Campo gatvol with Sharks

Wallaby legend David Campese is disillusioned with his treatment by the Sharks administrators and he has taken matters into his own hands and started looking for a new job.

Campo has been in the Sharks setup for two years and by all accounts has done a fantastic job of imparting his knowledge of the game at the highest level. Now he feels that he is being treated badly.

“I feel disorientated and totally frustrated about the whole thing. No one has told me anything, except that the commercial manager for the Sharks said he would give me an answer. That was two weeks ago, and I am still waiting for the call.

“This isn’t the first time I have been in this position with the administrators, and no one should be treated the way I have been. They have no regard for the fact that my family and I packed up everything in Sydney and moved over here. I had the best intentions to add as much value as I could, and from the feedback from the players, they are happy with my input and appreciate my efforts.

“I had a meeting a month ago with Dick Muir and was told they wanted me to do the kicking job. He said ‘We will up-skill you as a team coach’, and I said that was fair enough. It went to the board and they apparently accepted that, or so I was told. But a week later, Muir said he had not heard anything, and then he said they were looking at other coaches.

“After repeatedly asking what was happening and getting no answer, I told him I no longer wanted the job. Frankly, I feel like I’ve been stuffed around and I am sick of their attitude. Why do foreigners come here with the best intentions and a different skills set to pass on, only to get shafted?

“It has happened too often to be a coincidence. I made it clear from the beginning that I was not here to encroach on anyone else’s role, and that my time here was to pass on my knowledge and experience of the game at the highest level. Dick Muir has been very helpful, but it’s clear others at the Sharks don’t want me.

“I’m not saying it was because of me that the team went from bottom to top of the Super 14 table. But I must surely have had some sort of input, played some part in it.

“I am taking matters into my own hands and looking for another job, probably as a backline coach.

“This game has changed a lot since I played, but one thing has remained exactly the same. You have to make players realise they have got to make decisions based on what is in front of them. Players must make decisions for themselves. But the fact is, I see backs struggling at all levels of rugby.

“Backline play is one of their problems, and you can see that on the field. If you stop the Springbok forwards, the backs have to try to create some opportunities and take the pressure off the forwards.

“Since I have been here I have seen that South African players have been used to a lot of structure, and it is difficult to get the guys out of that mode. It may take two or three years to get them to change their way of playing and thinking about the game.

“You can’t change things overnight, and it is very difficult for players to play outside their structure. There are a few players at the moment who have vision and creativity at the highest level, but a lot more are needed if you are to change the way backs play the game.”