Waratahs head coach Darren Coleman would not be surprised if the hierarchy decides not to extend his contract beyond the 2024 campaign.
The New South Wales outfit’s Super Rugby Pacific ambitions were ended in Auckland on Friday as they went down to a disappointing 41-12 defeat to the Blues.
They were not fancied to upset Leon MacDonald’s men but it was a result and performance which rather summed up their campaign.
Although the Tahs once again managed to get into the play-offs, they did it with fewer victories during the regular season.
Gone backwards
“Results-wise, we actually went backwards, which was disappointing,” Coleman told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I feel like we’re stuck in a ditch.
“The top five teams we can’t seem to get at the moment, and the bottom teams we seem to beat regularly and pretty well, with all due respect to Moana [Pasifika] last week [who beat the Waratahs 33-24].”
Coleman’s still has a year left on his contract but concedes that results will determine whether he stays any longer.
“I’m not feeling great today,” he said. “I love this job. I firmly believe we are trending in the right way.
“We haven’t spoken about an extension, and nor would I expect them to come to me, given the season we just had. I’ll keep my head down, work hard, get results next year and hopefully stay on if they want me. If not, I get it, you’ve got to win and win championships to keep the job.
“This year overall wasn’t great, but I imagine if you’d asked Tahs fans – or myself when I took it over – you probably would have taken sixth after year two. I’m really determined to tweak things, both in me and my program, to get the best out of the boys next year. What goes on after that is a long time away.
“You see me at press conferences, I ride the highs and lows, probably too much.”
Waratahs’ head coach feels for the supporters, who have seen their team struggle to get back to the Super Rugby top table, but is “optimistic” that they will improve despite describing their 2023 campaign as “s***”.
Hurting
“I feel mostly for the NSW rugby people who want to support a winning team,” Coleman said. “You saw how many came out in round one against the Brumbies and how many came out to farewell Michael Hooper [last week].
“There are people there who are willing us to do well and that’s what hurts us most. We just couldn’t perform when we needed to for our supporters.
“I’m also optimistic and positive around what this group can do. We weren’t good enough for long enough. That was the story of our season. You can call yourself inconsistent, which is another word for s***.
“We had a draw that was hard to make the top four but easy to make the top eight. I just feel in the big games, when we needed to perform, there were some let-downs.
“We let ourselves down in round one against the Brumbies, we played OK against Drua, really bad against Melbourne, and then had three hard away games.”
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