John Connolly might bleed red but the former Queensland and Wallabies coach says NSW’s performances are “killing Australian rugby” and the veteran statesman of the game has thrown his weight behind emerging coach Stephen Hoiles to turn the Waratahs around.
After the Waratahs finished dead last in this year’s Super Rugby competition, NSW chose not to renew Darren Coleman’s three-year contract on the eve of this year’s finals series.
The decision by the NSW board, supported by Rugby Australia, was effectively five months in the making after it was revealed in February that Coleman had the opening five rounds to convince his bosses to earn a contract extension.
Several narrow defeats slowed the kingmaker’s decisions, but eventually, the Waratahs’ horror year on the field caught up with Coleman and made the decision simple.
But the drawn out process on Coleman’s future has once again slowed the Waratahs’ ability to move on and plan, with the NSW board once again scrambling to find their next coach.
All the while competing franchises like the Reds have been active on the recruitment front, as they look to build on Les Kiss’ first campaign at Ballymore.
As Connolly said, “NSW’s season starts now,” he told The Roar. “What they do over the next six months may well determine how they go next season.”
Connolly, who coached the Wallabies to the 2007 World Cup after a successful stint with the Reds in the 1990s, was scathing about the Waratahs’ slide since Michael Cheika’s successful reign that ended in 2015.
“They’ve shuffled the deck chairs so many times,” Connolly said. “They’ve sunk the Titanic a few times.
“It’s killing the game.
“They’ve got the biggest pool of players in Australia and they just haven’t performed outside of Cheika’s couple of years.
“A state the size of NSW, they’ve got the first pick of the players, to finish at the bottom of the standings, strewth!”
John Connolly the Australian head coach smiles during the Wallabies Captain’s Run at the Telstra Dome on June 16, 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Connolly said the NSW board had to ensure they get the next coach right to re-emerge as a heavyweight.
The former Wallabies coach said he had been impressed by Hoiles, who he took to the 2007 World Cup, and believed the second-year Randwick coach had something about him after snapping the Galloping Greens’ 20-year Shute Shield drought in 2023 in his first season in the role.
“Hoiles should be strongly considered for the NSW job, really strongly considered,” Connolly said.
“He understands Test footy, but he went back to club footy and won a premiership.
“NSW needs a broom and a really big one. He just may be the catalyst. He reminds me of me a bit. I was only 37 when I started at the Reds.”
Hoiles is considered an outsider for the role, with former World Cup winner, Waratahs and Wallabies assistant turned Junior Wallabies coach Nathan Grey one of the favourites.
It’s believed current Waratahs assistant coach Chris Whitaker is also interested in the role, while the franchise’s only Super Rugby winner, Michael Cheika, has only been briefly sounded out.
Decorated assistant Scott Wisemantel is another strong option but whether he could be coaxed back into professional coaching remains to be seen.
One of the knocks on Hoiles, 42, is that the former Wallabies back-rower is supposedly a new coach despite spending time with the Australian Sevens team and the LA Giltinis alongside Coleman.
But Connolly said age shouldn’t factor in the decision of whether to interview Hoiles and added that some head coaches simply have it and others don’t.
“Oh, s–t no,” Connolly said. “He’s got something.
“Club coaching, having done it myself, managing the players, getting the best out of them, that says something about him.
“I think his case has to be made by someone. He’s done something. He’s gone, ‘I want to be a coach, I’ll go back to club land and prove myself.’ That’s what you want everyone to do.
“He should be right at the top of the interview list because NSW has just got to fire, it’s killing Australian rugby, NSW’s performances.”
Stephen Hoiles led Randwick to a drought-breaking Shute Shield title in 2023. Photo: Supplied
Connolly was scathing of Australian rugby’s talent identification ranks and said Hoiles “could find them”, with his own unique journey to the Wallabies representative of a “smart footballer”.
“It’s not always the best players that get there, it’s the players who get into your team,” he said.
“We haven’t found the stars because our talent ID is poor. Hoilesy could find them.
“Sometimes you’ve got to have the courage to take half a step back to go three steps forward and Australian coaches more often than not don’t do that.
“It’s important to have a vision and know what a player can do in two or three years.”
In particular, Connolly said coaching was just as much about player connection as the tactics and thought Hoiles had shown an ability to connect with people of all ages.
“The great coaches are great with people,” Connolly said. “They’re interested in the outcome of people and I see a bit of that in Hoiles.”
NSW Waratahs chief executive Paul Doorn last month confirmed that the franchise would seek to hire a director of rugby or general manager before moving on their next coach.
Former Rebels general manger and Reds head coach Nick Stiles is thought to be a serious contender for the role, while Andy Friend and Billy Millard were spoken to.
Although former Fiji coach Simon Raiwalui is in his first few months with World Rugby, the respected coach is believed to feel indebted to NSW rugby after coming to the game in Sydney.
Sydney University director of rugby Nick Ryan is also an outside option.
