Clearly things aren’t going to plan in camp Wallaby. A loss to Argentina after a week of off-field controversy has put Ewen McKenzie’s credibility on the line, and raised questions about morale within the squad.
This week will no doubt be dominated by keyboard warriors from all corners of the globe voicing their opinions on the various issues at play.
What was actually said in the altercation between Beale and Di Patston? Are there divisions within the playing group? Are the players still behind Link or have they lost faith in his methods? Will Beale remain in rugby? Are the Wallabies fit enough for Test rugby?
My view is that Patston was starting to throw her weight around with her additional responsibilities and this manifested in growing resentment from the players (hence the solidarity shown by the senior players sticking up for Beale).
That aside, I think (hope) there aren’t any major divisions within the team, just a resentment toward management as a result of Patston’s influence.
Kurtley’s his fate will depend very much on his contribution to the slanging match, and whether he said anything himself that was out of line.
Rumours that he’s already decided to leave, regardless of the outcome of the ARU’s investigation, suggest he may already know he’s crossed the line one too many times.
While it would be a shame to lose a player of his calibre to Australian rugby as he’s shown himself to be a valuable asset at Super Rugby level, his impact at the top level is questionable. With the likes of Quade Cooper and James O’Connor (hopefully a reformed version) on the comeback track, the Wallabies will have no shortage of “x-factor” players.
So where to from here?
Well, firstly I think it’s important to recognise that things aren’t that bad. We’ve had our first loss to a team ranked below us and as a result we’ve dropped to fourth in the World Rankings, but under the circumstances it’s not a complete tragedy in my opinion.
Argentina have been playing well and were unlucky not to have their first Rugby Championship win against South Africa who just knocked off the All Blacks. They’ve been playing good rugby with passion and spirit and I think it’s overall good for the game that they finally got their win.
The positives for Australia are that we’ve shown signs of improvement since last year, albeit not enough to secure an elusive win against the All Blacks or beat the Boks at home, but we’ve managed to get better without some of our key players.
The backline will be an entirely different proposition with a refreshed Genia and Quade back in 2013 form. James O’Connor at fullback and Israel Folau and Henry Speight on the wings with Matt Toomua and big Tevita Kuridrani in the centres. That will be rock solid in defence and very hard to stop in attack.
But let’s face it, that won’t mean a thing if our forwards can’t get clean ball. Well, things are positives there as well, with captain Moore and Polota Nau due to return, Pocock to single-handedly solve our breakdown woes and Sio to provide a solid backup to Slipper so we don’t lose traction when he’s subbed late in the game.
There’s no way we’ll have a “dominating” forward back by October next year, but the current guys have shown glimpses that they aren’t as soft as we’ve accused them of being and perhaps it’s just a matter of getting them united as a team and playing better together in order to achieve that consistency.
As noted by Robbie Deans, the issue is that Australian rugby is too fragmented. Each Super franchise appears to be off doing their own thing with seemingly no consistency in developing fundamental skills or even fitness. The result of this is that players come together in the national squad with different “systems” embedded from a whole season of club rugby and are then required to adapt in very short time to a whole new system for the Test season.
The only solution I can offer to this is that the national coach should be able to pick an extended playing squad of 46 players (two full run-on teams + reserves) for the first month of Super Rugby pre-season.
Sure that will disadvantage the Tahs, Reds and Brumbies as they would most likely make up the majority of the chosen 46, and wouldn’t be available for training with their clubs, but in the interests of World Cup preparation I think it’s essential for the Wallabies core playing squad to get together for a solid month of fitness, skills, game plan, “systems”, conditioning and even scratch matches to test different combinations.
If this were to happen, and unfortunately I think it’s unlikely, it would give the Wallabies a real boost and somewhat level the playing field against the All Blacks and Springboks where their national rugby programs are better designed and administered to deliver consistent results.
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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