McKenzie wants to be remembered
May 31 2008
Sad to be leaving though not bitter about being pushed, Ewen McKenzie hopes he is remembered not only for guiding the Waratahs to more wins than any New South Wales coach in Super Rugby history.
With 37 wins, 27 defeats, two draws, three semi-finals and two final appearances, McKenzie leaves as the Waratahs' best-performing coach in thirteen seasons of professional rugby.
McKenzie's last stand as Waratahs coach was a 12-20 defeat to the Crusaders in the 2008 Super 14 Final, but he hopes his legacy is not so black and white.
"People will judge me more on the results than anything else. I probably look a little bit wider than that," McKenzie told AAP.
"I will probably be looking at the culture, the discipline and the ability to recruit good players and our ability to retain players.
"I'm pretty happy in the period of time that I've been here that we've been able to add better and better players and retain our best players.
"Guys like Lote [Tuqiri] and Wycliff Palu and these guys have signed three times during my time. So I'm pretty proud of that.
"If the programme was no good or players didn't think they were going to get to where they wanted to, or didn't think the team had potential to do well, they wouldn't have stayed.
"I'm certainly happy to [have made the] final because that rewards the decisions we - as in the staff - make and also rewards the decisions by the players in terms of backing the program.
"If anything, I can walk out the door next week saying 'well, I'm leaving it in far better shape than I got it'.
"We've actually developed a lot. We've got a new facilities, new headquarters, a lot of good players. We've got a lot of good young players. We've got a good mix.
"We're not far away from the top ... and it will give the next bloke something to work with."
After almost a decade of under-achieving, the Waratahs have ticked off an impressive list of firsts under McKenzie.
They scored their first Super Rugby win over the benchmark Crusaders in Christchurch in 2004 - in McKenzie's very first game at the helm - then scored their first over the Reds, their first over the Brumbies in Canberra and reached their first Super Rugby final - all in 2005.
A season later came the Waratahs first Super Rugby victory over the Reds in Brisbane and this year they completed a clean sweep over their three Australian rivals, despite playing two of the derbies away from home.
McKenzie, though, is equally proud of his role in helping the Waratahs produce Wallabies and, while others might be obsessed with just winning, this mentor sees the big picture, recognising the importance of the states developing players for the national cause.
"I don't know what the count is but there's been plenty," he said.
"Probably the ones that really stand out are the Al Kanaars - he only got to play one Test, but he got there. So he can remain a Wallaby for life, a Test player for life.
"Guys like him to the Tatafu Polota-Naus to the Wycliff Palu, for instance. He's a classic.
"I brought him back in. He was a club player and he went to league for one season and we recruited him back specifically and now he's the incumbent number eight and I'll be surprised if he's not the number eight again this year.
"So it's been nice to have had a hand in that sort of business."
Tellingly, the Waratahs have not announced one major player signing since the New South Wales board decided on April 1 that it was not renewing McKenzie's contract beyond 2008.
McKenzie has played no part in the Waratahs' recruitment process since that day.
Veteran back-rower David Lyons has since decided to leave the Waratahs after more than 100 games for the franchise, while fellow Wallabies forwards Dan Vickerman and Rocky Elsom are almost certainly also heading to Europe.
"The last 12 months have been pretty tough. A lot of politicking, a lot of whatever," McKenzie said.
But the pragmatic McKenzie refuses to nominate lowlights and even drew a positive from the injury-ravaged Waratahs' worst-ever 13th-place finish in 2007.
"I think we actually learnt more out of that season than we did the other four," he said.
"This year is based on decisions we made out of last year. So maybe this year doesn't happen for us if last year we finished mid-table. Maybe we wouldn't have done different things.
"By the same token, we didn't throw everything out the window last year. As much as there's always a knee jerk reaction and people wanting massive change, we resisted that and fought very hard to just change the things that we thought would make a difference.
"I think we got the balance pretty right."
It would be easy for McKenzie to thumb his nose at the New South Wales board, but he refuses to get nasty about his shabby treatment and can understand their somewhat hasty decision to cut him loose.
"Um, I'm not bitter. Sad, yes," he said.
"I'm also realistic. You're not entitled to anything for life in sport. So there's always going to come a day.
"You'd like to do things on your own terms ... but hindsight is not a great way of judging situations.
"You make decisions at a point in time. I think there was a lot of pressure.
"I think the media created a lot of pressure. People created pressure based on comments and ideas.
"What I would argue ... my biggest problem in rugby in New South Wales is that it's basically a perception-based business and it's very hard to run a successful business based on perception. Everyone else deals in reality.
"I have to deal with that and that challenge is quite difficult."
Now, after a decade coaching in Australia, including stints as an assistant with the Brumbies in 1999-2000 and the Wallabies from 2000-03, the former World Cup-winning prop's challenge is to find a new niche.
The 42-year-old has been linked to all sorts of coaching gigs across the globe, including positions in France and Ireland and even the Crusaders.
McKenzie, though, is in no rush to settle his future.
"This is pretty much an end point from an Australian rugby point of view for me," he said.
"I don't have a vision that I'll be coming back to Super 14. It might be Super 20 by then anyway.
"There's a handful of options out there that I think that I could add value to, but a coach is about timing.
"You've only got to look at Heyneke Meyer, who won the Super 14 title [with the Bulls] last year. He's not coaching now.
"Jake White won the World Cup. He's not coaching now.
"The names keep getting talked about, but don't assume that just because you're on the market that there's going to be a thousand jobs in that line of work.
"But I'll look at that. I'll look at something that I'm suited to. I'm not just going to take the first job that comes along just for the sake of it.
"It's got to be something that you think you can add value to."