Former All Black Stephen Donald has doubled down on his comments that recently sacked Wallabies coach Dave Rennie was let down by Rugby Australia.
'Quite frankly you don't have the cattle.'
Beaver says there's more to the Wallabies' struggles than the head coach... pic.twitter.com/ymIs1xBtIk— SENZ (@SENZ_Radio) January 17, 2023
Rennie was axed as head coach on Monday following three seasons of mediocre results with Australia, recording 13 wins, three draws and 18 losses across his tenure.
Despite his record with the national side, former Super Rugby title winner Rennie has been commended by many former players, including Donald, Tim Horan and Andrew Mehrtens, for the work he put into the Wallabies.
Tim Horan says the poor win-loss record hurt Dave Rennie in the end. 😬 pic.twitter.com/gTkmxULC0S
— SENZ (@SENZ_Radio) January 17, 2023
Donald previously told SENZ he was “hurt” for Rennie and believes Rugby Australia made a “massive call” by reinstating Eddie Jones, who formerly held office between 2001-2005.
While condemning Rennie’s treatment, Donald believes there was more at play for the RA than just sacking their head coach for poor results.
“I think that’s been a little bit lost in all of the hype, the hoopla, that we’ve obviously said, ‘Well look, what’s he working with?’,” Donald told SENZ Breakfast.
“What we’re saying is that I can’t imagine Dave Rennie and the echelon coach that he is, where he sits, that he’s the reason.
Beaver says Rugby Australia is overlooking the bigger issue by firing Dave Rennie... pic.twitter.com/MThW7FysKv
— SENZ (@SENZ_Radio) January 17, 2023
“Therefore, you take another step back. What has Australia done this for? Because surely they don’t believe – (Andy) Marinos and (Hamish) McLennan – surely they don’t believe, ‘Oh, it’s clearly the coaching’.
“The boys haven’t gone to him and said, ‘Hey, we need to get rid of this guy from across the ditch, he’s a terrible coach,’ that surely has not happened. It can’t have happened.
Andrew Mehrtens did not see Dave Rennie's axing coming... pic.twitter.com/cFrSoo5pvp
— SENZ (@SENZ_Radio) January 17, 2023
“So therefore what have they done this for? Obviously Eddie’s Australian, he became on the market, sure, sign him up for after the next World Cup, but it’s just the most bizarre thing unless you are literally just wanting your game to be on the front page or back page of the Herald in Sydney in January, which it now is.”
Believing the Wallabies’ poor results of late are more to do with player depth and development than coaching, Donald says belief is the biggest issue for the Australian players moving forward.
“A couple of years ago, what was the stat? They won two from 25 as far as against Kiwi Super teams and then this year they won seven or eight or you know something like that and it was a slight improvement,” he added.
“I think there’s a massive belief issue to get over because when games go down to the last 10 minutes and five minutes, if you didn’t go into this game genuinely thinking you believe or it hasn’t washed over you in the previous seven minutes that, ‘Hang on, we will beat these guys today,’ then you can almost see it in their eyes that it’s been a gallant performance but (they’re not) going to quite make it.
“There’s a whole generation of Aussie footballers that, and we’re just talking about the All Blacks here, playing the All Blacks, that at times (fail) to actually believe that they’re going to get the job done.
“That’s something you’ve got to get over.”