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South American rugby coaches made history in 2021. First, Esteban Meneses coached Uruguay to Americas 1. The Argentine made history as a North American country was unable to qualify for a Rugby World Cup as Americas 1 for the first time. Second, Chile are closer than ever to participating in a Rugby World Cup. Pablo Lemoine guided the South Americans to a historic win over Canada; an outcome that means RWC 2023 will be the first Men’s tournament without Canada.
Neither Meneses nor Lemoine were nominated by World Rugby for the World Rugby coach of the year award. The four nominees for the award come from three countries. They are Dave Rennie, Ian Foster, Simon Middleton, and Allan Bunting and Cory Sweeney.
World Rugby reported that Allan Bunting and Cory Sweeney led New Zealand to Olympic gold in Tokyo, Simon Middleton led England to the Women’s Six Nations title and to victories over New Zealand in 2021. Ian Foster coached New Zealand to Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup success, while Dave Rennie coached Australia to two wins over South Africa.
It should be noted that adjectives were added by World Rugby to note why those nominated did as well as they did this year. What was missing was the criteria; there was no explanation as to why these four were chosen and others were not.
An additional point to note is that all four nominees are coaches of elite teams; teams that have been among the very best in the sport throughout, and before, the professional era. To consider the merit of their nomination a simple question can be asked – have they achieved notable success in 2021 when compared to others who have coached the same teams in past years?
Under Dave Rennie the Wallabies won 4 and lost 2 in the Rugby Championship. Two matches were a part of the Bledisloe Cup series which Australia lost 0-3. Australia had a 2-1 record against France in July. Les Bleus were without players from Top 14 Finalists Toulouse and La Rochelle. Rennie’s Wallabies opened November with a loss against Scotland and lost game two against England.
New Zealand were 102-0 winners over Tonga and 104-14 winners over the USA. Neither result, however, was referenced for Ian Foster’s nomination. Winning the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup are the reasons for his nomination. Foster coached New Zealand to five wins and one loss in the Rugby Championship. The loss was against South Africa who lost twice to Australia. Then, in November, Foster became the second All Blacks coach to lose against Ireland.
The two remaining Coach of the Year nominees are Women’s coaches. Was the criteria a 50-50 representation of Men’s and Women’s teams? There is no declaration to state that this is the case. Allan Bunting and Cory Sweeney coached the New Zealand Women to Gold at the Tokyo Olympics. Such a feat certainly merits nomination for Coach of the Year. Fiji won Men’s Gold in Tokyo. Coach Gareth Baben was not nominated by World Rugby for the Coach of the Year award.
Simon Middleton can claim record success. He coached England’s Women’s team to two wins over New Zealand in 2021. In an undefeated year, Middleton’s team also defeated France and Italy both home-and-away and also defeated Canada this past weekend.
As noted, history was made by some of the nominees but not all. The four examples do not satisfactorily answer why Meneses and Lemoine were not nominated. Both ought to have been in the conversation. Were they? World Rugby’s publications do not provide the answer.
If asked to choose who of the two coaches’ snubs deserves an explanation, then I would say Lemoine. Chile did not win every match but nor did all of the nominees. What did Chile do of note? There were two achievements. First, Chile defeated the Argentina XV. This meant that Chile’s High Performance players defeated Argentina’s High Performance players for the first time. Second, Chile achieved three things in one match. Chile defeated Canada for the first time, Lemoine guided Chile to the brink of World Cup qualification for the first time and Los Cóndores eliminated the ever-present Canada from World Cup qualifiers.
Evidently, Chile’s accomplishments did not convince World Rugby that Lemoine merited nomination for Coach of the Year. How can a coach who makes history for Uruguay or Chile be nominated for such an award? By beating New Zealand? Possibly, though South Africa’s Jacques Nienaber was not nominated.
2022 is just around the corner. Chile will be looking to make further history. Los Cóndores series’ against the USA in July will see the winner, on aggregate, qualifying for RWC 2023 as Americas 2.
