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South Africa's Victor Matfield tackles Australia Will Genia during Tri Nations rugby. app images
I’ve had this topic in my mind for a couple of months now. What really got me scribbling notes was that tragic period back in August, where the Ashes and the Bledisloe Cup were lost on the same weekend. The reaction in the week that followed was astounding.
For every person that was willing to give England and New Zealand respective credit for being too good on the day (or days), there was another who wanted Ricky Ponting and George Smith presented for a public hanging.
But even that reaction has had nothing on what the Wallabies have been copping in the last week-and-a-bit.
After Wallaby coach Robbie Deans very politely declared that some of his players “departed the contest” in the closing ten minutes of the final Tri-Nations game in Wellington, the scrutiny and subsequent reaction toward the Wallabies has been unending.
Further, the Wallabies won themselves no favours with last Monday’s revelation that their Association has requested player payments for what was going to be a Possibles v Probables trial match ahead of the November Spring Tour to Japan and Europe.
Whether the payment request was made or not, or even who did or didn’t make it, is immaterial. Based on the Wallabies’ last performance, the timing of such a story could not have been worse.
Anyway, around when I started scribbling notes, legendary All Black flyhalf Grant Fox wrote a very interesting and timely column at the end of August in the Sunday Star Times in New Zealand.
At the time, the All Blacks were copping similar abuse and scrutiny after a less-than-successful home series against France, and then a similarly bad run against South Africa during the Tri-Nations.
Fox’s column came a few weeks after the worst of this, but it’s still relevant even now, two months later. He wrote:
“I don’t know whether I’m getting more sensitive or if the emotion around rugby is changing. I love the passion that surrounds our rugby, particularly the All Blacks, but sometimes that emotion overflows to the point where the debate around All Blacks’ performances lacks a bit of intelligence and becomes irrational.”
Substitute ‘Wallabies’ for ‘All Blacks’ here, and you’ve pretty much summed up what I’ve been feeling in this last week or so.
Some of the articles and comments I’ve read over the last week attacking the Wallabies have been very well thought, but unfortunately, there were just as many that bordered on hysteria.
Yes, the Wallabies were disappointing against South Africa in Perth, and even more so against New Zealand in Wellington. But what does an irrational soapbox rant prove, apart from possibly making yourself feel better?
What good can possibly come out of mass sackings and the wholesale changes that have been suggested?
Even worse, it occurred to me that some of the “they’re not getting my money again” comments that have been made this week completely miss the point that the author is attempting to make.
If any – let alone all – of the veiled threats to cancel season tickets, pay-tv subscriptions, no longer attend Wallaby Tests, or buy a jersey from some other code are actually carried through, the impact on rugby in this country could be dire.
It’s when our teams are going through a rough trot that they need our support the most. Of course everyone loves a winner, that’s human nature, but being there week in week out despite the results is the mark of true supporters.
One of The Roar’s regular contributors, LeftArmSpinner, happens to be a very astute rugby analyst. Some of his work in recent times has been so on the money you just wish you could find a way to get his message to the Wallabies directly.
But even he wrote an interesting article last week in which he curiously “officially rested” several key players including George Smith, Steven Moore and Matt Giteau from a theoretical squad for the Spring Tour.
I bring this up not as a criticism of Leftie’s article, or even the reasoning he used, but just to point out that even the most astute can be guilty of occasional over-reaction.
Leftie himself wrote an article back in June, entitled “Ask What You Can Do For Rugby”, which also called on supporters to do their bit in the down times.
While he spoke specifically of supporting rugby sponsors from the grass root to national level in these tougher economic times, Leftie also made a point that I’ll use to highlight the futility of making vague threats in times of underperformance:
“The simple things can bring significantly more money into the game and hence improve the scope, growth and performance of the game at all levels.”
In short, before you cancel your season ticket or buy a different jersey, think about what impact your decision might have on the game you’re so obviously passionate about. Imagine if we found in time that some junior development program was scrapped because five more people didn’t attend a Test next year?
By all means, express your disappointment. I’m guilty of this myself.
But then once we’ve said our piece – or even before, ideally – let’s all just calm down a bit and think about what good can possibly come from such threats and vitriol.
If it’s not going to help, then let’s just not.
And then let’s get back behind our team, because they need our support now more than ever.