Jones savages Dingo Deans

Former Wallaby rugby coach and Sydney radio personality Alan Jones has never been short of a word or a quotable quote. And he is in vintage form today, as Stuff reports:

Australian broadcaster and former Wallabies coach Alan Jones has blasted Robbie Deans, saying his side would be better off if he would "shut up" and "stay at home".

In an interview on LiveSport this morning, Jones said the Wallabies are badly coached and the whole system around the national rugby union side is a failure.

"I always anticipated this would happen and sometimes you're better off being not coached than badly coached."

Jones, who coached the last Wallabies side to win a test series in New Zealand in 1986, did not hold back in his criticism of Deans and said he was not cut out to be an international coach.

"I think he's out of his depth. Some people are provincial coaches and that's fine, on the other hand when he coached Canterbury and had most of the All Blacks in the side, Canterbury haven't fallen apart since Robbie Deans left. You can see quite clearly that there was more to it than just the bloke in charge."

Jones said the chopping and changing within the starting 15 meant combinations had no time to gel.

"At this level, he's not up to it. The structure is wrong. Every week it's a different combination. Teams are very hard things to put together, you've got to work very hard on combinations.

"You could walk down the main street of Sydney and no one could tell you who the Australian team is, it changes every week.

The current breakfast show radio host also suggested the players were not happy with Deans as their mentor.

"Many of the boys in the Australian team believe the preoccupation is with trying to avoid defeat rather than trying to secure victory. You can't win a game of football without the football, what do we do? We kick it away. We say to New Zealand we can't use it, you have a go at using it.

"It's pretty simple, the Australian team is badly coached, there's no other way of putting it. They're over-ridden with instructions that are not conducive to succeeding."

Asides from his coaching ability, Jones also labelled the decision to hire a New Zealander to coach the Australian side as "ridiculous" 

Jones certainly hasn't held back in his views on Robbie Deans, and we doubt whether he'll be welcome in Christchurch any time soon. But there certainly has been a lot of chopping and changing in the Australian squad, reminiscent of the early days of the Graham Henry era.

The jury is out on new All Black coach Steve Hansen, but there's been one positive so far in his selections; a preference for consistency of selection, Circumstances have to a degree robbed Robbie Deans of that luxury; a combination of injuries, form and a far smaller player base than Hansen enjoys has plagued Deans this year.

Australia will certainly go in to Saturday night's Rugby Championship test at Eden Park under all sorts of pressure. And if the All Blacks win in the manner which many expect them to, the pressure on Robbie Deans will be ratcheted up a notch or two. 

If Alan Jones wants an Australian coaching the Wallabies, he may yet get his wish. But perhaps he should also be careful what he wishes for.