Comments on: Wallabies heading towards the 2011 World Cup

By: Benjamin Saunders

Benjamin Saunders — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:21:35 +0000

I think the Wallabies of the late 90s was very much a golden generation, much like the England team of 2001-2003. It just so happened that a collection of superb players arose at the same time. Without a doubt Gregan, Larkham, Horan, Little, Herbert, Tune, Roff, Eales, Wilson and Kefu were generational goldens. Australia was also much closer to professionalism in the 80s, only matched by the All Blacks, and thus they acclimatised to professional rugby much more quickly than a lot of nations. This allowed a gulf to develop which has subsequently closed. However, even when Australia was at its peak, which I would consider to be the 1999 World Cup, their scrum struggled then. It has taken a decade of journeymen; Panaho, Stiles, Dyson etc, and still nothing has been done.

By: Dennis4u15

Dennis4u15 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:48:07 +0000

well in late nineties and early 2000 the wallabies were definitely on top pf the world and they won everything on offer and yes most teams still apart from maybe all balcks found it really hard to beat the wallabies…go the wallabies

By: Blinky Bill - Bellingen

Blinky Bill - Bellingen — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:30:52 +0000

Wallabies “the most feared team in the world a few years ago” ? If only this were true.

As a Wallaby Fan I used to awaken at night in a cold sweat at some of the play the Wallabies subjected us to. I would call them competitive & entertaining but would avoid the word ‘feared’. Perhaps one day. Who knows?

My recollection of the time when John Connolly was appointed as the Wallaby’s Coach was that he seemed to be the only guy putting up his hand for the job. Because of this and the poor state of Oz Rugby generally, I felt he could have really been quite adventureous with selection – with an eye to the future – and was amazed / disappointed to see the old firm of Larkam & Gregan still being selected, when the were well past their shelf life.

I have no idea of what goes on behind the scenes and why he persisted with certain players but reckon if he had been courageous enough to cherry pick new up and comers, that he would have gone down in Australian Rugby history as a coach with vision.

Of course hindsite is a wonderful thing and all of that, and if GG & SL were not selected and if we bowed out of the RWC to England with a team of future stars, then then critics would have been screaming how it all would have been all so different if only we had the steady leadership of George Gregan and Stephen Larkham as our backline general. But that’s why the Wallaby Coach gets paid the big bucks and for me John Connolly (and others before him) missed a golden opportunity.

My question is where would the Wallabies be today if he had made those tough decisions? We can only speculate.