Ella, the 80s and rose-coloured glasses (part II)

With the 30th anniversary of the famous Grand Slam winning 1984 Australian side upon us, I thought it fitting to look at the Ella period and Wallaby rugby the 80s in general.

Last week I showed stats that proved the try scoring averages of the Ella period and the 80s in general were nothing special when compared to what has transpired since. Similarly, our win percentages were also pretty unspectacular.

I believe we should stop listening to anyone that suggests we should look at what we did 30 years ago as some kind of fix for today’s Wallaby side. There will be many nostalgically looking back with their rose-coloured glasses at the 80s due to the 30-year anniversary of the grand slam.

We need to respectfully ask them to keep their romanticised versions of the past in check.

By looking at the stats from last week’s article, some might say the answer to our problems is to look at what worked for us in the 1990s.

It is no coincidence that when we were scoring our highest average of tries in the 90s – 3.5 tries a game – we were winning 75 per cent of the time.

Scoring more tries is surely the answer to our problems both in terms of boosting our win percentages and also in terms of promoting the game in our unique football market. But how did we achieve this in the 1990s and is the way we did this relevant today?

I personally can’t help but think that our success in the 1990s didn’t come from anything other than establishing a big gap in terms of standards in professionalism between us and everybody else. This was not just in rugby. In almost all sports, the 90s were a decade that Australia rose to dominance.

I once read at the turn of the century Australia held no less than 16 World Cups across a variety of sports. Today I’d be surprised if we had one or two.

Unfortunately, everybody caught up. Rugby was no different.

After the 1987 Rugby World Cup, the Wallabies certainly adapted and began to conduct themselves in a much more professional manner, even though they were still amateur. This made us fitter and more skilful than everyone else in the early 90s and many believe this is the underlying reason we dominated the 1991 Rugby World Cup.

So all we need to do is look at what we did in 1991, right? No. Sorry, there’s not much to learn from 1991 in respect to today’s Wallabies. The tactics and practises we used to gain victory in 1991 were already obsolete by 1995.

Bob Dwyer went to the 1995 tournament with pretty much the same squad and same tactics he’d employed four years earlier to great success. Yet, he failed miserably. I think this proved that winning major trophies isn’t just about having a great squad of players and proven tactics. We failed because our game plan had stagnated and we had stopped setting new standards.

Sadly, even to this day you’ll here Bob crowing about how teams today need to improve their attack by having the 9 and 10 simply loop and loop some more. “If the 5/8 touches the ball twice you’ll make a break. If they touch it three times you’ll score”. Yes, anyone that played in the 80s was brought up believing that. I was one of them. It was indeed once true.

But things have changed. Dwyer still refuses to recognise that and it was this stubborn mentality that saw us fail miserably at the 1995 World Cup.

Dear Bob, today the halves can loop and loop all they want because the wider you go the more the defence will simply usher you into touch.

Thankfully, after 1995 lessons were learned. Bob Dwyer was no longer the coach, Greg Smith came and went and then came the forward thinking Rod Macqueen.

Under Macqueen our increase in tactical professionalism saw us win the 1999 World Cup. At this time we were the first nation to employ a rugby league defensive coach to great effect, and we were the first to really analyse masses of data to help develop game plans.

Some reliable sources, namely John Eales, have stated that in 1999 Rod Macqueen worked out that giving away possession in the opposition half favoured his side. Yes our tactics were to win by not having the ball.

Let me explain.

Macqueen looked at masses of data and realised that winning sides usually had less possession in the opposition’s half. This stemmed from the statistical fact that referees were more inclined to penalise the attacking side for not releasing at the breakdown than otherwise.

Therefore, the major tactics employed to win that tournament were to 1) deliberately give away possession in the opposition half, and 2) rely on kicking penalties from ruck infringements from the attacking side – while employing a rock solid defence.

For this to work, we needed a great defence coach and a very reliable kicker. Enter the defensive genius John Muggleton. Enter the great Matthew Burke.

Of course the impression today is that the 1999 victorious Wallabies were a marvellous attacking side. That is far from the truth. We did after all score only two tries in the final two matches of the Cup. At the same time, Burke kicked a mammoth 15 penalties.

If you look at our other two matches against top tier nations in that tournament we didn’t manage many tries at all.

Well well, perhaps we don’t have to worry about tries. Why don’t we just employ those 1999 tactics for 2015?

I mean would those tactics work today? No unfortunately. The laws and the refereeing have now been tweaked to allow the attacking teams greater success at recycling ball with more penalties against the defensive side. You cannot rely so heavily on penalties from the attacking side in their own half.

The 90s were indeed our most fruitful decade in rugby because we were the most professional. But by 2003 we no longer had that advantage – and that seems to be the way it is going to stay.

The only thing that we can take from the 90s is that if we can average just 0.5 more tries a match than what we have these past 12 months, we should be much more successful on and off the field.

That seems attainable, but how do we do that?

Whatever we do it, we certainly need to stop romanticising about yesteryear’s attacking feats. Those tactics are mostly obsolete and they weren’t as successful as some among us like to make out in the first place. Looking back for specific tactics from by-gone eras is simply not going to help.

We must strive to perfect new tactics and fans must encourage this by forgetting the past.

As for Ella and the 80s? I will leave you with one poignant fact.

The great Mark Ella kicked more drop goals (8) than he scored tries (6) for the Wallabies. Now that is food for thought.