Let’s face fact. Australian rugby just simply lacks depth and relies on too many players with talent who appear to have lost heart and belief in themselves of which better replacements cannot be found.
The Wallabies have the problem of not being able to replace that talent with equals unlike their All Black and Springbok counterparts.
So where do the Wallabies go from here?
The current bunch is simply lack-lustre and a bunch of individuals who are now having to admit that they are semi-motivated losers. Or are they? Current form would indicate this being so.
Australian teams pride themselves on being the best, hailing success, and either minimising or glossing over losses.
I have no problem with this and agree that any hard win should be shouted out loud, but expect the backlash when it all goes belly up and there is no place to hide.
It becomes even worse when there is a need to front again and again all with the same result and to then have the same heated blowtorch aimed directly at ones posterior.
So it is with the Wallaby team, a good bunch of individuals but not a championship team, nor ever will be!
Great players have gone missing in action. Other great players are heartbroken by the efforts they put into games, only to be let down by those who should never be there.
The coach is finding out how Robbie Deans felt; only this time he is an Australian, so is all forgiven?
We know that the Wallaby depth of the player pool at Test match level is under-strengthed and paper thin and that there is no replacement should the incumbent fall.
Unlike the All Blacks who, with confidence, can simply put number five in the pecking order of first-five eights into a test match and is just as capable of performing as the incumbent number one.
And Australia like many other teams of the world, envy this.
The Australian ARU competes with the NRL and AFL for the player pool. Different games, granted but high sportsmen all, but, if Australia with its 20 million populous cannot find or organise competition levels as is done in New Zealand and South Africa to get their pool of potential Wallabies, then they get what they deserve.
If New Zealand can get their depth by creating sufficient player interest from a young age with them having only four million people, surely Australia can do the same within its 20 million odd?
The ARU needs to be one hell of a lot more assertive with organisation and proactively, giving more assistance to all states, allowing them to grow their players from the ground up and then hanging on to them.
It can be done. When Australia returned from the Olympic Games in 1976 with not a gold medal between them, a plan to never let it happen again was instigated. The same needs to happen with Australian rugby.
If the Wallabies lost to every team they encountered changes would happen very quickly. Until this happens or a radical rethink takes place we will continue to write about the ‘woeful Wallabies’.
All teams like to win but having to play within a team who outwardly says that they are winners but many inwardly know they are likely losers requires massive changes within the mind-set of some current Wallabies and ARU management.
A lot more effort from the ARU, especially in having a lot more players to call upon by rebuild to replace under-performers is urgently warranted.
The change starting with attitude, radical thinking and the courage to implement is needed now! This constant underperformance simply cannot be allowed to continue.
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.
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