“Bonjour et bienvenue au retour les bleus royale – hello and welcome back the royal blues”.
And yes, I did use Google to make sure I had the words right.
As a traditionalist it was so pleasing to see the French back in their royal blue jerseys (although slightly darker than I remember) plus their red stockings.
So thumbs down to those marketeers who thought it might be an ‘idee fixe le grande’ to have the French imitate the All Blacks by playing in a deep navy blue. Instead it turned out to be an ‘idee fixe le petit’ (google it).
So much for misguided obsessions.
Obviously the French players themselves must have liked playing in the royal blue again because they totally shut out the Wallabies on awkward surface conditions at Stade de France.
It’s difficult to imagine this was basically the same Wallabies outfit that crafted a tryless but gallant 18-18 draw with the All Blacks in their previous outing. Les Bleus dominated across the park – at the scrum, at the lineout, at the breakdown, at the tackle and even showed more enterprise in attack.
In his most recent article for The Roar, David Campese lamented the Wallabies’ overuse of the pick and drive and regretfully, it was on show again last night. For me a poignant period of the match occurred about 20 minutes into the first half with the Wallabies trailing 3-10.
After a sustained period of attack, the Wallabies were awarded a penalty which they kicked to trail 6-10. But this was a wasteful period for the Wallabies who could have and perhaps should have scored a try plus conversion to make it 10-10.
I found myself screaming at the TV for the Wallabies to play it wide left and later right, then left again, where the French defence was skinny. However, they continued with the pick and drive up the centre.
The lack of variety in their play was suffocating for a fan. It was only in the last quarter, trailing 6-30 with the game lost, that the Wallabies began to consistently play with width.
I call this ‘cowardly rugby’, whereby teams only adopt adventure once the cause is lost. If you’re not willing to take chances when the game is there to be won, then you simply don’t deserve to win at all.
Also last night I witnessed a thrilling football contest between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory. Despite trailing 0-2 with just 12 official minutes remaining, Victory never gave up on a game in which they had dominated but failed to convert.
Then in 12 minutes or so, they converted three times to pull off a deserved victory. It was a win for the brave, the gallant, the adventurous.
As the SAS motto says, “who dares, wins.” (Certainly most often).
Last night the Wallabies failed to dare (until it was too late) and they lost. The French deserved the victory. Their basics, especially at the scrum, were superior. They were also more enterprising and it resulted in a comprehensive victory.
I found it interesting in the past week that Roar expert Spiro Zavos has been more political than usual, chiding anyone who is a “non-believer” in the healthy state of Australian rugby.
I greatly respect Spiro as a writer and as a person. When I disagree, I disagree respectfully, as I do now.
I think Australian rugby is in a mess which will take time to sort out, but firstly, those running the game need to firstly acknowledge they have a few problems.
The on-field problems of the Wallabies might seem to be easily fixed by some fans who say “sack Deans and all will be well”. If only it would be that easy.
The fall-off in basic skills will take a while longer to rectify. Our game has serious domestic structural flaws which very few are even willing to acknowledge, let alone attempt to fix.
I read just this weekend that for the first time some GPS, CAS and ISA schools will have an organised Australian football comp at year seven and year eight The headmaster of St. Aloysius College was quoted as saying words to the effect that the private schools were being ignored by rugby, while the AFL and NSW/ACTFL were eager to help.
Only dumb people will wait until things hit rock-bottom before doing something about it. There are sufficient warning signs that Australian rugby is beset by myriad problems which, left unattended, will fester into bigger issues.
The wayward Wallabies are just one symptom of those many problems.
Gaulois
Guest
Hello, I'm looking for an other picutre angle of the last AB penalty during the WC final. The TV NZ gives only one movie with only one angle...Usually the TV shows a penalty with 2 or 3 angles, why only one here ? So if you have this please give me the URL please. Merci.
John
Guest
Sheek That is exacty the point that I am trying to make. I have heard far too many people say things along the lines of Rugby will be ok in Australia because its in the Olympics or because its an international game and I just think its a rubbish argument and it is far too complacent. When the AFL start attacking the GPS schools, as it seems like they are going to, and keep expanding into NSW and Queensland and the NRL keep increasing the salary cap each year, start expanding into places like Perth and spending its new found wealth consolidfating its position in NSW and Queensland I think people saying oh Rugby will be fine because its played seriously in a dozen or so countries is just laughable. Soccer is the most global game on the planet, it is genuinly played in every country in the world but it has meant nothing in terms of it challenging the AFL and NRL in Australia. At the moment I see 3 codes on the rise in Austalia and at the moment can only see Rugby, as well as Cricket for that matter, suffering. Australian rugby has far too long got by on the back of the Wallabies being successful and punching way above their weight which has helped to cover the cracks and prop up the game here, as well as give it the money it has had. However the Wallabies are now weak and we have seen the effects of that over the last couple of years with matches not selling out etc. If the domestic competition, players,fans and structures arent in place and/or are being eroded by the AFL and NRL, as I think they will be in the next few years, then that just means a weaker Wallabies which leads to a weaker Rugby in Australia which in turn will lead to an even weaker competition, less players and less fans. It is a vicious circle. I feel that Rugby had its big chance back in 2003 and blew it, it was cashed up and could have started a genuine domestic competition and to boot the NRL was on its knees after the Super League war. However it went for a series of short cuts and quick fixes which painted a false image when the Wallabies were successful. Now they are not what is there to fall back on?
sheek
Roar Guru
John, Precisely. Fans in Australia, like anywhere else, care only that their chosen sport gives them a bang for their buck. Australian football fans don't care if their game isn't played anywhere else. As long as the product is strong HERE. Australian rugby league fans don't care if their game is only played in a handful of countries. As long as the product is strong HERE. American football fans & Gaelic football fans only care that their product is strong in their countries. Australian rugby union fans are misguided in thinking they can continue to exist by hanging onto the coat tails of other countries.
sixo_clock
Roar Guru
cheers, SMI, Its the little things; like pumping your legs after the contact, lowering your body to avoid the full force of the tackle, spinning to avoid a grip which translate into winning (or not losing) those collisions as Kafe puts it. These then turn a breakdown into an opportunity; that concept just has not got through to the majority of players. We have to fight for those yards, put the opposition in an unfamiliar position and then (a) recognise and (b) exploit even the tiniest advantage. Robbie knows this stuff implicitly, he's a product of the NZ system. Getting our first string players to adopt and apply these has proven to be a very long struggle, still ongoing. When our Super teams are also on board then we may be able to put together a Wallaby squad with genuine potential. We have a lot of work to do undoing the the mindset leaving the schools and even playing club Rugby. We have always been able to produce good athletes. Even with the tiny numbers of feeder schools we have done a remarkable job over the years but some members of this squad just will not get stuck in and do the hard yards with guile, venom, spirit, mongrel, intelligence. That game was a huge step forward, on a dry track, I humbly submit, it would have been a much different outcome.
cos789
Guest
ecconomics may be interesting. There is a contracting advertising market through old media (TV/print). Advertisers are going directly to the market they want via the internet. All the "easy" TV money will be with NRL/AFL/Cricket, who will use this oportunity to exploit new media effectively. The fundamental financing model of sporting codes is going to change, where the rich will get richer and the poor poorer. Union is middle class but sinking, and its hard to see how it can pull itself up. I think thats key for the next decade - understanding how to position a sport best to exploit the change thats comming. No surprises that the new ARLC Chairman John Grant is an (ex player) IT millionaire, and that the NRL is still sorting out its internet rights for the next 5 years. Meanwhile, the AFL is looking to take its media all in house at its next rights deal and make it online subscription based. Union has to start thinking and acting the same way.
cos789
Guest
I'd go further than that. Disolve Super Rugby. It is no good having this bastard half domestic half international league. It is hurting Union. Aim for a 14-16 club domestic league with New Zealand. Try to make them clubs too rather than state based rep teams (which they kind of are). You have to accept too that it is not possible to financially compete with Europe and the NRL. Let South Africa do their own thing - they have all of Africa at their door step in a Euro friendly timezone. Their goals for the game are incompatable with those of Australia and NZ.
cos789
Guest
Union fans make a big mistake when looking back at the last 15 years and think it was doing well because it was doing everything right. In reality, Union was a beneficiary (along with the Swans in AFL) of Rugby Leagues attempts at suicide with Super League, something that the NRL only really started recovering from in 2005-ish (Tigers v Cowboys GF I think was the turning point). Because RL was doing everything wrong, it looked like the ARU was doing everything right. J O'N's statements about why he thought RL would be dead in a few years in 2004 epitomises the situation. Union failed to understand the market forces at work and made some poor strategic decisions to exploit the situation. They acted arrogantly and let the oportunity slip. Wasted money on League players for publicity, brash public statements, and ignored addressing grass roots structural issues. AFL has been making similar mistakes recently with their push into Qld and NSW but thats another story. Now the NRL is truely resurgent we are seeing a return to the true status quo in Australia. Only now ARU has AFL comming at their private schools, and a domestic soccer league that is taking off. Forget getting rid of RD's as a silver bullet. Its the ARU leadership that needs a cull.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
John - interesting post. Rugby maybe the only global contact sport, soccer is NOT one of them. American Football has tried many times to make itself global but has gone nowhere. As such it has a following of people who like to watch contact sport and I am too lazy to look up the number of viewers of the last world cup but it put it at #3? in terms of followers. I agree that in all countries rugby is not a dominant sport and soccer is truly the world game although I was as bored watching the last world cup as many soccer supporters would have been watching the rugby world cup. Rugby was always a fringe sport in my day and was treasured for that reason. It was and remains (to some extent) a sport where bravery, risk and close friends and its unique social life were the centre stone of it all. The close friends and social side have little attraction to young men today and many are scared of the consequences of letting their child play a dangerous game. So you may be right it could disappear or in a strange way it could flourish as a gladatorial spectacle to keep the fearful majority entertained - who knows. It is certainly a sport where you can get paid well if you like a physical competition against young men of skill and power. My guess is that it will continue like most sports (soccer excluded) they have there time in the sun and then become fringe again. Young men will always be looking for an outlet for testosterone and a controlled battle (game) in a war (season) always attracted me and was better than getting into fights in pubs.
John
Guest
No they are not and I am well aware of those countries thanks as well as the growth of Rugby. However in each of those countries they are a long, long way behind Soccer and wouldnt be classed as the major sport. Argentina doesnt even have a professional competition and Italy struggles to have 2 pro teams in the Celtic league and even with this one of them folded last year and had to be replaced by another. France is an exception but then again one country out of 190 or so doesnt really show Rugby to be a global game. Indeed there are very few countries where this isnt the case. The strength of Rugby Union lies in countries that were ex colonies, the IRB World rankings show New Zealand, Australia and South Africa as being the top 3. In England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales Rugby is a long way behind Soccer and in many areas wouldnt even be the 2nd or 3rd choice game. In the vast majoirty of Europe, such as Germany, it is played by bunches of expats and sports such as Handball and Basketball would be much bigger and fully professional. In the likes of Central and South America the same can be said for Soccer and Baseball. You could go round the World and for the vast majority of it Rugby is a nothing sport and isnt on the radar, played by ex-pats or is just some strange game that isnt played there. People are dreaming if they think whatever happens around the world will somehow save Australian Rugby. Rugby being in the Olympics wont make a difference whatsoever either. There are loads of sports in the Olympics that very few people actually play or wish to play and one event every 4 years does not change this. The NRL already gets all of the best Rugby players and with more and more money pouring into it, and the ARU getting weaker and weaker especially with a weak Wallaby side, this is going to be even more so in the next few years. Soccer is a truely global game and beats Rugby hands down when it comes to an international dimension, if this is the only selling point for Rugby in Australia it is fighting a losing battle. I see the main features of each code as: AFL - Strong Domestic competition Rugby League - Strong Domestic competition, State of Origin, Weak international game Soccer - A domestic competition which is getting stronger by the year, truely international game + bucketfulls of money for those to get a contract abroad Rugby Union - No domestic competition, weak S15 that everyone is bored of, weak Wallabies, limited international game playing the same handful of countries each year. For me there is not one aspect where Rugby Union beats the other codes and with every aspect at least one other code has the edge. The game seriously needs to get its house in order or it will fall way behind.
AdamS
Roar Guru
I am thinking the contract system itself is the cause of many of our woes.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
There is so much knowledge, views,opininions, great idea's and strategies on the Roar regarding Australian Rugby. We have been have the same discussions since the Roar started !
stillmissit
Roar Guru
Sixo - very true there are a few guys, some serial, some sometime offenders who do not value the jersey. Not sure what we can do if these guys do not want to fight and compete in this form of the game. Is their life too easy or are the contacts too hard for them? Not a silly question to ask. I am a little sick of seeing TPN, Moore, SHarpe (on his day), Palu, Pocock and Hooper putting in for the Wallabies and carrying the rest who are either side stepping the work ie Robinson or some and some like Kepu. If they don't want this level of competition then regardless of how good an 'athlete' they are - get someone in who thrives on the work and contact we will go better in the forwards. Paddy Ryan needs to be persevered with...
MAJB
Guest
KPM, English and French Rugby are not the models the ARU should be looking at. With nearly 2 million registered players, English Rugby should be on top of the world but the game is contracting in England. Some of this contraction is due to the economic climate but also to the concentration on the “London” “elite” teams. The old class system again. The fact that the RFU is still activity recruiting Leaguies, as well as players from a Polynesian background suggests that there are problems in the RFU’s junior structure. French Rugby is in a diabolical mess with many of their better sides dominated by overseas players, but as with many thing French their well performed test side seems to appear out of Gallic confusion. Australia should be looking no further than NZ for guidance in Rugby Skills and no further than the ARLC and the AFL (bites tongue in shame) for administrative and promotional skills.
sixo_clock
Roar Guru
Which has been my 'mission' since I came into the Roar fold. We have had this obsession in Oz with 'Wallaby Rugby' that has blinded the youth coming through from the basic fundamentals of Rugby. Forwards, by guile, strength, speed and guts, set up a platform which launches a backs raid when the opposition have been pressured into making errors. That is Rugby, plain and simple. We have spent over a hundred years watching the ABs doing just that and yet still had the arrogance to think we have another more successful approach. The results are there on the board. By any comparison we have been dudded by this specious 'Wallaby Rugby' argument. That the boys got stuck into that tactical approach was, for me, and perhaps Dingo, a sign that we had turned a corner only to be let down by inexperience in the conditions. As for RLs comment about Robbie. Do you remember Dingo's quote after Etihad some years ago, which went along the lines of 'complete lack of pride in the Jersey'. I feel sometimes that he has also struggled to 'man up' a few 'stars' that the ARU has contracted. He sometimes has trouble understanding just how flimsy some of them are above the shoulders. Players like Hooper, Digby, McCabe, Elsom (inpo) who thrive in the tough stuff are not supported well enough by the rest.
kingplaymaker
Guest
But seek the Celtic league is no exception. The reason those countries have to form a combined league is because they are so small. Together they are 13 million, with 10 teams. 5 million Ireland, 5 Scotland, 3 Wales. But Australia has 23 million, so why does it only have 5? And why does it need to club together with other countries when it is large itself, unlike the small Celtic nations?
sheek
Roar Guru
Hi Rickety, Thanks for dropping by. Yeah, I'm trying to avoid the 'Wallabies defeated again' ground-hog day, only to kick-start the 'change the domestic structures' ground-hog day!!!!!
sheek
Roar Guru
Hello "major"! The first rule in any sport is to be the best you can be. Not necessarily the best of all, but the best within yourself. Take care of that & becoming better than most takes care of itself. The second rule is that you can't ignore the opposition. None of us live in a bubble. You need to be aware of what the opposition is doing. Don't be frightened to mimic what others do well. Combining these two points, sometimes it's not a question of being different, but simply being better. In any case, many of the people running rugby are determined to ignore both these points. They are hidebound to continue doing things as they have for a hundred years, because they do think they live in a kind of bubble.
glacier
Guest
John So France, Argentina and Italy are ex-British colonies? Your knowledge of history matches your lack awareness of the growth of world rugby (including the inclusion of rugby sevens in the Olympics commencing in Rio in 2016).
MAJB
Guest
Mainly 7s not 15 man
Rickety Knees
Roar Guru
G'day Mate, I don't know about you but this rugby journey has become tiresome - can't help to feel that we are all spinning our collective wheels waiting for the new CEO to be appointed. Australian Rugby needs a new broom - hopefully one that doesn't continue to sweep its problems under the carpet.