Sports After Dark

This week the Rugby News claimed that three Blues players are looking for a way out of the franchise, reportedly unhappy with their treatment from coach David Nucifora. A revolt against Nucifora by senior players is certainly nothing new.

After missing the first seven rounds of Super 14 rugby with the All Blacks reconditioning squad, it is claimed that Tony Woodcock, Ali Williams and Joe Rokocoko are all unhappy at the lack of game time they received.

At the time Nucifora claimed he wanted to keep the team chemistry that had developed in the first half of the tournament and on the surface this claim seemed quite reasonable. Before the return of Rokocoko, he still had two of the best wingers in the competition on his side in Doug Howlett and Rudi Wulf.

It was the omission of Williams that puzzled many, as even though his replacement Greg Rawlinson was playing well, Williams has been a first choice All Black and would need game time to compete for a World Cup locking place. Instead he sat on the bench and saw limited action, all in the name of preserving chemistry.

All seemed well in the Blues camp, and even after a semi final exit, not a whisper of malcontent was heard, until now. It would appear that Williams, whose contract with the Blues expires at the end of the year, sent out feelers to the other Super 14 franchises and somewhere along the line this information fell into the hands of the media.

Given the context that we now know, it is easy to understand the player’s point of view and if this were an isolated incident it could be dismissed as prima-donna athletes whining. But it’s not.

Nucifora is the only coach in the history of Super Rugby to win the tournament and lose his job in the same season. Back in 2004 he took the Brumbies to a top of the table finish by six points, and then to an emphatic final victory over the Crusaders, but before the final round robin game it was announced that his contract would not be renewed for the following season.

A coach being let go while his team was on top is virtually unheard of in professional sports, so journalists began digging. They very quickly discovered that senior players including George Gregan, Owen Finnegan and Jeremy Paul were instrumental in his downfall, but their reasons have remained private.

It was thought that Nucifora’s issues at the Brumbies came down to a personality clash with senior players and after a season as the Blues’ assistant coach he was given their top job. After all, the chances of a coach having a personality clash with senior players in two teams are about as slim as a coach’s chances of winning the championship and losing his job in the same season, but it appears that Nucifora has done both.

While Williams’ poor relationship with his coach was somewhat public knowledge, particularly after he was sent home from Durban, the claims that Woodcock and Rokocoko are unhappy has sent the NZRU into full damage control mode. Blues CEO Andy Dalton claimed today, “They both clearly stated to me they are happy in the Blues squad and are looking forward to next season. The end-of-season review they completed supports this statement.”

The NZRU have also claimed to be “puzzled” by the claims in Rugby News, but this is exactly the kind of thing which administrators would rather played out behind closed doors.

What is the full story? We will probably never know, but history suggests that Nucifora can get offside with his players. Regardless of where players end up next season, fans will probably have to wait a number of years for players involved to release autobiographies before any more facts come to light. Or maybe Nucifora will be run out of town again.

Similar Posts:

• All Blacks? What All Blacks?
• Williams sent home from Blues
• NZRU set to score own goal over Crusaders’ coach
• What a great headline
• The odds may be tough, but there’s no reason to be Blue about the Super 14

The Player revolt nothing new for Nucifora by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.