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Are you listening, Gary Flowers? Are you listening, the board of the ARU?
Every Tuesday after my rugby column is published in the Sydney Morning Herald I get phone calls and receive emails from supporters of the code wanting to comment on what I have written. These supporters love their rugby. In the last two seasons, though, most of their calls and emails have been despairing about the quality (or better, the lack of quality) of the Wallabies, the inadequate coaching and the lacklustre administration of the game by an increasingly hapless ARU that made a colossal mistake in getting rid of its chief executive John O’Neill after the success — on and off the field — of the 2003 World Cup tournament in Australia.
Here is a recent and typical email which contains in its tone and content dire warnings for the ARU, and for the future of rugby in Australia: ‘I read your comment in the SMH with much interest. I had been away for the weekend with ten rugby loving mates from my school years. Not one of us stayed up to watch the Italy test in live time. We tuned in to the replay at 9am Sunday morning. Sadly it was two hours of my life I will never get back. Our discipline is appalling. The next player to get a yellow card should be dropped for two tests. Our basic skills of passing, catching, and holding onto the ball are well below average. Nathan Sharpe would receive a ‘FAIL’ in each category.
As you rightly point out, Al Baxter is not of international standard. He was a sub-standard tight head. At loose head he is a laughing stock. Perhaps Benn Robinson, who I thought muscled up quite well on debut in South Africa only three tests ago, could instruct Baxter about the art of binding. Speaking of Robinson, what does he have to do to get a run? The incumbent in the position must feel unloved with Baxter being chosen out of position, and out of his depth for that matter, for the first two tests. I also agree with you that the issues in the scrum cannot solely be forced upon the front row. One thing I have noticed is our back row’s performance in defensive scrums. None of them stay bound from start to finish. Almost as soon as the ball is fed they are up and looking around for the offense. More often than not that easing off of pressure from our eight puts us immediately on the back foot. If they were to stay attached (with shoulders driving forward and heads down), the strength of our scrum can only be improved.
‘What has happened to Stephen Larkham? Over two games he has cost our side a collective 13 points with his cynically professional fouls. Twice against Wales (I think the fullback Morgan was involved on both occasions) Larkham deliberately ran out of line with the flight of the ball in an effort to impede the opposition. One led to a penalty that was converted, the other the Martin Williams try. The same thing happened against Italy with the foul on Bergamasco. The final scorelines for both and the result against Wales would have looked much better if not for Larkham’s indiscipline.
‘Our kicking was woeful. I can’t believe that management cited recent injuries to Rogers and Larkham for their weak kicking performances. Give me a 100% fit player all the time over a crock that isn’t fit for the challenge. If they are injured don’t play them. In this professional era too many players carry injuries into matches because of the allure of winning bonuses. Winning bonuses should be eliminated. If it is not enough for a player to represent his country at the highest level without the allure of a few more dollars in his pocket (on top of the mega-salaries some are on) then he should be shown the door.
‘Finally many of my friends who were away with me on the weekend are drifting towards other sports. Too much average footy has them looking elsewhere for entertainment. The cost of taking a family to a test is prohibitive. I am even considering whether I should renew my Telstra Stadium membership with 2007 being a second successive year without a Bledisloe. After watching Australian rugby for 28 years I am disillusioned. This year I went to the lowest quality test match I’ve ever seen (vs South Africa in Sydney). Now I’ve seen the worst game ever on TV (nudging aside the 1996 and 1997 floggings in Wellington and Pretoria). Whilst I hope that I am wrong, I’m now glad that I won’t be in France next year. It’s a long way to go to have our backsides handed to us. If that happens then it will be a much longer trek home. I hope Channel TEN didn’t pay too much for the telecast rights’.
I replied to my friend that he should be writing my column. There was nothing in it I could disagree with. One of the problems with the people at the top of Australian rugby right now, in administration and coaching, is that the ordinary supporter and, dare I say it, the weekly rugby columnist, seem to have a better idea about what is going on and why and what needs to be done to get things for the rugby code to the high of 2003 than those paid handsomely to do these things.
So what is to be done?
The ARU board created this situation by forcing out John O’Neill. O’Neill, incidentally, is now available to come back to rugby after his contract with Australian Football wound up this week. The ARU board has to have the courage now to recognize what has gone wrong and set up a Rugby Review Commission with full powers to call in anyone from the Australian community to produce a blueprint on getting Australian rugby back on track again. The review should have someone of the stature of Simon Poidevin or Michael Hawker as its head. The board should agree to implement its recommendations as quickly as possible. I have no doubt that the first recommendation the Rugby Review Commission would be that John O’Neill should be brought back into the ARU as executive chairman.