Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson has blamed the Australian sides’ deficiencies on a lack of development of players and coaches in the country.
Gibson has defended himself following comments made in the wake of the Waratahs’ 26-24 defeat to the Southern Kings by former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer who told Fairfax Media: “It was the worst game I’ve seen for a long while.
“There is no doubt the Waratahs have a very large number of players who are not up to Super Rugby standard.”
Gibson, however, believes the problem lies at grassroots level, where there are just not enough youngsters coming through the ranks.
“This is an Australian rugby problem, it’s not just a NSW problem,” the former New Zealand centre told the Canberra Times.
“The trick is to make sure you’ve got enough talent coming through your development system. Right now, I don’t believe in Australian rugby we’ve got that right.
“Certainly we’re trying to develop the system that we do have in place in this country. Right now, we’re in a life cycle. The trick is making sure you don’t ebb and flow and you’ve got constant talent and a conveyor belt of players coming through your system.
“We’ve had 10 years of changing our development from a centralised system to a decentralised system and only recently until 2013, this state got its development system back again. I’m talking from the ages of 18 through to 21 before they become Waratahs.
“A lot’s been made of the New Zealand system in terms of ‘oh, they’ve got a conveyor belt of talent’. Now that hasn’t arrived by accident.
“What we’ve got to do in this country is collaborate both from central leadership from the ARU right through to the state sides.”
Meanwhile, Gibson is positive that with the right mentality shift, the ‘Tahs can turn around their fortunes soon.
“The effort and the attitude can be changed quickly,” he said.
“The consequences of losing are pretty simple.
“We’ve talked a lot around how disappointing it was around the players’ intent and their attitude and we’ve talked about what it means to play for NSW and pull that jersey on.
“As a coach, you can stomach losing as long as your players go out there and give it their best. That’s all I’m asking.”
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