting drunk and attacking your own teammates is not a brilliant idea, nor is sending derogatory text messages about a team official to members of the squad. Sending the message to the team official herself is comically stupid.
Beale is a bit of a plonker – that much we know. Whether he is too disruptive an influence, or is too toxic a player, for the Wallabies squad is certainly up for debate. But as more and more facts have emerged from the scandal, that has faded into the background as one other figure’s actions come increasingly under scrutiny.
Ewen McKenzie is in trouble. The nature of his relationship with former ARU team manager Di Patston is being questioned, and rightly so. He has allegedly lost the dressing room – usually the death knell for any coach – and the players certainly seem to be in Beale’s corner in all of this, several of them, including captain Michael Hooper, speaking publicly of their support for him. McKenzie rubbished this by claiming ‘players will always support their teammates’, a soundbite that seems remarkably defensive.
McKenzie allegedly met Patston when working at the Queensland Reds, having rented a place in the area after deciding not to commute from Sydney, where his family lived, every day. Her employment history previous to working at the Reds is a murky area – she had a LinkedIn page (which has since been taken down) claiming she worked for the Queensland government, but phone calls by Australian media to them revealed no such employee on their payroll. Similar things happened with regards to her education qualifications that were listed.
Quite how McKenzie came to hire her at the Reds, then, is unclear, and then when he moved to the top coaching job in Australian Rugby, he was quick to bring Patston with him. Over time, her influence has grown, according to reports, and several leading players have expressed disgruntlement about her rapid rise and whether she was qualified to be meddling in team affairs.
Conversely it must be said that some players have praised her involvement in the squad, centre Christian Leali’ifano recently labelling her a ‘mother figure’. Being the only female employee amongst a group of 36 touring players and staff can’t be easy – especially when you come to find out members of the squad have been mocking you – and there’s a lot of sympathy to be felt for her at the end of this fiasco.
Again, like Beale’s stupidity, Patston’s rise and fall is not the main issue at hand here. McKenzie’s handling of the affair has been less than stellar and has poured fuel on the fire when it comes to the alleged affair. After the argument between Patston and Beale on the flight to Brazil, he missed a compulsory training session in Argentina to drive Patston to the airport. Privately, the ARU are said to be seething about this and asking why somebody else could not have driven her.
Beale’s future is up in the air, with French clubs and NRL franchises circling, smelling blood in the water. Patston has resigned due to the stress of the fiasco – where that leave’s Beale’s disciplinary hearing is unclear.
McKenzie’s position seems increasingly untenable. The way he has handled the whole affair has been dire, and his prickly persona with the media hasn’t helped. He’s long been thought of as a master tactician, but his man management skills have been revealed as horrendously lacking.
The timing, of course, is horrific for the ARU, and leaves them between the proverbial rock and hard place less than a year out from the World Cup. Do they stick with McKenzie, or do they role the dice and turn to Waratahs coach Michael Cheika? They do not have the luxury of time to see if things will settle down, and a change as disruptive as sacking the head coach this close to a World Cup would be hugely disruptive to their preparations.
This weekend’s Bledisloe cup clash will be massively revealing. Losing to the All Blacks is understandable, but if they put in an insipid display at home, claims of unrest amongst the players will reach a crescendo and the knives will be out for McKenzie.
Why is Steffon Armitage suddenly desperate for a move back to England? It’s not like next year’s World Cup was sprung on him yesterday. Lancaster’s stance on foreign-based players has always been made abundantly clear, so when Armitage signed a new three year contract with Toulon last season he knew exactly what he was getting himself into.
If he thought he would be able to force Lancaster’s hand, he was wrong. If he was serious about playing for England he would have moved back a long time ago, and the fact that he was interested in a change of allegiance to play for France shows that he has his heart set on playing at the World Cup, not for England.
That is mercenary behaviour. He’s a fine player and Bath would have been lucky to have him, but to parachute him into the England squad this season had he made the move would have been a giant slap in the face to the current squad members and would surely have caused more disruption than it was worth.
If I were Jamie Roberts, Mike Phillips or Dan Lydiate, I’d be seeking out my coach this morning to clarify a few things. The reports that they are heading back to Wales this week have been rubbished by the players themselves, but Racing Métro head honcho Laurent Labit was quoted in L’Equipe yesterday as saying “they’ve never really performed since their arrival”.
Whether they return home or not, that’s hardly what you want to be reading in the press. Internal criticism at training is one thing; to read public denunciation of your performances and reports that you might be leaving your club in the press is quite another.
By Jamie Hosie
Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
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I have one question about Steffon, did HE ever actually say that he wanted to play for France? There was plenty in the media about France exploring the option, and Delon was quite outspoken on his brother’s desire to play test rugby, but did we ever hear it straight from the horse’s mouth?
Regds McKenzie’s tenure, surely the simple solution would be to bring back Robbie Deans. Ha, ha. Mac couldn’t wait to get his mits on the job & stuck the knife into Deans whenever he could, but as Mick said, ‘…tables turned & now it’s his turn to cry’.
Regds Steffon Armitage, look @ his stats compared to Robshaw’s last yr. With the AI’s & WC looming large, do England NEED a Roller or Reliant Robin @ open?
Don’t be so silly Don. At one point or another Robshaw has outplayed every openside he has come up against, from McCaw to Hooper to Warburton. There’s no question over his ability. He also acts as link man and regularly tops the tackle charts. And then added to that, he appears to be a good and respected captain.
You don’t throw all that away for one (internationally untested) player who has been thriving behind a massive, dominant pack.
BTW – where are you looking for these stats please? I cannot find any
Justin Tipuiric 2013 or have you forgotten the 2013 final game of the 6N?
Robshaw was outplayed all game by JT and SW. For example
Robshaw was burned up by SW in that game when SW broke from a ruck late on and this led to 2nd Cuthbert try. As the seconds passed Robshaw fell further and further behind despite trying to run at full pelt.
Robshaw is as Don P says not an open side, he is a classic case of a 6.5 back row player. Not fast enough/creative/skilful to be a real international 7 and not big enough for a 6.
He’s got plenty of guts and grafts really well but is not a creative/skilful enough player to be a genuine 7.
Pablito. Well there are a few pundits, incl former int’al rugger player/s, who disagree with you from The Sunday Times. Robshaw is a manufactured No 7 as you well know so presuamably when he ‘out played’ RM, it was in the ‘Norovirus’ test. Otherwise he must have done so when England lost the last 4 to NZ perhaps? And was he playing v Wales when they hammered England by 30 a couple back? I can’t recall. You make him sound like the best in the world! Topping tackle counts is good, but it sounds ‘D’ to me. Does he also top the turnover lists as per an authentic 7? In reality he’s a better No 6, so simple solution is to drop Wood for the Euro player of the yr. Won’t happen of course, even if it were poss, as Lancs is a ltd as you in his thinking. It’s skin off my nose who England pick in their b/row, but you seem to have a view of R & produce only stats to suit yr predudice.
In an article a few mths back the ST also quoted ‘these stats’, but can’t now recall exactly when. Maybe you could contact them. Happy hunting.
Pablito, Prophet Enoch
There you have it Pab, the Prophet overrides you. Or perhaps the ST pundidts, Enoch & me are all silly?
Hard to argue with you Enoch (mind you, you’re about the only 1 here who hasn’t – argued with me – so far! Ha , ha.). Nuthin’ agin Robbo because, as you say, ‘He’s got plenty of guts and grafts really well’, but, I venture, a genuine no 7 needs a bit more than that.
Don, much as you like to believe you are the be all and end all of rugby commentary, you really are not. Neither for that matter are Enoch or the writers at the ST
In answer to the above:
1. Don – in this thread and others you continually mention these ‘stats’ that show how much better Armitage is than Robshaw. I just want to know your source. Surely its better than “I think I read it the ST but I can’t really remember”?
2. Enoch – I state that Robshaw has outplayed each of his oppo number at one time or another, not every time. The match you refer to is one of those times he didn’t. That said, Robshaw was still one of England’s best players that day and England’s back row problems were mainly due to having Wood at 8 and Croft at 6. Of course in the 6 Nations just gone, he did outplay Warburton. As for any supposed lack of skill, given the way he is used so often at first received by both Quins and England demonstrates that it just isn’t true
3. Don you can call it the ‘norovirus’ test all you like, but the only fact is that Robshaw outplayed McCaw on that day. He might not have done so since, but then McCaw is the best player in the world and very few people have ever got the better of him.
Neither of you have come up with any answer to my point, which was that you don’t throw away someone of either Robshaw’s (or Wood for that matter) proven international ability for a player who would not only need special treatment but has no international track record and who whilst he has been playing very well indeed, has been doing so behind a hugely dominant pack.
The answer is that you don’t of course – unless you are entirely insane