Attention Wallabies: can we get excited now?

 
Brett McKay Columnist

By , 6 Sep 2011 Brett McKay is a Roar Expert

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I reckon it must be time. We Wallabies supporters are notorious for pinning all hope on the slightest hint of positivity from our team, and we’ll happily have you believe that even the faintest run of anything closely resembling momentum can (and will) only end with Rugby World Cup glory.

So now that the Wallabies have actually won a title … well, ceilings aren’t built high enough to contain our current expectations!

Now sure, we know we are prone to the odd bout of over-exuberance when it comes to singing the praises of our national side, but come on, if now’s not the time to get excited about a team on the up, then when is?

Anyway, almost exactly two years ago today I wrote a column entitled “So Robbie, when can we expect some silverware?” At that time, the Wallabies had just demolished South Africa in Brisbane, and were heading to Wellington for the final game of the Tri-Nations.

Robbie Deans had promoted a young punk scrumhalf named Genia for his first Test start, and Adam Ashley-Cooper finished the best post-try celebration of the season somewhere near row K.

However, it was hard to know which Wallabies side would turn up from one week to the next. Sound familiar?

Looking back over that 2009 column, there’s a few points that still stick out now:

“And on that note, what are were building towards currently? Is the 2011 Rugby World Cup the start or the end of this ‘rebuilding phase’? What about the 2010 and 2011 Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cups before then?

Test wins here and there are great, but they’re going to need to be strung together more now, preferably bringing home some trophies for the dusty, disused cabinet.

I know there’s been a lot of necessary change and experimentation, and I appreciate that a new coach needs time to put his stamp on proceedings.

But surely the time must be rapidly approaching where the Wallabies are no longer ‘in transition’ and once again are just The Wallabies?”

Thankfully, the ARU cabinet is no longer empty and dusty, and depending on which SANZAR country’s papers you read, the Tri Nations trophy is set to become as long term an installation at HQ as Robbie Deans himself.

And I reckon too, for most of the last twelve months, if I’m honest, that we have actually been watching The Wallabies. Apart from maybe a few back-up options in certain positions, the matchday 22 is essentially a known entity. Thankfully. The experimentation looks to be done.

This then begs the question asked within the heading. If I use myself as the benchmark for the average Wallaby fan, the Tri-Nations win is a justifiable reason to be feeling good about the next six weeks in New Zealand.

Only the most patriotic and/or financially secure of bookmakers would be silly enough to install the Wallabies ahead of the All Blacks as RWC favourites, and with good reason. But I bet more than a few are just a tad nervous, with Australia looking like decent value on the second line.

The best part about the quest to lift “Bill” is that you only have to play New Zealand once. Heck, if the gods are Wallaby fans too, we might not have to play them at all.

Either way, beating the All Blacks just once is no longer the scary prospect it once was. It’s still daunting, given it still has to happen in New Zealand, but I’d reckon the Wallabies’ first half demolition of the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations decider has given more than a few teams a bit of confidence as they arrive in the Shaky Isles this week.

So I’d reckon the sudden buoyancy among the Wallaby faithful is well warranted. But what about the rest of the arriving nations?

Perhaps the bigger question is whether the growing confidence on this side of the ditch is relative to any growing concerns on the eastern side? Is there any concern at all? The wags will of course suggest that New Zealand’s quadrennial rugby implosion begins this Friday night, but I think only the foolhardy and outright cruel truly believe that.

And what of South Africa?

Will the decision to leave 21 first-choice players back home at a just-don’t-call-it-a-training camp during the Tri-Nations become 2011’s Kamp Staaldraad over time? In his excellent RWC companion book, Spiro suggests that the Springboks’ age factor is going to be a major problem for them, and going by their Tri-Nations form, I find it difficult to argue with this line of thought.

Will England even be allowed into the country this week, after having the audacity to choose black as their alternate RWC strip colour?

I mean, the hide of them, no-one wears the same colour as anyone else! Will their Six Nations stability pull them through to the pointy end of the competition? And have they worked out whether Toby Flood or Jonny Wilkinson will wear the no.10?

Can Argentina once again become Rugby World Cup darlings and emulate their giant-killing run from 2007? Could it be a complete “Quad-Nations” sweep for the semis?

Could France’s uncanny knack of winning in New Zealand have them placed as the best northern hemisphere chance? And which Irish, Scottish, and Welsh teams will show up?

And who will be the tournament’s smokey? My hunch is it might be Samoa, and the Pacific seems the right part of the rugby world to produce the 2011 edition’s fairytale.

It all begins this Friday, of course, and no matter who you support or how irrational that support may be, now certainly is the time to get excited. It should be a cracking spectacle of rugby, and whoever wins will have played incredibly well over seven games.

Just look out if that turns out to be the Wallabies!

Follow Brett McKay on Twitter: @BMcSport
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