After watching the All Blacks methodically dismantle the Wallabies on two recent occasions I have once again become fascinated by the knee-jerk response of Wallaby fans in their opinion about who should play in which position and the apparent readiness to move players out of position.
I doubt this debate would ever occur in New Zealand with regards to the All Blacks for the simple fact that the fans and the players seem to understand that they have been selected for a specific role in the team and for a specific position (or two in some rare occasions).
These players know their role, and they have probably played the same role since childhood.
Only in the Wallabies could a player be selected to play in the national team and then later have their position or role within the team decided upon.
Rarely in the All Black environment would they experiment by selecting a specialist fullback at first 5/8, or suggest that a winger should play second 5/8 (inside centre for you Aussies) just so he could touch the ball more often.
Sure, in New Zealand positional changes do occur such as fullbacks playing on the wing or second 5/8s playing at first five such as with Dan Carter graduating from 12 to 10 or some wingers such as Umaga moving to centre.
These moves however seem to be more organic in their occurrence rather than being experimental.
I have often wondered why there has been such difference between the approach by the two countries and the only explanation I have managed to come up with is from my own experience.
I grew up in rural NZ, in the King Country (Colin Meads land).
I attended a primary school with probably 200 kids and every Saturday morning we managed to field two teams for every grade.
Even at that age, we all roughly knew what position we wanted to play and what player we wanted to be – I was an outside back and wanted to be John Kirwan, other kids wanted to be props, 5/8s and No. 8s.
I then moved to Australia. What I immediately noticed that not only did it seem that no one played rugby, but kids my age did not know any players names, positions and barely had an opinion about the topic.
Only at high school age did this even slightly change and even then it was not at the state school level at which I attended but at club level due to the attendance of private school players.
We frequently had to scrounge and scrape to get enough players for games.
We often had to drag along non-playing friends to make up the numbers – if they were fast, they were hidden on the wing, if they were slow, they went in the forwards, if they were (dare I say) heavy, they were made props.
This in my opinion was the difference between New Zealand and Australian rugby.
Even at that level there was not enough “cattle”, and the “cattle” were positioned due to necessity rather than choice.
This I feel filters up into elite levels with players often having to play roles which they are not suited for.
It has taken Adam Ashley-Cooper until the twilight of his career to finally end up in his best position at 13, James O’Connor’s jersey could have any number on it from 10 to 15 and Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper could have 10-15 written on them.
This confusion of positional selection is then amplified by introducing code-hopping players who, in a sense queue-jump the selection process and then must be “fitted in”.
The far-too-simple approach would be to as players to nominate their preferred positions and stick to them.
The ARU and EM should encourage their respective clubs and super teams to play them in these positions and they should be selected for the WBs as per these positions.
Unfortunately, until this culture of chop-and-change positioning persists, the Wallabies will continue to fail to choose the best-suited player in each position, the fans will always debate who should play where and ultimately the Wallabies will continue to be on the losing side of the ledger against to the All Blacks.
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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