England v Australia
Deans backs Johnson to shine
PA Sport
November 14, 2008
Australia Coach Robbie Deans during the Captain's Run held at Twickenham Stadium in London, England on November 14, 2008.
Deans finds reason to smile during the Wallabies' Captain's Run at Twickenham on Friday © Getty Images
Enlarge

Australia coach Robbie Deans believes England team manager Martin Johnson has the ability to push international rugby into a new era.

England's World Cup-winning captain was head-hunted by the Rugby Football Union to replace Brian Ashton after last season's Six Nations, despite having no senior coaching experience. That did not dissuade the RFU, who gave him free reign to appoint new coaches and new back-room staff.

One of the tenets of Johnson's leadership is his affirmed belief that rugby is "the players' game" - it was only three years ago he was out on the training field - and that is where Deans feels he could have a vital edge.

"We have gone away from an era of being prescriptive to an era of allowing players to drive their own game because they are the blokes that have to own it," Deans told PA Sport. "That will be interesting for Martin. He doesn't have a huge background of coaching but he has a huge background in success.

"He will have ideas on how to achieve that. I am as interested as anybody in terms of how he goes about that."

There is little to compare Johnson and Deans in coaching terms. Deans, a former All Blacks assistant coach under John Mitchell, led the Crusaders to seven Super finals and delivered five titles. This weekend, he could quite easily have been in Dublin preparing New Zealand for their Test against Ireland.

Deans was the favourite to be named All Blacks coach following the World Cup but the New Zealand Rugby Union decided to keep faith with Graham Henry. Australia pounced. Deans crossed the Tasman and enjoyed the ideal start to his international coaching career, with five straight wins including a sweet victory over the All Blacks in Sydney.

The Wallabies beat the Springboks twice and set up a winner-takes-all showdown for the Tri-Nations title with New Zealand, which they narrowly lost 28-24 in Brisbane. Has it been easier to refer to Australia as 'we' than he thought it might be?

"Yes it probably has been. In many people's eyes it was a huge step to take and it probably was in my eyes as well," said Deans. "I recall immediately after the appointment seeing a news item and it was a clip of an historical Bledisloe Cup game.

"I was watching it with as much anticipation as everybody else, to see what my instinctive response would be. It was just a rush of excitement. The whole experience has been consistent with that. There has only been one moment when I hesitated. It was just prior to the first Test against Ireland when I walked up to address the squad about an hour before kick-off.

"It wasn't so much about me but for a moment I hesitated to consider what it must be like for them. But the response from both sides of the Tasman has been really humbling. It has been a huge year but international coaching is everything I anticipated it would be. I am really excited about what is coming tomorrow."

Deans and Johnson have spent all week downplaying the relevance of England's demolition jobs on Australia in last autumn's World Cup quarter-final and the November Test in 2005. Nevertheless, the lessons from the way England pulverised the Wallaby scrum and attacked the breakdown in ferocious fashion in Marseille have not gone un-heeded in the Wallaby camp.

And with it came a warning - a dart to test how committed Johnson is to playing the attacking style of rugby Brian Smith is trying to instil.

"The World Cup in terms of intensity stands alone - but there will be a lot of intensity in this weekend's game. The breakdown was an area England profited from last year and we are conscious of that," said Deans. "It will be really interesting to see the approach.

"If England are expansive it will be a different approach for them. It will expose them to the likes of George Smith and present different demands from their own players. We will be looking at every opportunity to profit as I am sure they will. When you bring together two teams of equal capability you like to pull out some surprises."

© Scrum.com

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.