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109 years on, Australian rugby teams still kick away possession

Roar Guru
17th May, 2012
37

I have two excellent books at home, each based on the men who first captained the Wallabies and Kangaroos respectively. For interest, our first ever Wallaby captain was centre Frank Row in 1899.

Our first Kangaroo captain was prop/hooker Arthur Hennessy in 1908. Hennessy was a hardworking and diligent forward, if on the smallish and slowish side. However, he was good enough to represent New South Wales in rugby union on a handful of occasions and when the split occurred, became rugby league’s first test skipper.

Hennessy’s greatest legacy was being the Australian rugby league’s first supercoach and founding father of the great South Sydney Rabbitohs club. Hennessy was instrumental in developing the “running rugby” style firstly in rugby union, then in rugby league.

Hennessy was greatly influenced by New Zealand rugby’s ‘running game’ and ‘no kicking’ edict of his time, and was determined to introduce it into the Australian game wherever he could.

In my book on Kangaroo captains, Hennessy was greatly impressed by Kiwi legendary tactician Jimmy Duncan, and tells the story of how Duncan pulled Hennessy aside one day and informed him that he couldn’t understand why Australian rugby union teams would fight to win the ball and then kick away possession at the first opportunity.

“Possession and position were everything”, Duncan said.

That’s worth repeating: Duncan couldn’t understand why Australian rugby union teams would fight to win the ball then kick away possession at the first opportunity. “Possession and position were everything”, Duncan said.

My dear fellow Roarers, you could be forgiven for thinking this was said just the other day, or week, or month, in relation to our current Super Rugby teams, especially the New South Wales Waratahs.

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But these words were spoken in about 1903 – 109 years ago! Which goes to show that the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.

Why, just today in the Sydney Daily Telegraph is a historical piece on how many of the world’s first stock exchanges began their life. Businessmen, traders, brokers and the like would gather in coffee houses in Europe and North America in the 1600s and 1700s, from which eventually formed into stock exchanges.

Now in the 2000s much the same is happening in cafes throughout the western world. The coffee might be made differently, but the bean is essentially the same. Just as the discussion might have different emphasis but the message is still the same, “let’s do a deal”, or “let’s do lunch next week”.

It’s also the reason why history is important. It tells us where we came from, how we got here, and how we might progress.

If Tahs headman Michael Foley, or any of his assistants, or many of the so called professional coaches of Australian Super Rugby teams had bothered to read the exchange between Duncan and Hennessy, they might also realise they are horribly misinformed to think that kicking away possession is in any way a sensible or successful tactic.

Throughout his coaching career at South Sydney and at the Waverley College rugby union school, Hennessy advocated a “no kicking” policy, with players threatened with the sack if they committed a kick during a game.

Today we might argue that there are times when kicking is necessary, even as a tactical ploy to pierce the defence and quickly regain possession (grubber kick, chip through, winger centre kick, etc), but kicking should be a “last resort”, not a “first option”.

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