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Winning isn't enough for the Wallabies

Roar Guru
15th June, 2014
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The Wallabies take on Scotland, out to make the Rugby World Cup's final four. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Roar Guru
15th June, 2014
86
1809 Reads

Australian rugby can’t afford matches like Saturday night. Despite the Wallabies victory, it was a match to turn off all but the most loyal of rugby tragics.

A game like Saturday’s makes it clear that winning is less important for the Wallabies than playing in an entertaining fashion. An entertaining loss would do more for Australian rugby than a win like that.

Like it or not, professional sport is in the entertainment business. The livelihood of Australian rugby players, coaches and administrators depend on fans wanting to watch and support them. And Australian fans have a lot of alternatives.

If the fortunes of Australian rugby wasn’t so dependent on the Wallabies it might not matter so much. But as things are, the Wallabies need to play attractive rugby every single time they play, win or lose, and especially on home soil.

As a general rule, Australian fans want to see the Wallabies have a go with the ball in hand. We want to see lots of running, ball movement, counterattack from turnovers and risk taking.

We don’t want to see our team kick away the ball every time we have it in our own half. The slow play and aimless kicking in perfect conditions on Saturday night was a disgrace, and an insult to everyone watching at the ground and on TV.

There have been suggestions that the Wallabies game plan in the second Test was used to practice their ‘plan B’ for when the running game isn’t working or conditions don’t allow it. If this is the case, then in future they should notify fans in advance of such tactics so that we can make other plans.

In the Australian sporting market the Wallabies need to realise they have no choice. They need to play a high tempo, high skilled running game every time. Winning by playing in their half and turning pressure into points is a loss for the sport.

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