Rugby League: Reilly ready to reassume the mantle

THERE WAS no more interested spectator as Great Britain lost a home Test series to New Zealand for the first time since 1971 than the man many think should be coaching the team.

In seven years under Malcolm Reilly, debacles like the 28-point humiliation in the second half at Bolton became a thing of the past. If people in the game were talking about him becoming Great Britain coach again as soon as it was known that he was returning to this country, then those desperate 40 minutes at the Reebok Stadium only intensified the speculation.

Reilly himself added fuel to the fire before his departure from Australia, by saying that he would indeed like the job again and adding that it should be awarded on an annual basis; the present incumbent, Andy Goodway, is one year into a three-year contract.

He has been more circumspect since his arrival at Huddersfield, the club he plans to turn into a competitive force in Super League. "Who wouldn't want to be Great Britain coach?" he asked. "I loved those seven years. But I've every confidence in Andy Goodway doing a fine job. If ever an opportunity came along, then, along with 12 other people, I'd love the chance."

Reilly said that it would be "politically wrong" for him to comment on Goodway's tactics, but his practised eye has inevitably brought him to some conclusions about what went wrong for Great Britain. "They have been surprised by how physically strong the New Zealand team are. It also helps that 80 per cent of them are Auckland players, so there's a good defensive pattern, good talk on the fringes," he said. "The New Zealand pack was much bigger than ours and just as quick. Plus, they seem to grow an extra leg when they put on the black and white. "

Goodway's job is safe, because his employers, the Rugby Football League, have set their faces against any knee-jerk reaction to this series. When their chief executive, Neil Tunnicliffe, gave Goodway a vote of confidence last week, he actually meant it..

Reilly, who also had his hard times in the role - not least when beaten by France at Headingley in 1990 - sympathises with some of the built-in difficulties. "We've hardy competed at international level over the past two years," he said. During his own tenure, he appealed to the Rugby League for more internationals and a lighter domestic work-load, much as Goodway is now. Goodway's problems in that area will intensify next year, with a 30-game Super League season.

In many ways, he is not unlike a younger Reilly. They were both explosive and aggressive forwards who happened to be thinkers about the game as well. They can both be spiky and defensive, impatient of ill-founded criticism and restless within the constraints that the job brings with it.

One conclusion that Goodway might well have reached over the past three weeks is that, with such limited preparation time, there is more reason than ever to keep it simple.

A Test series after a demanding season is not the time to ask players to adopt new roles. In his anxiety to do things his own way, Goodway has sometimes ignored the obvious. He will be given the chance to show that he can learn from the experience.