By Ian Gilbert
If proof were needed of rugby’s global reach, you’ll find it in the cosmopolitan make-up of coaching staff.
At Rugby World Cup 2011 no fewer than eight of the teams had head coaches from other countries: Canada (Kieran Crowley, from New Zealand), Japan (John Kirwan, New Zealand), Georgia (Richie Dixon, Scotland), Scotland (Andy Robinson, England), Australia (Robbie Deans, New Zealand), Italy (Nick Mallett, South Africa), USA (Eddie O’Sullivan, Ireland) and Wales (Warren Gatland, New Zealand).
Several of the assistant coaches were also imports, such as Englishman Shaun Edwards with the Welsh team, New Zealander Steve McDowall with Romania, and Russia’s backs coach, New Zealander and England-capped Henry Paul.
Overseas coaches are hardly a new phenomenon: New Zealander Graham Henry was a high-profile appointment with Wales (and later the British and Irish Lions) in 1998, while several Frenchmen had already coached Italy by the time Pierre Berbizier took over the Azzurri in 2005.
But the global jobs market for coaches has boomed as clubs and countries realise the value of outside experience and ideas.
Taking a step up
Bill Millard already had a stellar CV as the head coach of the Australian Sevens team and two-time premiership-winning coach with Sydney University when he left antipodean shores to join Cardiff Blues as attack coach in 2008.
His incentive was to gain experience in the Heineken Cup and experience different rugby cultures, and to that end coaching in Europe has been something of a finishing school, he says.
“I cannot explain how much it has developed me. Tactically and man management-wise, I cringe at what I was like when I first started out. Coaching some of the world’s best players against some of the best teams in the world makes you step up,” he explained.
That includes teams of the standard of Toulon, whose collection of rugby superstars such as Jonny Wilkinson and Sonny Bill Williams were beaten by Cardiff in the Amlin Challenge Cup final in Marseille in 2010 – a highlight for Millard.
Millard, now with RaboDirect Pro12 side Connacht, says his experience has been only enjoyable, and he has never encountered any resistance from players to being trained by an overseas coach.
“I guess Aussies come with a slightly different approach and the players enjoy the balance,” he said. “It has always been positive in my experience.”
Smile on my face
The great catalyst for coaching change was, of course, the advent of professionalism after Rugby World Cup 1995.
Prior to that, just as a player might get a taste of competing overseas when work or study took him there (for instance England’s Rob Andrew with Toulouse in 1991-1992, or players of the calibre of New Zealand World Cup-winning captain David Kirk and Australia’s Bill Campbell heading to Oxford University in 1987), coaches might work their magic on foreign shores.
For all the financial inducements now available, the camaraderie of the broader rugby family is still a factor. Rugby’s age-old attractions of new experiences and forging new friendships appeal as much as a lucrative contract.
That is certainly Millard’s experience in Galway. “When I was just starting out, all I wanted to do is coach Australia. I was over-the-top driven. At the moment I just want to be happy and work with good people in a good environment, which I have here in Connacht.
“After my good mate Shawn Mackay (Australian Sevens player who died as a result of a road accident in South Africa in 2009) passed away, I have changed my approach: it is rugby, a game I love and I want to coach hard but have a smile on my face.”
