Stephen Larkham admits the Brumbies run the risk of giving their players mixed messages this Super Rugby season with he and Laurie Fisher sharing coaching responsibilities.
Head coach Larkham and director of coaching Fisher will split their control of the team down the middle following the departure of South African mentor Jake White, who last year took the Brumbies to the final.
Larkham will give players a final wrap-up of plans and objectives on game-day, but it will be up to Fisher to give the pre-match rev-up in the sheds.
At halftime, Larkham and defence coach Dan McKellar will address the group separately.
White’s departure shouldn’t make a difference to the technical coaching of the team – given Larkham and Fisher already shared those hands-on duties – however he was always the final authority for the players and that’s the void that needs to be filled.
The split-coaches method is aimed at ensuring the Brumbies don’t become stale, but Larkham acknowledges he and Fisher will need to be on high-alert for the potential to confuse their players.
“The benefit is if you hear the same voice day-in, day-out you tune out to it. So we can change things up that way,” said Larkham.
“But the risk is the message isn’t clear and not the same.
“We work very closely. In our rugby department we have three coaches and we sit in the office with no walls between us.
“We have free flowing conversation every day and make sure 99 per cent of the time we’re on the same page before we leave that office and present to the team.”
NSW coach Michael Cheika predicted at Wednesday’s Super Rugby launch that the Brumbies would play a more expansive style under one of the Wallabies’ all-time attacking greats, but Larkham said things would stay much the same.
“We know how we played last year brings success so we’re not going to change too much. But by the same token we do want to win the championship … and we’ve addressed certain aspects of our game that need tinkering,” he said.
Larkham and prop Ben Alexander said Ben Mowen was still the best captain for the Brumbies despite announcing he will leave Australian rugby at the end of the season.
“We fully support him,” said Alexander.
“We expect a big season out of him because we know we won’t get another one.”