The Roar
The Roar

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Come on Wallabies, where's your pride and passion?

22nd August, 2017
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Michael Hooper is one of the Wallabies' best, but he's playing the wrong role. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Expert
22nd August, 2017
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There isn’t a writer in Australia enjoying bollocking the Wallabies’ rubbish rugby. But it’s been hell watching the game they used to play in heaven.

Sadly, there’s been zero to salute – the Wallabies have won only eight of their 19 games since the final of the Rugby World Cup in October 2015, and in the last Super Rugby tournament the five Australian rugby franchises won just 21 of their 75 games, including a first time 0-26 against the Kiwis.

But Michael Cheika can coach, skills guru Mick Byrne honed All Black abilities for a decade, and defence coach Nathan Grey was a devastating defender during his 25 Wallaby caps, and 94 games for the Waratahs.

Cheika is the only coach to win major tournaments in the northern and southern hemisphere, including the Waratahs’ success in the 2014 Super Rugby, ending a 19-year drought.

Yesterday Byrne pleaded with fans to be patient as the Wallabies are close to getting it right.

Patient and close after the All Blacks led 40-6 at halftime last Saturday before declaring with 30 minutes to go leading 54-6, allowing the Wallabies to score an unanswered 28 points?

The Aussies missed 26 tackles in the first 26 minutes for the Kiwis to lead 26-6, and by fulltime that was a massive 48 missed tackles.

That’s all-round crap rugby.

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What’s more galling is they are making the same fundamental mistakes game after game after game.

Let’s turn back the clock to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where the top ten at completion were:

1 – All Blacks 92.89 points
2 – Wallabies – 90.93
3 – Springboks 86.80
4 – Pumas 85.09
6 – Wales 83.49
6 – Ireland 81.17
6 – France 79.78
8 – England 79.77
9 – Scotland 77.94
10 – Japan 77.05

Since then, there’s a been a dramatic change in the batting order due to these stats. England has won two Six Nations since Eddie Jones took over as coach, making the men in white the best-performed nation in world rugby.

1 – England has played 20 Tests for 19 wins at 95 per cent
2 – All Blacks – 19 – 16 – 84.21
3 – Scotland – 18 – 12 – 66.67
4 – Ireland – 20 – 12 – 60
5 – Springboks – 16 – 8 – 50
5 – Wales – 20 – 10 – 50
7 – Wallabies – 19 – 8 – 42.11
8 – France – 18 – 7 – 38.89
9 – Pumas – 17 – 5 – 29.41
10 – Italy – 14 – 3 – 21.43

Now the ultimate crunch with the Wallabies in free fall from number two in the world to number five, and the flying Fijians into the top ten.

The current world rankings:

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1 – All Blacks 95.21 points
2 – England 90.14
3 – Ireland 85.39
4 – Springboks 84.57
5 – Wallabies 84.21
6 – Scotland 82.47
7 – Wales 81.75
8 – France 79.65
9 – Fiji 79.48
10 – Pumas 79.15

And there’s worse to come at Dunedin on Saturday, with New Zealand promising to play the full 80 minutes – no declaration.

Nobody in their right mind would give the Wallabies a chance of victory. But the fans deserve that even in defeat their team show the pride and passion that the gold jersey demands.

Like the Alan Jones-coached 1984 Wallabies and their history-making Grand Slam and Bledisloe.

Or the Bobby Dwyer-coached 1991 World Cup winners, and Bledisloe.

Or the Rod Macqueen-coached 1999 World Cup champions, with Bledisloe, Tri-Nations, and historic 2-1 win over the British and Irish Lions in a two-year period – the Wallabies’ greatest moments.

There were three damn good reasons why those heights were reached – Andrew Slack won 14 of 19 Tests as captain for 73.68 per cent success.

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Nick Farr-Jones 23 of 36 for 63.89.

John Eales 41 of 55 for 74.55.

The current captain, Michael Hooper? He has six from 16 for 37.50.

It’s enough to make you weep buckets of blood.

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