Darren Coleman will not blame the Waratahs’ wretched early season draw if the NSW board opts towards renewing the under-the-gun coach’s contract past the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific championship.
Despite his aspect beginning their marketing campaign with an away journey to Queensland and three video games in Australia towards robust New Zealand outfits, Coleman agrees it is best for the Waratahs to make a training name by spherical 5, or thereabouts, slightly than uncertainty lingering on the membership.
“I’ve got no gripes or any issues on that front,” Coleman mentioned on the eve of the Waratahs’ difficult round-two conflict with the defending champion Crusaders in Melbourne.
“If I get this team winning and we’re doing well, then I keep a job.
“If I do not, I do not. It’s simply a part of the sport, sadly.
“If we don’t perform or we’re significantly under performing, then, yeah, 100 per cent you’ve got to question the coach because that’s my job; to get the team performing.”
In his first two years on the helm, Coleman has reworked the Waratahs from a depressingly winless outfit in 2021 – mockingly below now-Crusaders coach Rob Penney – to back-to-back quarter-finalists in 2022 and 2023.
It appears unfair his three-season tenure could possibly be determined by outcomes over a gruelling one-month spell.
But Coleman will get it.
“My contract’s up (at season’s end), so there’s got to be a time frame on when they’re making that decision,” he mentioned.
“And they’ve been really open and supportive of me. Everyone’s just really focused on trying to win. So it’s nothing for me.
“I’ve bought full confidence that the board will make the correct choices for the gamers.
“So I make decisions on players’ futures and the board make decisions on coaches’ futures. That’s how it works.”
Like the Waratahs, who opened the season with a 40-22 defeat to the Reds, the Crusaders are coming off a loss after taking place 33-29 to the Chiefs final week in Hamilton.
“Historically, their form shows they get sharper towards the pointy end. So if you gave me a choice, I’d take them now,” Coleman mentioned.
“But they didn’t look too slow last weekend. They took the Chiefs to the wire at the Chiefs.
“So we’re below no illusions to the enormity of the problem, however historically we have matched up properly and solely two years in the past we bought that upset towards them.
“So we’re going down full of energy.”
And in a significant increase, the Tahs are going to Melbourne with X-factor winger Mark Nawaqanitawase cleared to start out after recovering from a hamstring pressure.
“Mark’s a big-game player and a game changer,” Coleman mentioned.
“We’re going to need to improve and we’re going to need to score tries and he’s definitely good at that.”
https://thewest.com.au/sport/rugby-union/coleman-has-no-qualms-with-early-waratahs-coaching-call-c-13789656
