Wallabies still showing no pride in the jersey
Roar Rookie
By Surferbikerboy, 5 Nov 2009 Surferbikerboy is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Grand Slam tour, Rugby Union, wallabies
I recently read Spiro’s article wherein he declared his optimism for the Wallabies Grand Slam tour. I wish I shared his optimism!
Personally, I have never felt so ashamed of the overall performance of a group of guys who seem to put the dollar above the jersey and cannot seem to learn from their mistakes.
Admittedly, the Tokyo game was better than Wellington (far better), but they still lost a game they should have won, and will it be followed by an inept performance in the next game, which is more often than not their true modus operandi.
I remember back to the early nineties when the Wallabies slumped after the 1991 World Cup win. A whole bunch of new guys, the centre pairing of Little and Horan still effective, but without the back up around them.
We lost some very close games against New Zealand and played some not so good rugby that cost us victory when we should have won.
But two things where very different back then.
1. The All Blacks were a very good side, boasting Wilson, Fitzpatrick, Michael and Ian Jones to name but a few of a star studded line up. They were the best team around and everyone found it hard to beat them, let alone stay on level pegging through the full 80 mins.
2. The Wallabies tangibly improved. I often quipped that “see, we lost by 12 points last game but we only lost by 11 this game! We are getting better!” The same errors were only repeated a few times before being eliminated. I never lost faith, because these guys had pride, put their bodies on the line and goddamn improved. The Green and Gold meant everything to them, even when wearing those horrible jerseys that came out around 92/93.
And now?
Jeez, don’t know what to say except that I have no faith. I hang my head in shame and turn the AFL on instead.
That is where I see the passion, the love of their team and the willingness to die for the club.
I think it was Spiro who said so eloquently: “the Wallabies are paid like superstars but without a hero amongst them.”
A truer word was never spoken.
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Billo said | November 5th 2009 @ 3:33am | Report comment
I may be foolish, but I predict you’ll be singing a different tune after Saturday’s game.
sheek said | November 5th 2009 @ 6:51am | Report comment
Billo,
There won’t be any glory in beating a patched-together England team missing so many first-choice players.
It might make us Aussies feel better with a win under our belts, but it will be a hollow victory, presuming of course, we do win.
I agree with surferbikerboy. I would consider this one of the blandest periods in our rugby history. We have all these over-paid players running around getting all this exposure. How ironic, considering there is not one player that takes my breath away with the beauty or power of his game.
Call me old-fashioned, but back in the 70s (in NH) & 80s (SH & France) there were amateur players who had us out of our seats cheering their extraordinary skills. And these wonderful skills of former players continued mostly into the 90s.
They may not have been the sculptured, rigid athletes of today, but their ball skills were far superior to what you see today.
BennO said | November 5th 2009 @ 9:20am | Report comment
I agree with you. For me, the most frustrating thing we see week after week is that unconvincing look at the end of the game, the look the players have on their faces that attempts to say “I’m really really really angry we lost again and I’m hurting, honestly I really want to get pai- uh I mean win.”
It’s like they think they’ll get selected if they look disappointed enough.
NickF said | November 5th 2009 @ 11:55am | Report comment
Surferbikerboy, I remember seeing John Eales after losing to NZ in Melb in 1997, close to losing it in an interview, saying with very clenched jaw, “They are beatable, they ARE beatable”. His fury was obvious, he was penalised that game for getting too rough with Sean Fitzpatrick, saying to the ref that if he (the ref) wasn’t going to panalise the offside in the ruck, he (Eales) would take it into his own hands. This was very unlike John Eales, but it showed his passion and commitment. The Wallabies won the next 3 games the next year.
I spoke to my rugby-mad uncle last Sunday, saying I;m close to giving up on the Wallabies over the performance the night before (I, of course would never really do this), he replies that there was about a hundred thousand others about to do the same thing. I think he is right.
ohtani's jacket said | November 5th 2009 @ 12:33pm | Report comment
Should you have one? That’s the big question.
New Zealand supporters went through five years of thinking we should’ve won against the Wallabies, but looking back on it we didn’t have the team. Do the Wallabies have the team to beat an All Black side with Richie McCaw and Daniel Carter in it?
On what grounds should they have won? The Wallabies deserved a half time lead even if they gained it through the most dubious of tries, but did anyone really think they’d win? The All Blacks were back on the field a good two or three minutes before the Wallabies and did their talking among the players. To me, that’s the problem with the Wallabies this year. The All Blacks get on with it and the Wallabies waste too much time talking about winning.
Bay35Pablo said | November 5th 2009 @ 12:51pm | Report comment
OJ, always beware the silent assassins. Especially those in black.
mart said | November 5th 2009 @ 2:53pm | Report comment
I’m with Sheek – if the W’s don’t beat the colleaction (not a team) of Poms at the weekend then you’d really have to wonder what gives. Eng may produce an ‘out of the box’ performance of course but you have to think that the team will always beat the collection of individuals……
zhenry said | November 5th 2009 @ 7:05pm | Report comment
“They still lost a game they should have won!” Crap. I thought the Wallabies played very well and against any other team (including the Boks) probably would have won. The AB’s are hitting some form after a horrendous season of injuries (including the Super14). A lot of this ‘forever’ disappointment of not beating the AB’s is connected to the appalling attitude that many Australians (not all) have towards NZ’ers. It is often evident in the media as dumping or scapegoating and I’ve lived long enough in Australia to witness it many times.
Australians don’t think they should lose to NZ, period.
Rugby is the third rung national sport in Australia and its supporters ignore the fact that the AB’s represent a major national sport and have a ‘statistical’ (the best measuring stick as far as I am concerned) winning record that is the envy of most teams in the world. According to your guru O’Neill, an epitome of the above attitude, the Wallabies are not successful (it doesn’t matter if they win against SA UK or European teams) unless they can keep beating the AB’s. Get a life!
By all means do your best to beat them, but such a massive statistic means you are being completely unrealistic if you continually ignore the positive reasons why the AB’s usually win.