Hard men wanted, current Wallabies need not apply
Roar Pro By ozxile, 21 Sep 2009 ozxile is a Roar Pro
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- professional sport, Rugby Union, Tri Nations, wallabies
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From time to time someone responds to a moan with “life is tough – then you die.” Death is inevitable, but a tough life? Actually not – particularly for professional rugby players in Australia.
While growing up in Papua New Guinea, and on school holidays in the Queensland bush, I met Aussies who defined the concept of hard – both physically and mentally.
They struggled against very tough odds every day of their lives working on cattle stations, farms, construction projects in the middle of nowhere, and the cane fields of North Queensland.
These people knew what it was like to hang on to something when it was cutting through your fingers, or to keep lifting when your muscles were burning up, because quitting meant losing an arm or leg or worse under the weight of something collapsing or recoiling, or being bowled over by a much larger animal.
This happened on a regular basis. When it didn’t kill them they were at it the next day. They were hard from work and life; the kind of people who might be beaten down but who never quit.
We used to have people like that playing rugby – not just in Australia, everywhere.
When I was much younger I imagined that the Welsh were formidable in the scrum because their forwards were born bent over slogging away at a coal face and their backs were quick and clever from escaping from collapsing mine shafts. I digress.
What do we have today? Well, players are big and strong in a limited sort of way – the product of hanging out in gyms pushing weights that rarely do anything unexpected – let alone bite back if they are neglected.
After a couple hours of ‘work’ – maybe even a test match – they hit the pub or the beach, or ‘tweet’ their legions of fans. The most stressful thing an average day brings is deciding what to do with all that time off.
What we have are a bunch of soft-bodied and soft-minded poseurs. Across the board they have not got a clue what real adversity looks like, let alone what it means to stand up to it both physically and mentally – to earn the right to be referred to as ‘hard.’
The irony of the age of professionalism is that these over-paid sooks aren’t as well prepared to play as the old blokes who had real day jobs and played for pride in the jersey.
Australia has a legacy of hard men playing rugby. We haven’t had many recently. There are none (none!) in the current lot, and a number of pretty boys who will never be.
Before you decide who to take on the spring tour, coach Deans, perhaps you should ask yourself what kind of a man you are getting – not just what his rugby looks like today.
There is a model for this, coach – Brad Thorn.
If you look carefully enough, and do some serious culling of your current herd of fat cattle, perhaps we can have some of what he brings to the All Black’s game in the Wallabies next year? Please.
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September 21st 2009 @ 8:56am
slacky said | September 21st 2009 @ 8:56am | Report comment
Yeah, well what a result. Pity about the currant leaderless headless Wallabies believing their own B S. I guess I am not alone when I say I have paid a bucketfull of money (hard to get too) to go to Tokyo and support our Wallabies. I am sorry but with the performance in Welington, I am going to see just how much it will be for me to cancel my trip and claim a refund. Quite frankly I do not believe the Wallabies deserve my or anyone elses support. They are paid big money, no job and treated like royalty by adoring fans only to be paid back by a totally gutless effort in Welington. It is time for Robbie to stop treating them like precious treasures and point out no win no pay.
September 21st 2009 @ 8:56am
Harry said | September 21st 2009 @ 8:56am | Report comment
Well said.
To apply a business perspective, the Wallabies are consistently underperforming and producing a substandard return on equity. In such situations performance is rebuilt by:
- clear acknowledgement of the problems and taking responsibility for failure.
- deadwood and underperformance being cut from the organisation.
- restraint on reward/remuneration; from top down.
- greater transparency and more rigid policies and practices.
September 21st 2009 @ 8:57am
The way it is! said | September 21st 2009 @ 8:57am | Report comment
I agree with you totally. The way the wallabies talk themselves up prior to matches is an insult to the general public. The fact that Deans keeps picking a child at fullback is another joke and he plays like it. New Zealanders & South Africans are a hard race of people and it shows on the rugby paddock. We use to have it in the age of non professional sport but no longer in Australia as the young players worry about the tints in their hair.
September 21st 2009 @ 9:05am
stillmissit said | September 21st 2009 @ 9:05am | Report comment
Oxile – Very true mate but you have to deal with reality and the reality is that there are so few hard men left in the Western world leave alone Australia.
NZ used to have them by the bucket load all off farms or timber cutters and Deans would have seen plenty of them when he was first playing. They have just about all gone.
The world we live in is more female, softer, more prone to crying and cuddly toys. Pathetic but there it is. Who is going to give these boys a hard time? Certainly not their mothers who think they are all exceptionally gifted and need to be protected, or their fathers who are under more and more pressure to be in touch with their female, emotional side and who, nearly all work in white collar or limited hard work jobs.
You have clarified my thinking on this as I was thinking just like you that these guys need to harden up. I am wondering if it is a lost cause.
September 21st 2009 @ 9:24am
jacko said | September 21st 2009 @ 9:24am | Report comment
That saying about drinking a large cup of cement in order to harden the f*** up springs to mind…..
September 21st 2009 @ 9:45am
rich1612 said | September 21st 2009 @ 9:45am | Report comment
There’s more passion and toughness in schools or club rugby. One of the problems with professional rugby is that once you have a contract it is difficult to get sacked. You have an expensive multiple year contract and while the coach may not want to select you, the ARU cannot afford to bring in another player, so the coach has little choice but to select the poor performer.
One solution would be to put all the players on 1 year contracts, sure you would end up losing some players to league and other sports or professions who want more job security but be rest assured you would end up with a group of players who are passionate about playing for their country every time they take the field. At the moment the current squad play with passion in about 1 of every 8 tests.
Getting very sick of it and I have no doubt that the Football world cup will be attracting much more of my interest next year. Which is pretty disappointing as I a/have been a keen supporter since seeing my first series against the Welsh in 1978.
September 21st 2009 @ 10:07am
LeftArmSpinner said | September 21st 2009 @ 10:07am | Report comment
ozxile, I agree that hard men are required. I have framed the response slightly differently in my Roar article today, emphasising Attitude. to me, they are probably the same. I dont think that you need to be a cane cutter to play hard rugby but, as an analogy, it is very effective and illustrative.
For me, it is about what is going on between the ears when the heat is on. I just dont understand how someone can see what is happening at the breakdown, for example, do nothing about it, presumably be told about it and how to fix it at oranges, and then still not do anything about it, all the while purporting to represent your country.
Some, like me believe that you are born with that never say die attitude, as displayed by Alan Border, Steve Waugh, Warne, NF-J, Eales, Lynagh, M Ali, John Sattler, Liz Ellis, Rick Charlesworth, Step Rice, Ian Thorpe, etc.
September 25th 2009 @ 8:25pm
MM said | September 25th 2009 @ 8:25pm | Report comment
Attitude – totally agree. A brilliant article BTW.
Apart from your response, debating the many other responses – there are many truths.
But attitude – yes, I’d agree it’s the problem – but what’s the root cause behind the attitude? It appears as though it is extrinsic motivation and not intrinsic, taking a look behind that further is the change in era as already identified.
It’s a great start to grow up using brute strength on farms or in the mining industry – but previous generations didn’t merely rely on that. As said my several, they worked and donned the jersey with pride – because they wanted to! They were not molly-coddled and treated as fashion icons or heroic performers before they had earned their status amongst fans and nations.
The present era with their highlights, “big-deal” facial expressions and body language appear to look as though they are doing their fans and nation a favour – wow!! Thus no intrinsic motivation – because their attitude sucks – they don’t have to earn their way to recognition and still hold down a job. Extrinsic motivation is obvious because of the unwarranted, soft treatment. Why should they be intrinsically motivated? After all that’s not what they’re being told by their coach etc. So yes,
that leads back to the prevailing attitude.
Yup – shorter contracts would be a definite with various other clauses seems the only way to go. The only way to don the coveted jersey with pride is to earn it.
Just a thought…. O Conner, to my mind is being targeted maybe a little harshly. The lad is by far not big-headed, but he can’t win the game for a losing side
September 21st 2009 @ 10:10am
Viscount Crouchback said | September 21st 2009 @ 10:10am | Report comment
Superb article, old fruit! You hit the nail squarely on the head: modern rugger players are professional poseurs. They have gym strength, but not rugby strength. They have rippling biceps, but fall down at the first brush of contact. Indeed, their effectiveness on the rugby pitch often seems to be in inverse proportion to the size of their muscles. I wonder how much time the average young back row forward spends looking at himself in the mirror? Probably more time than he spends practising his rucking.
This isn’t just an Australian phenomenon. It’s a world-wide phenomenon. England have never had such a callow, gormless mob of oiks. The New Zealanders are hardly brim full of leadership qualities themselves. The South Africans and the Irish are exceptions, but both rely on veterans and it will be interesting to see whether their fresh crop of talent is any less self-obsessed than their counterparts elsewhere. I doubt it.
Professional rugby is a desperate disappointment. It has produced over-muscled behemoths who lack character and innate rugby nous. When a man – David Pocock – is being selected for the open-side flank simply because of his body conditioning, then you know the game is in trouble.
Let’s ditch this charade and return to the game’s amateur roots.
September 21st 2009 @ 10:27am
JF said | September 21st 2009 @ 10:27am | Report comment
I would like to see the formation of an australian amateur XV, give them a shot at the current wallabies – would love to see some hardened weekend rugby men put some of those poseurs on their arses.
September 21st 2009 @ 11:13am
Harry Wombat said | September 21st 2009 @ 11:13am | Report comment
What do you expect when you look at where the Wallabies nursery is, soft shelled private schools. Only a few of the players come through the school of hard knocks path, play decent Shute Shield rugby before getting involved with Super 14 and Wallaby games. They are the ones who know what it is about to put their body on the line.