Less than a week after placing his ailing code on life support, John O’Neill yesterday optimistically declared Australian rugby back on the road to full recovery.

Speaking at the official launch of the 2008 Super 14 season, O’Neill said it was time to consign a grim period to history and start afresh.

For only the second time in 12 years of Super rugby, no Australian team qualified for the 2007 semi-finals, with traditional powers Queensland and NSW downright dismal in finishing last and second-last respectively.

Capping a forgettable year, the Wallabies also bombed out in the quarter-finals at the Rugby World Cup.

O’Neill, though, has “drawn a line under 2007″ and says it’s now time for the Reds, Waratahs, ACT Brumbies and Western Force to begin the Australian revival.

“We’re in the business of winning,” he said.

“We hope to see all four teams in the semis and, for the first time in our history, an all-Australian final. That would be a great start.”

O’Neill’s leap of faith follows his frank admission last Tuesday that the sport faced a grim future in Australia if it could not reverse diminishing player numbers and crowd figures after the ARU’s multi-million-dollar financial loss in 2007.

“We’ve had some disappointing times and last week there were much-publicised comments from me about the past,” he said.

“That period is over. You won’t hear me talking about the past. Today is the start of the future. It’s about the game and it’s about doing better than we have in the past.”

Like one big, happy family, all four Australian Super 14 coaches shared O’Neill’s optimism ahead of the season kick-off on February 15.

The Waratahs, with the return of several key players, are roundly tipped to be the big improvers in 2008 and Ewen McKenzie said he was aiming to transform his side from 13th-placed also-rans to champions.

“We’re pretty comfortable we’ve got quality and intellectual capacity in key positions right across the team, and we’ve got depth in those areas,” McKenzie said.

“The Sharks finished minor premiers last year – they came from last place the year before.

“They moved significant distance up the table in a very short space of time and so did the Bulls.

“The Bulls, who won the competition last year, have finished last three or four times.

“So it’s a competition where you can be at either end very quickly.

“Even the Crusaders, despite their lofty record, have finished last in the competition.

“So we’re not proud (of last year’s finish) and I’m not offering it up as an excuse. I’m just saying it’s the reality of the competition. The competition’s always tight.”

The Brumbies only missed the playoffs on a countback last season, but will be without Test quartet George Gregan, Stephen Larkham, Stirling Mortlock and Jeremy Paul in 2008.

“But we’ve still got some good experience,” coach Laurie Fisher argued.

“We’ve got eight guys returning from the World Cup and we’ve got a number of other Wallabies in the squad and some guys now who are in their third, fourth, fifth season of Super 14.

“So we’re happy with the experience of the squad … aggregate-wise, we’ve moved forward as a team.”

First-year Queensland coach Phil Mooney has been heartened by his team’s trial form and said the Reds were going back to the future to improves fortunes up north.

“It’s important that with the Queensland Reds we do acknowledge our past – obviously a long and fantastic history,” Mooney said.

“I’d be silly not to call on and acknowledge performances of the great players.

“This strip that we’re going to wear in 2008, we’ve gone back to the cardinal jersey which the great Queensland sides of the 90s wore.

“We’re bringing a lot of our vintage Reds back to mentor the young guys just to have a presence around the place.

“It’s been a good move and all the boys have embraced it and it’s terrific to have them all around.”

“I feel confident that we’re going to see a far better Reds in 2008.”

And Force coach John Mitchell said his Perth-based outfit was eyeing a finals berth for the first time after fading to finish seventh in 2007.

“It’s important that we become a lot more consistent in our performances,” Mitchell said.

“As a group, we certainly want to raise our expectation.”

© AAP 2012

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