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It’s a Rugby World Cup year and many people have been commenting on how the Wallabies can win this year, or at least be competitive.
There have been articles and comments on scrum woes, injuries and lack of depth, the All Blacks being unbeatable, and referee interpretations.
However, after spending the weekend watching over 40 under-12 teams from Queensland and New South Wales play in The Armidale School Primary Rugby Carnival, I want to cast the gaze further and ask how can we win the Rugby World Cup in 12, 16 and 20 years’ time?
I ask this because the boys who played in the carnival should be of an age where they are beginning to break into the National Rugby Championships, Super Rugby and the Wallabies. Some may even have established themselves as regulars in these teams.
So how do we develop the raw talent that was on display at this carnival, and across Australia, into a World Cup winning team?
I know Michael Cheika, as Waratahs coach, has a number of people who watch games and report back on talented rugby players from around the age of 16 onwards. This is something that I hope he continues to encourage in all Australian teams during his tenure as Wallabies coach.
In fact, it should be part of the national coach’s job description to help develop the future of the game by seeing past the here and now results, and push what will be beneficial for the teams to come. This is something neither Wallabies coaches nor the ARU have focussed on as much as they should in the past.
To create players who are capable of winning a Rugby World Cup in the future we need to remove the variables we so often debate. Let’s take away referees, opposition, and law changes that may occur over the next 12-20 years and focus upon the things we can control.
Essentially we need to create a core curriculum that all players in Australian rugby should be exposed to. Some of these are already spelled out by the ARU, but these are the things that should be central to an Australian rugby curriculum:
1. A ‘games for understanding’ training approach in developing skill
2. Confidence in contact
3. Promotion of skill development, not winning
4. A three-season year to encourage youth participation in many sports
A ‘games for understanding’ approach to skill development means that coaches use lots of small-sided and open-ended games to develop players’ skills. These not only develop skills, especially in catch and pass, they also promote decision-making, creative thinking, offloading, track and tackle, and work at the tackle contest. These are general rugby skills, not position-specific, that all players should be coached in.
To promote confidence in contact we need to have kids playing against other kids of similar size and ability. This will help the remove the perception that rugby is a game where kids will get hurt because they’re bashing into kids who are much bigger. This is especially relevant through the 11 to 14 year age groups, where growth spurts can cause major discrepancies in size.
The promotion of skill development over winning through these age groups is also very important. Many coaches encourage their team to throw it to the biggest kid in the team, who steamrolls them forward and often over the try line. This affects skill development because the ‘win at all cost’ mentality promotes the bigger and more powerful players over the top of coaching players’ tactical skills.
The fourth point may cause most controversy, as it would require cooperation from youth sporting bodies across the country. Players in youth sport up until 15 or 16 should be playing a variety of different sports to experience different games and develop varied athletic skills. Only once players reach 15 or 16 should they begin to specialise in a single sport and focus their attention.
This would allow athletes to sample a variety of sports over a longer period of time. Certainly, with the proliferation of sports available in Australia we may lose some to other codes. However, there is also the possibility of gaining athletes who see the prospects that rugby union can offer over other sports.
As much as I hope we can win the Rugby World Cup in 2015 we need to be planning ahead to win more in the future, and not rest on our laurels of winning two before we were overtaken by everyone else.
I hope that come the 2027 World Cups and beyond some of the boys who played on the weekend are showing the world what Australian rugby can do.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.