If you had to pick one person in sport to live the rest of their life in a compression chamber it would be Robbie Deans. As he says, he is “used to pressure”.
“Pressure is part of the territory in this industry – there is nothing new in that,” Mr Cool dead-panned last week.
But right now the Australian coach is facing an altogether new kind of pressure.
Never before in his glittering coaching career have his credentials been so openly debated in public by so many people, including (heaven forbid) his boss.
After a mediocre showing in the June tests, Australian Rugby Union CEO John O’Neill publicly voiced his displeasure with Deans and his win-loss record.
“If you want to get from a 56% success rate to a 70% success rate, you’re only going to do it by being absolutely uncompromising.
“And we’re at a point where the honeymoon is over.”
O’Neill insisted “That’s not a threat”, but it sure sounded like one.
Especially as he added: “The improvement in the winning percentage has to start now. You cannot say 56% is acceptable. It’s not.”
O’Neill’s comments should be taken with a grain of salt.
He is rugby’s biggest motor-mouth, prone to outlandish unscripted, headline-grabbing quotes.
That didn’t make it any easier for Deans to swallow.
He is a man more accustomed to being feted than scolded.
And on Friday, speaking from his ARU office in St Leonards Sydney, he sounded, not surprisingly, tired.
Had NZRU chief executive Steve Tew upbraided Graham Henry in the same way, the All Blacks coach would probably have tendered his resignation.
But the rules in Australia are different.
Headlines, even negative ones, are welcomed by union, as it arm-wrestles with rival codes for attention.
That’s why the Australian press bandied the word crisis about with impunity before Deans met with O’Neill earlier last week.
If Aussie Rob was annoyed, he wasn’t showing it.
“It was a routine catch-up,” was all he’d say about the meeting, nor would he discuss in any depth another sore point that has emerged across the Tasman – the form, or more accurately the lack thereof, of Matt Giteau.
The champion five-eighths has been off-key this year, leading to speculation he and Deans don’t get on.
Former Wallabies coach (and noted stirrer) Eddie Jones, openly challenged Deans’ control of the Wallabies last week and poured petrol on the fire when likening Giteau to “flat beer”.
Deans said: “Mate, it is nothing I can discuss publicly, obviously. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but more importantly, everyone in the player group is in this together.
“Those conversations will be personal to [the player group].”
Deans names his squad for the Tri Nations on Thursday.
It should be one full of promise and potential.
Australian rugby has unearthed a fantastic halves combination in No10 Quade Cooper and halfback Will Genia, and Deans believes they could form a winning combination.
“[Genia] is another one who has just arrived at this level, but clearly has a lot of capability and a future.
“The challenge now for those blokes is to push on and turn that into something real, with substance.”
During his time with the Crusaders, Deans shamelessly made a play for the underdog tag on countless occasions.
As this year’s Tri Nations looms, one of his favourite coaching tactics has been rendered redundant. Nobody gives Australia much of a chance.
And Deans agrees with Wales coach Warren Gatland’s tip: South Africa is the team to beat.
“They have shown by the way they played Super rugby and the tests to date this year, they have the ability to play whichever way they choose.
“That will be part of the intrigue. They were able to play that way [kicking a lot] last year but they are capable of any approach – as we have seen already.
“The All Blacks have played some great rugby so, from our perspective, we sit where we have historically and currently [third].”