Australian sport on the way back up?

Ascendency in the Ashes, the return of the Rugby League World Cup, four wins from five on the Wallabies spring tour and victory in snooker’s UK Championship.

Is Australian sport heading back towards its glory days?

It hasn’t been easy for an Aussie sports fan over the last six years. We have surrendered our position as the number one cricket team in the world and our hold on the Ashes, and claimed just 46 medals at the 2008 Olympics – five golds short of Great Britain.

We lost the Rugby League World Cup – one trophy that virtually belongs to us – on home soil in 2008 and were again pipped by those dastardly Kiwis in the Four Nations final in 2010.

Things haven’t been any better in the other rugby code, with the last six years being very lean years for the green and gold in the game they play in heaven.

A quarter-final finish at the 2007 Rugby World Cup and annual smashings by the All Blacks. Throw in embarrassments against Samoa, Ireland and Scotland (twice), and things haven’t been great for the Wallabies.

We did claim the 2011 Tri Nations, and a semi-final place in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, but these were rare highlights at a time when the Bledisloe Cup and the gap between Australia and New Zealand never seemed greater.

Throw in a haul of just 35 medals at the 2012 Olympics, a drop of 11 medals and from sixth place to 10th compared with Beijing, the failure of the Socceroos to get past the first round of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and disappointments in tennis and basketball, and it makes for bitter reading.

For a nation of many who have grown up with regular success and become accustomed to us punching above our weight on the international stage in many different sports, it has been a humbling experience.

And for those sports-mad Australians who love the banter with others, live overseas or have a partner from another country, it has been especially difficult.

No individual, team or country has a divine right to success or regular victory. Sport has a funny way of delivering the unexpected and a slap in the face for those who take success for granted.

In the past half-decade it has been our trans-Tasman neighbours from across the pond, and our former colonial masters from the other corner of the globe, who have taken particular delight in Australia’s sporting decline, and probably rightly so.

For those Aussies with Kiwi and British friends, not to mention relatives, it has been tough.

But over the past few weeks there has been a sniff, a slight sense of momentum, perhaps even a tiny wave of optimism, that things are slowly getting better.

A few results and a couple of changes are pointing towards a wider shift that we might just be in for a good run again.

Australia’s spanking of England in the first two Tests of the Ashes down under has been a welcome surprise.

Little was expected from the Aussies in this series, after losing the last three Ashes series in a row, but they have stunned and delighted.

England are shell-shocked and could be staring down the barrel of a 5-0 humilation.

That has yet to pass but the Australian team’s tails are up and they are intent on moving up from their current ranking as the fifth best cricketing nation on the planet.

In the greatest game of all, the Kangaroos emphatically won back their World Cup with a one-side contest at Old Trafford.

At a time when it looked like the gap was closing in international league, the Kangaroos went out and put on an emphatic 80 minutes of virtual perfection.

Heading into an end of season European tour at a massive low point, expectations were mixed for the Wallabies.

And after an opening loss against England, albeit aided by two horrible refereeing mistakes, the rest of the tour looked ominious.

But new coach Ewen McKenzie is rebuilding the team culture and starting to get his side playing the up-tempo and entertaining style of rugby he wants, leading to impressive blowouts of Italy and Ireland.

Scotland and Wales were also defeated, in tighter and physical contests that showed great character, with the Wallabies stringing four wins in a row together for the first time in a very long time.

Granted the opposition was not New Zealand or South Africa, but things appear to be finally looking up somewhat for the Wallabies.

A huge star has been discovered in Israel Folau, new depth is being created and Quade Cooper has sorted out his issues and his game.

With some injured bodies to return next year and with the introduction of a national competition to further boost development, a third-tier to try and rival the NPC and Currie Cup, Australian rugby is setting up some building blocks.

After the Brumbies reached the 2013 Super Rugby final, the first time an Australian team got that far since the Reds’ 2011 victory, there is some hope we can get back to competing with the Saffas and Kiwis soon.

In snooker, granted not our biggest sport, Neil Robertson recently took out the UK Championship. In doing it he became the eighth player to have won the World, UK and Masters titles.

In basketball Australia has a record number of players in the NBA and a massive young talent in Dante Exum on our hands.

With the likes of Exum, Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Aaron Baynes only to get better with experience, the Boomers’ chances of gaining a medal at the next Olympics or World Championships is growing.

In football we are headed to our third World Cup appearance in a row, which is no mean feat.

Sure, we have buckley’s chance of winning the thing, but we have a new coach in charge with an impressive track record at home who could herald in a new dawn for the Socceroos.

The A-League is thriving, a new guard is getting ready to take over the national team and Ange Postecoglou will make sure we won’t die wondering in Brazil. Things could be a lot worse.

In cycling Cadel Evans might be on the way down but the sport is thriving at the grassroots level in Australia and we have a number of gifted riders – Richie Porte, Simon Gerrans, Chris Sutton, Jay McCarthy, Jack Bobridge, Luke Durbridge, Michael Matthews, Cameron Meyer – eager to make their mark in the years to come.

In surfing we had both the men’s and women’s world champions in 2012 – Joel Parkinson and Stephanie Gilmore – and Mick Fanning is on target to take home the 2013 men’s crown.

Bright shoots can be spotted across several Australian sports at the moment. Success in one pursuit can often inspire achievement in another.

For a country where sport is the only national religion, winning and sporting status is so important down under.

Big tests remain ahead. The one constant of the sport is the next opponent, the next test and difficult contest is always just around the corner.

But after a period of decline and disappointment, things are ever so slightly starting to improve. How long they continue is, of course, hard to predict.

But for now savour every win and every result. You just never how they long they’ll last and whether a new golden age is on its way, or just a fleeting, false dawn has arrived.

Follow John Davidson on Twitter @johnnyddavidson