Inside new coach Darren Coleman’s rebuild of NSW Waratahs after horror wooden spoon season

Either stop complaining about the Waratahs’ temporary demountables, or you won’t be around to enjoy the flash new high performance centre being built for 2023.

Ever since the Waratahs moved away from the Sydney Football Stadium and set up camp in Sydney’s southeast, there have been complaints.

It was one thing hearing it from the Super Rugby winning class of 2014, who, with the exception of Michael Hooper, had all left by 2020. It was another from a bunch of youngsters who went through 2021 winless and a laughing stock.

Carlo Tizzano, the brash openside flanker who ruffled feathers when he first arrived at the Waratahs in 2020 and soon after declared he wanted Michael Hooper’s No.7 jersey, was one of the youngsters where the pointed message was directed.

“It wasn’t directed just as Carlo,” Coleman says. “It was a few-fold. Players, when things aren’t quite going right, they potentially look to externalise what the reasons are (for their shortcomings) and Carlo had been vocal a bit about our faculties, saying the temporary ones weren’t good. So I hit that on the head pretty quickly and said, ‘We’ve got what we’ve got. Rocky beat Ivan Drago training out of a barn. We’ve got a field, we’ve got a gym, we’ve got everything we need to be successful, it’s not the facility.’

“We were looking over at the new facility getting built and we spoke about how cool that will be when it’s done, but unless you aim up in ‘22 you won’t be there in ‘23.

“It wasn’t directed just at Carlo that he won’t be there in ‘23, it was more, let’s get on with what we’ve got and work hard and I don’t want to hear anymore chat about facilities and I don’t want you thinking about the new facility because if you’re thinking about that, you probably won’t get there.”

If the players didn’t know where Coleman stood from this conversation, a December boot camp featuring 15-hour hikes through the night and just as confronting conversation afterwards left them in no doubt.

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Coleman is pulling no punches ahead of his first season at the helm of a Super Rugby club, but this is still a dream job, even if the Waratahs are starting from further back than most anyone in the club’s history could have ever imagined.

The 49-year-old, who has been working towards this for the best part of two decades, thinks his comments in those early days at Daceyville were well received. But he’s not so naïve to think his new team would tell him otherwise if they didn’t.

“I think it was good, but even if they were negative they probably wouldn’t tell me,” Coleman quips.

“But the group is clear now that there’s a level of performance and expectation to be in the team and if you don’t meet it whether it’s work ethic or training quality, and mainly how you perform, it’s professional sport, well, I’ll move you on and, if I don’t, and we don’t get results than I’ll get moved on.

“It’s either we all work together and we perform and stay, or we don’t work well together and I’ll move you and then someone will move me. That’s professional sport.”

NSW Rugby turned to Coleman at their lowest ebb, two years after choosing Rob Penney to take over from his New Zealand compatriot Daryl Gibson.

The Waratahs went winless throughout 2021 and at a time when rugby needs to be firing in the country’s biggest state and greatest nursery, it is high stakes.

Coleman gets that. Yet it is not as if the Waratahs simply lay down last season.

Quite the opposite actually.

“The frustrating thing from my end is we were trying so hard,” first-year Waratahs captain Jake Gordon explains, who was left seething at the negative headlines directed at his numerous rookie teammates.

“Let’s be honest, if you lose 13 games, you’re not going great. But for the year that we got dealt, the frustrating thing is we were trying so hard, and for the effort we were putting in, the guys weren’t getting the recognition.

“Probably my pride got in the way a little bit.

“I probably just didn’t appreciate some of the things that were said. I know that’s your job and my job is to get results. It pissed me off for a week or two, but you’ve got to get over it.”

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Rugby Australia needs the Waratahs winning for the game to gather some much-needed momentum.

In part, it’s why Coleman turned to nine Waratahs legends in a bid to inspire the club’s current generation.

In the middle of a December night, the Waratahs went hiking under the stars to forge a new path.

Club legends like Phil Waugh, Matt Burke and Richard Harry, as well as Super Rugby winners Dave Dennis and Rob Horne, marched through the night in Kangaroo Valley in the lead up to Christmas for a team bonding exercise.

They started at 6pm and walked through until 9am, before kayaking for eight hours down the Kangaroo River that runs through the Shoalhaven region.

Along the way, each of the former greats spoke about what it meant to play for the Waratahs and play professional rugby.

“It was only three days but it was intense, there was a bit of sleep deprivation and those legends all spoke at various points and had different themes,” Coleman says.

“Rob Horne spoke about appreciating your time because it can all be taken away pretty quickly; Waughy spoke about what it was like when the Football Stadium’s catch-cry was ‘Our House’ and Nathan Grey would yell that out as they’re going out the tunnel and they’re running out in front of 30-40,000; Burkie talked about what it was like in the days when the Waratahs dominated the Wallabies and they had the balance of power; Dickie Harry spoke about life after rugby and how the Waratahs fraternity set him up with his business career; Whits (assistant coach and former captain Chris Whitaker) spoke about what the place meant to him; Dave Dennis spoke about all the championship teams he’d be in, and he’s won lots with Exeter, the Waratahs, LA, what the common theme that ran through championship teams was.

“It was quite structured in that sense, but there was a bit of tough work and we finished with a few beers around the campfire and it was a really good way to break up before Christmas.”

For Will Harrison, a prodigious talent with a heart like Phar Lap and a crafty left boot that has him destined for Wallaby gold, two stories stuck out.

“Phil Waugh spoke about making every moment on a footy field as a competition,” Harrison says.

“You’re getting judged with everything you do; at training we’re getting judged by our coaches and peers; on game days we’re getting judged by selectors and the media and the public.”

The second was Horne’s heart-breaking story, where the former Wallabies vice-captain lost the movement in his arm after running in to make a run-of-the-mill tackle in April, 2018.

“He was one of the last ones to talk and we thought we’d just finished our walk as we got to the bottom of the mountain at 6am and watched the sunrise,” Harrison recalls.

“We thought we were done, but then we had another bloody 10km walk into town, so that was a mental battle in itself.

“We eventually got to the local park, had brekkie and listened to Rob speak and what his mindset was.

“He was known for his defence and he said he doesn’t regret anything, including that moment because he knew if he wasn’t going into that contest at 100 per cent he shouldn’t be playing.”

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The essence of the south coast bonding exercise was what kind of team did the Waratahs want to be known as? Would they be “selfless or selfish,” as Coleman put it?

Defence is often described as a mindset in the two rugby codes.

How badly do you want it?

Based on the 557 points (42.8 per match) conceded last season, it appeared they did not want it nearly enough.

“How do you score 48 points and lose,” interim coach Whitaker said after an embarrassing defeat to the Hurricanes last May.

“In the Sydney market everyone wants to see attacking rugby, but the mindset needs to change.

“We’re trying to change our mindset. Still play attacking rugby, that’s for sure, but on the back of your defence you can play some attacking rugby.”

But what those numbers do not reveal is the kids that were out in the field.

In many cases, it was boys against men.

Mismanagement from the previous administration – the CEO (Andrew Hore), chairman (Roger Davis), coach (Daryl Gibson) and general manager (Tim Rapp) – left the Waratahs with an untested and under-developed list, while those in the management roles left one by one.

Ultimately, the chickens came home to roost for the Waratahs, with the players left to cop the brunt of it.

Despite the Waratahs’ year from hell, green shoots exist with the team surprisingly close considering they never sang a victory song last season.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the character and the positive vibes that existed in the group based on the season they had just come off,” Coleman said.

“A lot of teams that have a season like that, generally some cracks start to appear and there’s some cancers and people are looking to lay blame on each other. I found a positive playing group that was really tight and maybe the adversity of the year before bonded that, but I was pleasantly surprised how tight they were.”

Gordon, who led in the absence of Wallabies skipper Hooper, echoes that sentiment.

“Last year, reflecting on it, we didn’t get the results but there was no backstabbing and I think that’s a real positive going forward,” Gordon says.

“If we start the year with a few wins, I’m not saying we will, but if we do I’m excited about where the group can go.”

Blending the new with the old generations is one of Coleman’s great strengths and one that could prove the perfect tonic in reuniting long lost followers.

He is old school in his principles; from running up sand dunes to enjoying a beer after putting in the hard yards.

Most importantly though, he has respect from everyone at the Waratahs – they have seen his journey and the countless Shute Shield clubs he has turned around.

“I think the one thing I love about DC is how passionate he is,” Harrison says.

“He’s a NSW bloke through and through. He got his first coaching role at the club and he’s been around the world and at Shute shield level, so I think his passion to turn this place around and his vision around when we get our home ground next year filling it out; filling the pubs around it.

“He’s already involved a lot of the ex-legends and the blokes we watched when we grew up.

“He’s passionate and smart and he’s a winner, he’s won plenty of premierships over the past five years.”

In a congested sports market, what counts most is winning. Next on that line though is giving it your all. On both fronts, Coleman gets that.

“The responsibility we’ve got as Waratahs in Australia’s biggest province is that unfortunately, or fortunately, whatever way you look at it, it’s professional sport and it’s about winning,” Coleman says.

“We have to figure out how we get back to that winning circle and if we don’t perform, or change those habits, then eventually we’ll change personnel and that could be new players.

“There’s an understanding of what needs to happen and, I think at the very least, desperation will be a big part of what drives our effort and energy levels and things like that.”

That sounds like something the public will get behind.