Former Wallabies Stephen Hoiles and Morgan Turinui have called on rugby to borrow from rival sports in a bid to improve their product.
Hoiles, the outgoing Randwick coach, liked the NRL’s allowance of ‘trainers’ to be on the field during play, offering direction to players.
“We always need to look at the other sports and what some sports do really well,” he said on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts.
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“Rugby league have a person on the field the entire time your team is in attack and it’s always a legend. It’s a Geoff Toovey, it’s an Allan Langer. It’s highly qualified players that are on the field to help and that’s happening at, like, the greatest game of all.
“So why wouldn’t we do it?”
Hoiles said that should extend to all levels of the game, including juniors who would most benefit from some extra pointers in what is a complicated sport.
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Turinui countered by saying ‘runners’ were already rampant in the Shute Shield and threw out another idea from football.
“We should have them (coaches) on the sideline, like in the Premier League, like in football” he said.
“I’d love Cheik (Michael Cheika) on the sideline in a suit.”
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Turinui, who coached Lille Metropole in France, added that sight was more common in European rugby.
“Me, Scott Wisemantel and Chris Whitaker coached a Wallaby XV that Spring Tour (against the French Barbarians in 2016) in Bordeaux.
“Benny Whitaker was there, a few RA (Rugby Australia) officials, and we were on the sideline and we were like yelling the whole time.
“They (Wallaby XV players) couldn’t believe it.
“It’s just a different mindset. You almost have to yell… when I coached in France I’d sit up high, watch it, all that stuff.
“The players said ‘you have to come down and yell at us, we need you to yell at us.’ We’re not used to it.”
Former LA Giltinis coach Hoiles added that it was similar in the United States.
“They let you, in the MLR, coach on the sideline because they want it to be interactive,” he said.
“They want the fans to see the coaches.”
