‘The most sought-after coach in the NRL’ joins Wallabies for World Cup
Jason Ryles will make a shock return to the rugby union coaching ranks as an assistant with the Wallabies at next month's World Cup in France.
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones needed to replace attack coach Brad Davis, who surprisingly quit the squad for "family reasons" just before their departure from Australia.
Ryles was a skills coach with England under Jones but cut short his contract in 2021 after six months as he was working remotely, unable to relocate to the UK due to the coronavirus travel restrictions.
The 44-year-old hasn't worked as an attack coach, however Davis had similar credentials with Jones saying he was overseeing the program.
Before joining England Ryles worked with the Melbourne Storm and has signed a deal to rejoin the NRL club in November, knocking back the head coach role at St George Illawarra to do so.
As an assistant there he helped them to a premiership success in 2017 and two other grand final appearances, while he also played over 200 games in the NRL and for the Kangaroos.
After returning from England Ryles linked with the Sydney Roosters in 2022, but was axed midway through the current season with the club unhappy he was pursuing a senior coaching role.
Before the team's flight from Sydney on Thursday Jones said he was already in discussions about a replacement for Davis and vowed to "improve the coaching staff".
"Jason is the most sought-after coach in the NRL. He will add immensely to our coaching staff and help prepare the players to win the Rugby World Cup," Jones said in a statement on Friday.
"We are thrilled to have him join the team."
The Wallabies have another former NRL player in their coaching ranks, with Brett Hodgson in the defence coach role.
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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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