John Eales recalls the 'great agitators', Owen Finegan and Sean Fitzpatrick, in The Sydney Morning Herald.
"Business might be a bit different. Perhaps not investment banking, they would measure up to most sporting teams in a character style assessment, but if you run a nursing home you probably don't want your nurses going too hard at the oldies... or maybe you do.
"In his playing days Owen Finegan, now the assistant coach at the Brumbies, was your classic prickly character. Although one of the most important players in the Wallabies throughout that successful era, he would mercilessly agitate the opposition on the field and his teammates off it. During the 1999 world cup campaign players completed weekly questionnaires asking how they felt on a scale of irritability, from exceptionally irritable to not irritable at all. Owen would scour the responses and make it his business to hound anyone at the more irritable end of the continuum. No one broke but players were on edge.
"Obviously it's a lot more useful if the irritability is directed at the opposition and if it can be done to distraction then even better. Sean Fitzpatrick was masterful at distracting his opposition and led the 95-97 All Blacks, the best teams I played in my career, in this bristling manner."
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