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Wallabies coach Robbie Deans talks to the team during the Wallabies Captain's run in Sydney on Friday, July 25, 2008. AAP Image/Jenny Evans
Many explanations have been given for the terrible failure of the Australian team to be competitive this year: lack of pride, lack of mental toughness, bad organisation from the coaching team.
However, the true reason is blindingly simple: Australian rugby only produces two-thirds of a Tri-Nations team in quality players, that is, 10 players out of 15, while New Zealand and South Africa produce more or less 15.
All three sides have roughly equally excellent coaching teams, and so when two teams have largely better players, they will most of the time beat the team with weaker players, except for occasional moments when the weaker team perform above themselves.
The ARU’s current strategy for combating this is supposedly to put money into the grass-roots level of the game, and in addition, to try and buy young league players before they become famous.
Basically, to grow the game and hence playing numbers.
Whether this is working in the long term or not, the fact remains that at the moment, and for the next few years, Robbie Deans simply does not have enough good players to beat his regular opposition.
And a corresponding loss of interest in rugby, and hence a decline in playing numbers – exactly what is to be avoided – will eventuate.
The solution is the following: John O’Neill needs to go on a massive spending spree.
This would have the twin advantages of increasing the strength of the national team and, as some of the players brought would come from rugby league, bringing more glamour to the code and weakening its rival.
If the game in Australia is not currently producing enough players, there is nothing wrong with supplementing it from league.
The moderate possibility: buy Dan Vickerman and Mark Gasnier. This would naturally strengthen the team in two fundamental positions.
The bold possibility:
Australia’s real problems lie in the outside backs. Drew Mitchell, Lachie Turner, James O’Connor and Adam Ashley-Cooper produced little or nothing in attack this year and only got away with it because in their positions, as opposed to the forwards, so long as a player does little wrong, it goes unnoticed that he hasn’t done anything spectacular.
Any league players who might be brought in to improve the team have to be acquired this season, as by next year, they would not have long enough to adapt before the World Cup.
This means buying out contracts and spending a lot of money.
However, what’s the point in spending a fortune on 28 year-old Gasnier when for a little more, the better Greg Inglis, who is 22, could be had?
O’Neill could buy Greg Inglis, Israel Folau, and Jarryd Hayne.
This would cost a lot, and involve buying out contracts, but it would have huge advantages:
1) Vastly strengthening the Australian team in its weakest areas.
2) League is surging in popularity at union’s expense. As any growth of a similar code is bound to damage the other, a move such as this would be a hammer blow to its momentum and bring back interest and glamour to union.
It would also create the impression that union is more attractive, as along with Mark Gasnier and Sonny Bill Williams, so many of league’s top stars would have moved over recently.
It could initiate a flood of conversions.
In addition, imagine the increased interest in the Super teams where these players would be based?
I wouldn’t overestimate how difficult it is to lure players like Inglis. They must be aware that playing a sport where nine of the teams are in the same city hardly constitutes the grandest stage for a great sportsman.
If O’Neill were to buy these three players and create a national competition, he would have guaranteed the game’s short-term and long-term future.
Sure, that would cost a lot. But what’s the alternative?
A huge decline in rugby’s popularity in Australia, a period of absolute disaster for the national team and the legacy of O’Neill as a catastrophe.
The money must be found, from more Bledisloe matches, from anywhere, even if it’s risky.
The decision now looms for the Wallabies and rugby in Australia: spend big, or be reduced to rags.
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.