By Garth Hamilton
November 25th 2009 @ 5:59am
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Give the Wallabies two jars of passion, please
Australian rugby union backs Quade Cooper, Adam Ashley-Cooper, James O'Connor, Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell remove the tape they used to prepare themselves to take on the forwards during a practice session in Sydney on Thursday, July 23, 2009. The Wallabies next match will be against South Africa in Cape Town on August 8. AAP Image/Paul Miller
“I’m a great believer in loud noise,” confessed the kilted Scot seated beside me as he raised his plastic blowhorn to his lips. There were twenty minutes to go, the Scots were bristling, the Aussies were bumbling and Murrayfield was absolutely buzzing.
My new friend was certainly not alone in his love of volume but between blasts on his plastic instrument that resembled music in much the same way as Matt Giteau and Quade Cooper resembled a composed midfield he admitted his hope far outweighed his belief.
As a Queensland Reds fan I knew what he was talking about. Hope is what you have when you’re only weapon is passion.
Belief, at least, needs a good set of second rows.
Australia had enough weapons, spearheaded again by Wycliff Palu, but our mistakes and poor option taking began to mount.
“We’d need you Aussies to keep stuffing up for us to win,” my noisy neighbour said with the sort of sombre foresight that can only be attained after four pints.
That this little gem of what he would later describe as ‘forward-thinking hindsight’ was followed by a quiet but prolonged burp seemed to me entirely appropriate and in no way diminished his authority on the subject.
It could have been the smuggled-in whiskey talking but the Wallaby backline began to annoy me. What the hell happened to Robbie Deans’ much lauded ethos of “playing what’s in front of you?”
It is wet and windy, the Scots are tackling like demons and ‘playing what’s in front of you’ somehow means tossing the ball aimlessly about the backline?
I felt a good cathartic rant coming on and wanted to tell anyone who’d listen that we should be kicking the ball to the bloody corners all night long and letting our fat men do the work.
I told the horn-blowing Scot that I feared living in a running-rugby dreamtime makes us too proud to play the percentages but he was preoccupied with a newly purchased pasty.
Riding shotgun on a bandwagon of empty praise following defeat avoidances against a broken England and an early season Ireland, the Wallabies, with a few precious exceptions, looked like they were running drills on the training ground rather than fighting for their right to wear a national jersey.
Scotland on the other hand looked exactly like what they were – an honest team aware of their limitations but fighting tooth and nail to grab a little piece of glory.
As Australia mounted their last minute attack Scotland’s passionate defence on the field was reflected off it and the pasty-eating Scot was frenzying himself towards hope’s outer edge.
I envied him. I wanted the Wallabies to play with that same passion.
Perhaps passion is best kept in the hearts of the oft defeated. Perhaps a winning culture develops a more sober approach that values the level head above the (and I promised myself I wouldn’t use this phrase) brave heart.
I don’t think its as simple as that and good teams need a healthy portion of each but what was clear on this rainy Edinburgh night was that Australia had all the possession but neither the passion nor the belief to peel off a victory.
With Australia’s final stuff up, Giteau’s missed conversion attempt at full time, the jubilation of Scotland’s win came hooting from the throats of a healthy but not sold-out Murrayfield and I left rather comforted by the result. An Australian win would have been undeserved and somehow vulgar.
This decade John O’Neil has purchased for Australian rugby the finest leaguies money could buy as well as the most successful coach in super rugby history.
What price a modicum of passion?
Garth is the secretary of the London branch of Wooden Spoon, rugby's charity for disadvantaged children. If you would like to know more about Spoon please visit the website.
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(14)
johnny-boy said | November 25th 2009 @ 7:52am | Report comment
I dont think the Wallabies lack passion for their country or the jersey. Thats just deeply insulting for guys who put their bodies on the line to get smased each week. Nor do I think the current rugby structure is flawed given it has produced more world cups than any other system in the world. The problem is that the Wallabies have no passion for the NZ style of game they are being forced to try and play. The best thing they could do is to lock Deans in the toilets and tell him to shove it, we are doing it our way ! I read Elsom being quoted as saying they might just attack. Well hello – go for it boys ! And ffs gits move to 12 where you’re genius can be appreciated. Its time for a player revolt. Otherwise, a large proportion of the fans wil desert them, which will hurt their salaries …
JiMMM said | November 25th 2009 @ 8:19am | Report comment
And a cup of concrete (probably need one each)
Go_the_Wannabe's said | November 25th 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment
Like in the great depression, all we can do is hang tough and hope this is the bottom.
I don’t believe changing out the players or coaches will make a lot of difference. The players and coaches should be professional enough to work out how to get out of this trough they’ve found themselves in.
I’ll tell you something for free though, the players will need to recognize that if they don’t start winning, then Deans will be the first to get it in the neck. I don’t know how much respect they have for Deans and whether or not they believe he should stay, but we’ll soon find out if they don’t start winning……soon.
Mad Mex said | November 25th 2009 @ 12:14pm | Report comment
As a relative novice to the game they play in heaven, the results from the Grand Slam seem to be indicative of the situation Rugby in Australia finds itself in. A first up win against England, fuelling excitement that this could indeed be the tour that turns the Wallabies fortunes around, followed by 80 minutes of excellent rugby only to be denied a deserved victory from the run of O’Driscoll. Then, when hope and adulation, as well as a degree of empathy for the draw (loss?) against the Irsh are bestwoed upon the Wallabies they capitulate in a game that they are odds on to win.
Now as I say, I’m a novice to this game having arrived north of the border a few years back, and only being recently exposed to this game through a rah rah tragic of a boss. However from my observations, it would appear that the Wallabies results reflect that of the dire predicament of rugby in Australia. I may be mistaken but the 2nd coming of O’Neil was hailed as a shot in the arm that rugby needed to reaffirm its standing as one of our leading sports. However little, from my point of view, has changed. Similarly, the coup in delivering Deans to the top job with the Wallabies was perceived as an absolute steal and one that was going to transform the Wallabies into a force again to be reckoned with. Both appointments provided hope however I’m yet to see this transcend into a) any improvement at state or grass root levels and b) any improvement in the Wallabies results.
As an AFL fan, I may be postulating the obvious (or the naive) but it would appear to me that there are two areas in which the ARU could begin to sure up rugby within this country.
1. Surely there needs to be a commission/board, free of ego, that can work together to primarily inject funds into the future generation of players (i.e. grassroots rugby, schools etc much like the AFL do)
2. With regards to the Wallabies, play the kids. They are the future and the time to expose them to big time rugby is now while there is still time to get formations, structures correct before the next World Cup.
Can anyone provide me with an answer to if these are realsitic points (apologies if they are already being actioned). Is there the corporate support to finance development in grass roots rugby and expansion? Surely, with the advent of Melbourne securing the final spot for S15 there is an opportunity to begin to expose Victorians to the game of rugby (Victorians of all ages but especially the kids).
I love sport in general and have really begun to take to rugby and the intricacies of it. I think Victorians are more likely to embrace this than the Storm as historically, union has had a presence in some school programs down there. I just cannot understand why in this day and age, it is being administered (and played) in a fashion that is alienating fans?
Jim Boyce said | November 25th 2009 @ 12:33pm | Report comment
Mad Max – You first point is the hurdle which appears to be the problem. We now have the CEO of Australian Rugby starting an Inquiry before the team has finished its matches in the UK. But wait the grilling will also alledgedly include Board members participation and he has already telegraphed that certain members of the coaching team and senior players are excess baggage. This team has had hot and cold performances thriugh 2009 But it sounds like a CEO wanting to share the blame as well as choose the team.
I will not even go into your second point about the structure of rugby and juniors. It is not a good situation.
Parisien said | November 25th 2009 @ 11:23am | Report comment
Two jars of team skill and collective talent please.
Ben said | November 25th 2009 @ 12:07pm | Report comment
How about two sessions with one NRL team and one AFL team working on skills ?
Sheldon said | November 25th 2009 @ 5:45pm | Report comment
Can you Wallabies please show some consistency. I am trying to make a decision on what is going to happen between us and the Irish this weekend. Your form is as mad as a stabbed cat. Only team this year to beat the “top” Springboks side, with great attacking rugby. You draw with the Irish, a loss to the Scotts who a week prior had barely limped home over Fiji. Quade Cooper is over rated. He has a had a long enough chance to prove himself, I think its time Robbie Deans moved on.
brad said | November 25th 2009 @ 6:13pm | Report comment
none of the Australian teams made the super rugby finals. Australia has no Proffesional Domestic league, I think they are going pretty well for a semi Pro outfit. Look at Argentina They have no Proffesionla Domestic league and the wallabies are way better than them and Italy. In fact out of the Semii Pro countries like Japan, Italy, Argentina teh Wallabies are by far the best. Thats something to be very proud of guys.
Garth's New Kilted Friend said | November 25th 2009 @ 9:47pm | Report comment
buuuurp!
Viscount Crouchback said | November 26th 2009 @ 3:09am | Report comment
Did anyone hear about John Smit’s take on passion?
Apparently he picked up a glass in a Springbok team meeting and chucked it against the wall, showering the players in fragments. Then he said: “There. That’s passion. Gone in an instant”.
pothale said | November 26th 2009 @ 3:22am | Report comment
Yeah – good headline. Did you read in the extract in his book – Captain in the Cauldron – of what he said to his players when they had gone behind to Fiji in the last quarter of the WC semi-final?
The bible would have been shorter.
Interesting that Boks have now called up Jean de Villiers for the match on Saturday. So much for the foreign policy selection of the Boks. Adi Jacobs has gone home with an ankle injury. How fortuitous.
Objective said | November 26th 2009 @ 12:56pm | Report comment
Brad’s reference to the WOE-llabies as “Semi-professional” is about the most accurate description of this current mob of hacks. Rugby union’s genuine lack of grass roots support, at both the spectator and cultural level, is being cruelly exposed. There are just not that many good rugby union players in Australia at any one time. The main reason is because it is essentially a fringe sport, boutique if you like.
Outside of the phenomenon of the Japanese football J-League and millions convincing themselves that cricket is actually worth staying up for, John O’Neill’s trick of convincing most of Australia that union is, and always was, an intrinsic part of the national fabric and psyche ranks as the marketing coup of the century. His superbly-timed explotation of a temporarily-weak NRL was a masterstroke in filling a void that rugby fans, of both codes, were desperate to see. Having a once-in-a-lifetime generation of superb players (Eales, Finnegan, Burke, Roff, Larkham, Gregan, Giffin, Kefu et al) was just lucky. We will never have that depth of talent again. These factors created the illusion that hid the truth of the matter. That is, that rugby union is just not a very big sport in Australia. It’s support base is fickle because it is not in the blood of many people.
I mean, who talks about the great union grand finals? How many people could name the top few Waratahs of the 80s? Who was Trevor Allen? What is Steve Finnane most famous for? Who was in the ‘84 Grand Slam tight-five? Who could legitimately answer these questions? But everyone in Sydney knows about the Eels- Bulldogs rivalry of the 1980s; the Lewis-Geyer confrontation in Origin ‘91; the thrilling ‘89 GF. And, people actually go to league club games. How many people go to union club games in Sydney? Squat.
So to expect us to have a steady stream of top-notch talent is a big ask. The current crop is a pretty fair indicator of where we sit on the world rugby ladder. Average. Possibly middling. Union is just not part of our culture the way it is NZ and SOuth Africa.
Add to this that the current team are pretty much all soft. There are no genuine bullies or hard men in the team. No one to strike fear into the hearts of opposing packs. There are also no creative ball runners. You find them in league these days. Who among the current Wallaby backline is anywhere near the standard of league stars like Greg Inglis, Jarryd Hayne, Justin Hodges or Michael Jennings? Exactly. None. The Wallaby’s backline is one-dimensional, both individually and collectively.
What I am trying to say is that we are just not very good at rugby at the moment. And our guys are soft. There is not much you can do about it.
The way it is! said | November 26th 2009 @ 8:59pm | Report comment
Spot on!