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There is trouble brewing on a number of fronts. The Super 14 is so different to the Heineken Cup – we’re almost watching two separate games. The games are framed by different sets of laws, played differently, refereed differently and seemingly watched differently.
In the SANZAR paradigm, crowds are sparse, and administrators live in perpetual fear of “the creep” from other codes.
The Super 14 product, for all it’s tinkering, is poor at best.
Meanwhile in the North the unique rugby contest is alive and well. The buzz leading into the Irish six nations triumph was encouragingly exceeded by the standard of play in the final match.
And the atmosphere? Once in a lifetime.
Now we hear that Rocky Elsom might not be honoring his “gentlemen’s agreement” to return to the Waratahs after one season in Dublin. This all points to the inescapable truth that the Southern Hemisphere is simply becoming a series of feeder competitions for the Northern Hemisphere where the crowds and the real rugby cash reside.
Just as in soccer, whilst Argentina and Brazil may have the best players, these individuals are soon whisked away as teenagers to the talent hungry mega-clubs of Europe. Witness the South African surge into Saracens and the trend is quickly becoming a truism.
In parallel to this we are also witnessing Australia’s finest rugby minds make the same pilgrimage to Europe.
There are just 5 professional jobs open to Australian coaches – now only three due to the presence of Deans and Mitchell. Ambitious Australian coaches have had to travel north to find work and have then excelled in their ability to adapt to the demands of Premiership and European rugby.
When Andy Friend was over looked for the Force as inaugural coach (a decision that now looks pretty damn stupid with the genius of retrospect) he took his family to South-West London to quickly return the demoted Harlequins to topflight rugby.
Quins were noted as the glamour boys of West London, such that when the going got tough the Quins went looking for a taxi to the nightclubs of Soho. A tough assignment perhaps.
Andy Friend (a career coach after injury curtailed what had been a stellar school boy career), set about adding steel to Quins and creating a culture of honesty, toughness and damn attractive rugby football union.
I visited the modest Quins HQ on a number of occasions during his three season stint which culminated in the most Harlequins players ever selected in the English squad and their highest finish in the professional era.
Unwanted by the Waratahs I am sure Friend was quietly smiling into his cornflakes in Canberra when he watched the squad he shaped, come from behind in that incredible wet Saturday night earlier this season to beat Stade Francais at the Stoop, and storm into the Heineken Cup play offs.
Friend’s arrival overlapped with the time of Pat Howard at Leicester. There are some former internationals who should never, ever be asked to take charge of any organization let alone a rugby club, but Pat Howard was born to coach.
An enquiring mind and a shrewd operator, Pat’s tenure at Leicester is unlikely to be repeated by any British club in the modern era. Three successive finals appearances in one season – the domestic cup, the domestic league then the European cup – was an incredible achievement.
Although ambushed by Wasps at the final hurdle, Howard had shaped, persuaded and coerced this English ruby institution to his own vision from the training pitch, to the playing style, to the medical facilities and commercial coordination.
Typically with such dynamic figures, Howard left a gaping vacuum that the Tigers might take a rugby generation to recover from (5 years in my estimation – they have had three high profile coaches in less than the two years since he departed to the homing beacon of Brisbane).
There are others, but notably we can now add one William Millard to this list of Australian’s to come north and conquer. Millard the former Australian 7’s coach, raised in that rugby hot house of Adelaide has taken to his chosen vocation with the intensity of someone you’d expect who is constantly questioned for being a South Australian in an East Coast world.
Millard took the job as attack coach at Cardiff this season.
If there is one team in world rugby that should by rights be successful it is Cardiff. Adored by their fans and situated at the hub of Welsh rugby. However it appears the Millennium Stadium that towers over the Arms Park is too heavy a burden for this perpetually under achieving professional unit.
Is it just a coincidence then that the sleeping giant of European rugby has finished a top the European pool stages the same season Millard arrived?
Whilst Friend is a calm thoughtful figure and Howard is the embodiment of the rugby professional, Millard brings the intensity and charisma of a man instinctively considered an outsider.
As such, Cardiff head into the Easter weekend as the number one European club so far this season. For their success they play Toulouse at home in the quarterfinal. Some prize. The very next weekend: Cardiff has its first chance at meaning fulsilver ware (SWALEC cup aside) since players were left “expenses” in their boots. The Blues take on Gloucester in the final of the domestic cup competition at Twickenham. The club’s first visit up the M4 since 1947 no less.
Cardiff rather than being the star studded, over paid under achievers now have an aura of desperation. They win ugly if needs be, are technically superb, fight hard for each other and there is an edginess to the playing staff. All classic Millard stuff as the boys at University who made those 200 plus tackles to defeat Randwick in the 2006 grand final can testify.
So whilst Colonel O’Neill of the southern renegades maybe pretentiously threatening to remove SANZAR nations on mass from the rugby world cup over the rules brew ha, ha.
The brightest and most motivated minds of the Australian pond are and have been forging a path as flexible, committed and winning coaches in the rarefied air of European competition.
Now if only we could sort this mess out over the rules.
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.