Shattering the McGeechan myth
28 Jun 2009
Hopefully now the perception that Ian McGeechan is a rugby genius has been well and truly shattered.
McGeechan is revered in the northern hemisphere, enjoying god-like status in Scotland and with London Wasps, where he has served as director of rugby since 2005.
The travelling media have written him up to the point that one could be mistaken for thinking that all a team needs to do to ensure success is to employ him. A closer inspection of his record, particularly with the Lions, suggests this is not the case.
In five years as Scotland coach, McGeechan won one Five Nations title (a Grand Slam). He failed to secure any silverware in his seven-year tenure at Northampton, and in five seasons at Wasps, has won the Anglo Welsh Cup, European Cup and Premiership title.
It is, however, with the British & Irish Lions that the myth that is McGeechan is exposed. After Saturday’s defeat to the Springboks, McGeechan’s record with the Lions reads – played 14 won seven.
A 50% return for a coach who has had the elite players from the northern hemisphere at his disposal is hardly impressive. In fact, it’s decidedly mediocre.
Last week McGeechan made the fundamental and ultimately costly error of not replacing tighthead prop Phil Vickery, who was clearly been mauled by a relative rookie in Beast Mtawarira. McGeechan was spared criticism for the error, with the vast majority of his disciples in the travelling press overlooking it, preferring to lament what they believed was inconsistent law application by referee Bryce Lawrence.
Let us not forget the fact that the Springbok coaching staff did everything in their power to aid McGeechan’s cause by making a spate of perplexing substitutions, in which he hooked the experienced quartet of John Smit, Bakkies Botha, Fourie du Preez and Jean de Villiers.
On Saturday his Lions were tamed once again, despite being the superior side for the majority of the contest.
They failed to close the game out when they should have, and tactically they were flawed. Injuries to key players had an adverse effect, but that cannot be viewed as the sole reason for the defeat.
A coach who only managed a 50% record with the southern hemisphere’s elite players wouldn’t have made it past one tour. McGeechan’s been rewarded with four.
McGeechan is a good coach – his record at club level reflects this. But he is not the guru the northern hemisphere would have us believe he is. His ceiling is club rugby. The sooner the Lions realise this the better for them.
There is no room for sentiment in professional rugby. If the Lions hope to win their first series in three tours, in fact, if the Lions hope to win their first Test since 2001, McGeechan must be shown the door.
By Ryan Vrede
177 Comments
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28 Jun 2009, 20:18 pm
#131 PissAnt: Thanks, congrats again on the win. Let’s hope we see another great match next Saturday.
28 Jun 2009, 20:18 pm
#149 JimT: Wise man! I think it was a great and tough game and will remember it for a long time.
28 Jun 2009, 20:21 pm
#135 JL1: I will look again. I had to watch on my PC, the game is not broadcast on TV here until Monday evening. If I’m wrong will stand corrected.
28 Jun 2009, 20:23 pm
Hey Ryan, here’s a quote from Jake White …
“Talking of inspiration brings me on to Ian McGeechan, the Lions head coach. The man’s a genius, as he showed in 1997 with some selections nobody else would have gone for but which worked brilliantly. I am sure it will be the same with his choices this time.”
Name sound familiar ? Remember us winning the WC in 2007 ? He probably knows a bit about rugby, and I’m guessing just a little bit more than you.
28 Jun 2009, 20:24 pm
#140 JL1: Yes I though O’Gara looked churlish that night. Maybe it reflected his mood in knowing he was not going to get the test slot? Bad form on his part.
28 Jun 2009, 20:27 pm
#142 levit8: Yes the irony of that, right?
Schalk has helped the Bok cause for the next test I imagine. Surely PDV will pick Brussow if Burger is not available? The fates conspire against us
28 Jun 2009, 20:31 pm
#144 JL1: Sorry, but there’s no credibility to be found in citing the News of The World. Next thing that paper will publish is that Schalk is really the child of alien parents
28 Jun 2009, 20:32 pm
#156 JimT: Yes its amazing how that would work out – Schalk’s banning means we could start with a specialist fetcher again. Then again, who knows what PdV’s brain cell will conjur up this week when he selects the team.
28 Jun 2009, 20:34 pm
#147 JL1: Yes another journalist & former player, Paul Ackford, cited the 7 losses in a row & suggested the Lions should be disbanded in this professional era. Hope that this does not come to pass. The low attendance on this tour, except for test matches, does not help though.
28 Jun 2009, 20:40 pm
#152 Boerboel: I’m sure it will, at least in SA
No, seriously it was a great game & matched the highest traditions of this great rivalry. I hope some of our injured will recover to put on another exciting test next week.
28 Jun 2009, 21:49 pm
Pointless and pathetic article.
28 Jun 2009, 21:52 pm
I’d take one McGeechan ahead of twelve Snorre and six Jakes any day of the week if my life depended on my team winning. Geech is way better than any yarpie coach since Craven.
28 Jun 2009, 21:56 pm
…and yet its 2-0 to The Maestro.
28 Jun 2009, 21:57 pm
#158 levit8:
Bekker at 6!
or Rose!
28 Jun 2009, 22:39 pm
I never believed he was the guru anyway. Other than a tour that runs every 4 years, what international experience did he ever have? None.
28 Jun 2009, 23:11 pm
“In five years as Scotland coach McGeechan won one Five Nations title” – NO WAY! He must be a rugby genius! Im actually being serious…
His genius is in the man management of his players and choice of players of a particular nature – those with mongrel, good attitudes, who dont like being intimidated. That explains the dirty stuff that the Lions are renowned for. He has people to do the technical stuf- defence, video analysis, etc. He makes sure the boys are “up for it”. That is half the game won right there. He is definitely not only a club coach.
Look at how useless Straueli was at getting his players up for it, undermining their confidence and creating uncertainty at every turn. And look at his record.
He manages to get them to play for each other in a very short space of time. Ultimately their talent is only good enough 50% of the time, but then he is playing against what is theoretically supposed to be settled national teams. In the past, a few of these teams have been less than settled, and he has taken victories from this. thank god Jake White settled teh Boks down after Straueli, and showed us what consistency of selection does, and the importance of experience. I wonder how many generations will go past before we forget those lessons again.
28 Jun 2009, 23:22 pm
#163 cab: sometimes I think its despite Snor, not thanks to him. There have been a few stupid things done on this tour. The main factor influencing this tour was the person working out the Lions itinerary. Absolutely brilliant!
28 Jun 2009, 23:48 pm
#92 Heavens Game:
yes. that was nearly 20 years ago. We’re now talking yesterday.
The facts show the incident happened in the very 1st minute. Clear eye-gouging.
Afterwards, PdV unashamedly said he saw nothing wrong with it.
Sounds to me like it was a plan pre-formulated and agreed by SA Rugby Management.
Tell me why that was going through Burgers mind in the first minute if it was not ?
29 Jun 2009, 01:01 am
Congrats Boks – you showed great character to triumph like that but I was holding my breath for the first half at least. Burger should not play in the Springbok jersey until he gets the message/relearns the rules of rugby, what on earth was he thinking? Speaking of learning could somebody send PDV on a course to relearn the art of making the right selections so as not to actually hand the game to the opposition. And PLEASE please let Gold or Smit speak at press conferences until such time as our esteemed coach manages to string a comprehensible sentence together/answer a question intelligently/not make offensive remarks of any kind. The Easter Bunny could probably do better. (PS) Watching the replays again the Lions should stop throwing accusations around and take a long hard look at some of their own dubious tactics – I thought we Saffers could moan but these guys are certainly not gracious in defeat).Take a leaf out of John Smit’s book.
29 Jun 2009, 01:57 am
McGeechan was also a coach in 1999 when Scotland won the 5N title.
The guy is a great coach, this set of Lions shouldn’t have got anywhere near the Boks when you look at the quality in their respective line-ups but have ended up one score away in both tests so far.
29 Jun 2009, 08:11 am
#157 JimT:
Oh SH*T.
you mean he isnt ???!!!!
#170 Big Hit:
Holy sh*t.
I hope noone is watching.
Is the coast clear ?
~gulp~
Big Hit, I agree with you 100%.
29 Jun 2009, 10:06 am
This is my problem with keo journos. Ryan claiming, “There is no room for sentiment in professional rugby”
There should also be no room for sentiment in jornalism (or what do you okes call yourselves because journalist is surely pushing it).
McGeechan had nothing to work with on this tour (because I still believe that a weak England=a weak B&I Lions) and the Boks were the better team. If you dont have the players then there is very little you can do as a coach.
McGeechan has been in the game for a long time which should already tell you the man has some pedigree. Your failure to see that (intentional or no) is a bad reflection on you
29 Jun 2009, 10:36 am
Compared to pdv he is a Godlike coach he outsmarted pdv every time , we won tenspyte of pdv not because of the idiot
29 Jun 2009, 10:53 am
I think this Vrede sometimes writes with one eye open. A bit like Mick Cleary, he seems to want to provoke more than inform. Sometimes that is fine but other times it is a little tiresome.
The reason McGeechan is rated highly is less for amazing success rates but more for what he gets players to achieve. He got the Lions to a series victory against a soon to be world champion Australia side in 89 when the Lions patently were less individually brilliant than their hosts. He did the same in 97 against the then world champion Springbok team. Compare that with 2001 when Graham Henry took the Lions to Australia with possibly our best side ever and lost 2-1 or Clive Woodward took a world champion stocked Lions to NZ and lost 3-0.
That Scotland team that won a grand slam under him were a cobbled together mish mash that fell apart after he left. They have come last or second last pretty much ever since he gave up his involvement.
As a club coach he got Northampton to punch above their weight for years. They got relegated after he left. Wasps were already a good side when he joined but the Heineken Cup victory against Leicester was completely against the odds and it was seen by all commentators as a game won at the coaching level. Wasps’ coaches found that Leicester had a tendency to not guard the front of the lineout properly and we scored a try in each half there.
29 Jun 2009, 11:25 am
#174 Honkie: wish he was the bok coach …hell wish my sister was the coach any one but pdv !! respect to McGeechan he ran a great bok side close and dominated in the coaching battle
29 Jun 2009, 11:58 am
Since England won the 2003 World Cup,Northern Hemisphere
rugby has been in a steady decline.Instead of cultivating
their own young players,the Heineken cup (their equivalent
of the Super 14) is littered with Southern Hemisphere
players.Many of these players struggled to make it at home
and some returning stars struggled to regain the form that made such big attractions for the Northern Hemisphere club.
Just look at two of the BIL’s wingers.Shane Williams was
solely picked on reputation and past form.He is not a shadow of the player he used to be.
The other whose name escapes me now,cost his team the
first test by carrying the ball under the wrong arm.
Yet the inclusion of these two,just underlines two
things,either poor selection or a lack of talent.
Yet in the England 7′s I saw far better winger material.
The fact McGeechan still managed to put a competitive
team on the field says a lot of his coaching ability,but
in contrast Piet Helium’s inability to take what is
after all the World champions to greater heights and
his inability to read the situation until it was almost
to late makes him in my opinion just an average coach
of which there are many in South Africa.
.
29 Jun 2009, 12:09 pm
The Springboks victory came at a high cost to both teams.
Bakkies and Burger suspended.The fact that Bakkies has
been suspended for 8 weeks,clearly shows that his reputation
is counting against him and that he instead of Burger
could have been easily red carded on Saturday.
The fact that two of the BIL’s props were taken for corrective
surgery shows that the ferocity of the game was taken to
a level fuelled by far to many of the ball incidents.
A couple of yellows card to both sides was needed to bring
flaring temperatures under control.
Not a good advertisement of rugby and I think many watching
this game must have their doubts if it will increase
rugby’s following or if the round ball ‘the so called
beautiful game’ will keep on dominating the ‘foot ball’
game.
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