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RATHBONE: Beale drama exposes flaws in the national setup

16th October, 2014
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Kurt Beale is back in town. (Photo: Paul Barkley/LookPro)
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16th October, 2014
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I’m not much of a sports fan. While I can occasionally still get caught up in struggle and passion of a gripping contest, my interest seems to be waning with time.

I realise this must seem a strange admission, at least for someone who was a professional athlete for virtually their entire adult life.

But it’s the truth.

I think I’ve developed the growing realisation that no amount of money can make any game a great deal more than a game.

Occasionally, though, sport opens our eyes to something fundamental about the human experience and in doing so it becomes intriguing. And so it is with the Australian Wallabies.

Back in 2004, Eddie Jones invited a gangly schoolboy to a Wallabies training camp in Coffs Harbour. I’d never heard of him, and, perhaps biased by the affirmative action polices in my homeland, thought the entire exercise reeked of window dressing.

I was wrong. Very wrong.

Not ten minutes into the training session I knew we were witnessing a prodigy in action. This toothy 16 year old was incredible. Taking the ball to the line and throwing pinpoint passes, goose stepping, swerving and chip kicking…

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Kurtley Beale put on a show.

I remember being convinced that it was only a matter of time before Kurtley’s freakish talents were unleashed on world rugby.

A few years later, I found myself sitting next to KB on a flight to a coaching clinic in rural Australia. I liked him immediately. He struck me as a humble, level-headed kid lacking any of the less charitable qualities that have recently been attributed to him.

At the coaching clinic, he seemed to possess boundless enthusiasm for the attending children and their endless questions.

I was impressed.

And so it’s been bemusing and ultimately rather sad that Kurtley’s career has begun to resemble a Shakespearean tragedy. His latest blunder appears so damaging that many have begun to question just how brutal the bloodletting will get.

Business manager, Di Patston, who after being on the receiving end of Beale’s epic stupidity, quit, and then had her name dragged through the mud for good measure.

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And as for Ewen McKenzie, the promise of the Super Rugby season and the hope it extended to his Wallabies must seem like a distant mirage. The Rugby Championship has seen the Wallabies unravel as they lurch from one embarrassment to the next.

But just as quickly as the pieces have come apart, so too can they be galvanised.

It won’t happen without strong leadership from within the team. Senior players must recognise the difference between the cherished virtue of loyalty and the blind unthinking support of stupidity.

And Ewen McKenzie must acknowledge that strong characters within his team require strong leadership from him.

The polarisation between the All Black handling of Aaron Cruden’s misdemeanour, and the indecisive way the Beale debacle has been managed does much to explain the gulf between both teams on the field.

The All Blacks have developed a culture that demands the highest standards of selfless professionalism.

For the Wallabies to climb back into the top echelon of world rugby, they must first meet the All Black standards of professionalism off the pitch.

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This also requires a shift in the way the team is resourced.

It’s become routine for Wallabies players returning to Brumbies training to comment on the superiority of the provincial program. How can the Wallabies expect to be competitive when our state level rugby programs exceed the quality of the national program?

The only meaningful way forward requires real answers to these simple questions.

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