The World Rugby ranking for the end of 2014 show the All Blacks at number one, followed by the Springboks, Ireland, England, the Wallabies, Wales and France.
The All Blacks lost a Test, against the Springboks in South Africa, and drew against the Wallabies in Sydney, but showed with their other victories that their favouritism for a back-to-back Rugby World triumph is grounded in rugby reality.
Here is the New York Times‘ analysis of the Wallabies in 2014.
The Wallabies will be glad to see the end of 2014. A turbulent year on and off the field has resulted in them slipping to fifth in the rankings following their worst tour of Europe since 2005.
“The new coach, Michael Cheika, went 1-3 in Tests, with a victory against Wales and losses to France, Ireland and England … If the scrum isn’t fixed, they can kiss their World Cup chances goodbye.
In 2014, the Wallabies were strong in Australia, with a draw against the All Blacks being an outstanding result to go with a hard-fought victory over the Springboks.
But out of Australia, the Wallabies were woeful. They were thrashed in New Zealand by the All Blacks and beaten by the Springboks and the Pumas (their first Rugby Championship win) in South Africa and Argentina.
The only win out of Australia was against Wales, a side below them in the World Rugby rankings.
The worst aspect of the Wallabies in 2014 was the return of the dreaded scrum disease on their European tour. The scrum was continually splintered, with the binding techniques of the second rowers being obviously wrong. There is a large gap between the locks on almost every engagement.
The angle of shove from the flankers, too, was invariably wrong.
The mystery of Australian rugby is that since Rod Macqueen’s tenure as the most successful Wallabies coach ever the scrum has been a persistent point of weakness for the side. Why has there been no significant improvement for over a decade?
Successive Wallabies coaches and all the Super Rugby coaches in this time deserve to be criticised for the perennial occurrence of the Wallaby scrum disease.
And here are further distressing statistics (courtesy of the rugby statistician Matthew F Alvarez).
Four of the five most capped props ever (Al Baxter is the odd prop out) played for the Wallabies in 2014. This year was a losing season. So was 2013. This is the first instance of back-to-back losing seasons since 1973-74.
The Wallabies have had three coaches in the last three years. Is the problem one of coaching or a lack of playing cattle? The Wallabies finished 2014 losing six Tests from their last seven, the worst run of losses since 2009.
Is there some hope among these gloomy statistics? Five of the six losses were away Tests and only one was lost by 10 points or more and, as Matthew Alvarez reminds me, “we led that Test with 10 minutes to go in that one, too!”
I would rate the Wallabies season with a four out of 10 result. As far as the ARU is concerned, I would give them a two out of 10 rating.
The ARU has failed to provide leadership for Australian rugby, on and off the field. It has allowed a collapse of its governance standards with secrecy, lack of accountability and conflict of interest problems prevailing over acceptable behaviour.
I believe that there is some relationship between the governance of the game and the play of the national side. The link is not hard and fast. But in the case of the Wallabies in 2014, the slack, inert leadership of the ARU had an effect on the performance of the Wallabies.
In 2015 the ARU must lift its game. The game is being poorly administrated at the national level.
The public needs to know what the strategy is for getting rugby out of its current difficulties. What is the truth about the ARU’s finances? What is the truth about the coming television deal? A convincing explanation of the advantages of 2016 Super Rugby format needs to be made.
Hawker must be more assertive in ensuring Australian rugby and the Wallabies, particularly, get a decent hearing from the World Rugby officials involved with Rugby World Cup 2015.
In other words, the ARU needs to show some leadership, intellectually regarding the laws and politically in World Rugby matters, in Australia and in the international forums of the game. In the past, especially under John O’Neill as CEO, the ARU has forced through progressive changes to the advantage laws and the promotion and, indeed, the creation of the ELVs.
O’Neill, also, was a progressive force at the then IRB forming an alliance with France, New Zealand and South Africa to blunt the negative impact of the celtic chums (Ireland, Wales and Scotland) and the old farts (England), which held back the worldwide spread of the game.
With the influence of the ‘Home Unions’ diminished there has been the introduction of rugby (for the second time but in the Sevens format) into the Olympic Games. The French influence here was crucial. Women’s rugby is catching fire around the world, especially in the United States. World Rugby is spending huge amounts of money pioneering the game in parts of South America, Asia and Africa.
The British-centric imperative of rugby has been changed into more of worldwide vision.
Next year has to be a year where rugby in Australia restores its credibility, at home and abroad. The game has had rough patches in the past. In 1997 the Wallabies were thrashed by the Springboks, conceding more than 40 points in second.
A new coach, Rod Macqueen, and 13 of the players who were bashed by the Springboks, won the 1999 Rugby World Cup tournament easily, conceding only one try in all the matches.
The All Blacks have brought back Wayne Smith as their talisman for their Rugby World Cup 2015 campaign. I reckon that a similar resurrection of Rod Macqueen in the talisman role for the Wallabies (much like that of Bob Templeton in the 1991 Rugby World Cup) would be a great way for the Wallabies to begin their 2015 campaign with a positive charge
All the best for a happy new year to all Roarers
peter hughes
Guest
Great idea Billy Bob. ARU needs to market, glamarise, promote tight 5 forward play long term & stop buying league backs australia does not need. Maybe I should have said australia does not produce many hooker/prop body types who choose to play rugby. And our lock body type athletes play AFL & basketball mostly. This is a long term project that will take 10-15 yrs to fill. In the interim ARU should be buying Argentinian hookers & props for Super provinces to fill the holes. In 5 yrs W's would have a world class tight 5 and be beating the ABs regularly. Then the $$$ flow as public support returns
Derm
Roar Guru
I'm curious - how much are forwards revered in Australia as rugby players? Particularly in comparison to backs? Who make the headlines - for good or bad? Who is seen as a rugby sports leader amongst the Australian public? How popular or high profile was someone like John Eales or Campese, Larkham, George Gregan or Stirling Mortlock compared to today's players such as Hooper, AAC, Beale, Kuridrani? Are there Australian forwards who young Australian schoolboys would say: "I wanna be like him"?
Derm
Roar Guru
The term 'British-centric IRB' is a misnomer. The British and Irish unions have rarely managed to agree on anything together in recent years. The ELVs as cited by Spiro were endorsed by Scotland, panned by Ireland and Wales because of the weakening effect on scrum and rucks, grudgingly accepted by England and supported by France. New European Cup discussions started out with England and France vs the Celtic Unions and Italy. Then the FFR abandoned the English and sided with the Celtic unions. Then Wales jumped ship and threatened to join the English clubs in a separate comp and they put the squeeze on Scotland, thus isolating the Irish. Voting on RWCs? Ireland supported New Zealand for 2011, and brassed off South Africa and England. RWC 2015? England ignored Scotland and Ireland and likely agreed to include the Millennium to secure the Welsh vote. Giving Pacific Islanders a second chance? Apparently supported by England and opposed by Ireland and Scotland. Spiro has a New Year tradition to maintain of using his self-described "bully-pulpit" to have a go at the NH, no matter how tenuous the link. Bit disappointed really, there was no boggy-pitches, penalty-infested, boring, dour NH scrum-dominated comments this year - am feeling rather bereft. :)
Harry Jones
Expert
Samoa = always tough win for Boks (but always a win). In NZ, that was practically a home match for Samoa. But point well taken; SA cannot assume they will just show up and beat Samoa and Scotland. As for SA v OZ in England .... I'd say that's a 60-40 proposition for SA. The fields and the KO style favours SA, who may have 3-4 NH-based players in the XXIII. But that's not long odds for OZ. My point is OZ would have to sweep SA-NZ-ENG
In Brief
Guest
Of course rugby union and league are different, but in some intrinsic ways rugby union is now following rugby league. This is more to do with how the rules/ laws are applied than with the games being identical. Rugby union has been trying to clean up the breakdown for example, but in doing so has killed off the contest for the ball. But the real issue is when you penalise a particular action, despite the consequences or intention, the penalty has no purpose and is just a formulaic response to make the game seem more consistent. You get this in rugby league at the play the ball where rules are applied for no particular reason - play the ball back with the foot, must be perpendicular to the sideline etc. The rules had meaning when there was a ruck contest, but now remain like male nipples - irrelevant. In rugby union we are following this trend by, for example, awarding penalties at the breakdown for a number of irrelevant indiscretions. Defenders can win a penalty simply by having a good body position over the ball. That a ridiculous formulaic penalty. If the defender is good enough to win the ball, that should be his reward. The tackled player is entitled to place the ball in any direction, and often is not even touching the ball when these penalties are given. You see the same at scrum time when dominant scrums are rewarded with a penalty, a penalty which does not exist in the law book. Formulaic penalties make rugby union more like rugby league in spirit, although differences obviously remain.
In Brief
Guest
Agree entirely re sin binning. It really is a farce. For those who claim that scrums are only an issue in Australia, read the second half of this recent Brian Moore article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/11315505/Northampton-ignored-their-duty-to-entertain-in-Big-Game-7-at-Twickenham.html
krasnoff of noosa
Guest
Further on the matter of the ARU being ‘jobs for the boys’ is exemplified by In Brief and Foreign Footy Fan who point to another aspect: poor refereeing that blights the game and pushes it into spectator irrelevance. It seems that referees are made up of mediocre ‘wannabes’ who never ‘will-be’, hell bent on imposing their moment of glory on the football field to the detriment of managing a flowing game of rugby. Instead of leading the urgent debate at international level, of all aspects focusing on enhancing the professionalism of the game, the ARU seems to prefer a laid-back navel gazing role—that of retired footballers put out to pasture. Get the right people into governance or forget professionalism where kids progress from the lower tiers and are then cherry picked into ARL.
pjm
Roar Rookie
Backs play running rugby, it shouldn't change how the forwards play.
pjm
Roar Rookie
Link changed nothing, he was way too passive.
Foreign Footy Fan
Guest
Also ridiculous that a sin binning and penalty try may be awarded to over zealous refs who sees a prop unable to hold up an opponent who is trying to force him down. Is it the refs job to send off players for poor ball handling or missed tackles as well. The use it or lose it rule should be strictly enforced at scrum time in my opinion. Get on with the game.
In Brief
Guest
The current 'interpretation' of the breakdown laws are also hypocritical. Currently a tackled player can place the ball in any direction. Unless a defender is trying to get 'hands on the ball' in which case they are penalised. So rather than having a true contest at the breakdown, we have a league like formula - touch the ball as a defender and you 'win' a penalty even though the attacker has done nothing wrong (he is entitled to place the ball), and usually the defender had no chance in hell of actually winning the ball. Similar issues exist with the scrum in which the current 'interpretations' are completely at odds with the actual law book. Most dominant scrums would be whislted off the park for dangerous play if the laws were followed. We have allowed the scrum to become a game within a game when it is supposed to be (according to the laws) a quick restart to play. Winning a game from scrum penalties, when scrums are caused by 'minor indiscretions' is ludicrous and another issue with rugby laws.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
That's if SA top their group Harry. At the last rwc Samoa matched the boks if I remember well. In any case I think Cheika would be happy with 1 or 2 and isn't thinking about who to avoid in the qf for now. Plus I think a wallabies vs SA far from Sydney and Pretoria would be a 50/50 affair.
Harry Jones
Expert
Maybe I should have said: OZ really really really needs to win their pool Because if they don't...they have to sweep SA, NZ, Eng/Ire on heavy fields far from OZ.....
Foreign Footy Fan
Guest
CanadianKiwi, your argument against what I was saying in many ways backs up my argument. I made it clear that ABs are the no.1 side but you also acknowledge the massive impact refs have particularly for home teams. While not necessarily deliberate it is a problem brought on by laws open to very subjective decisions. Teams in the professional era are coached to manipulate and break these laws at every opportunity to minimize the oppositions attack and gain every advantage. The practice by most coaches to use the media in the lead up to a match to further create a perception in the refs mind is a given. Certainly the Kiwis have been the most yellow carded side in tier 1 international rugby over the last 12 months with Richie McCaw probably the major recipient. This is a result of both reality and perception. Yes Richie and the ABs push the boundaries further than any other team and now the constant complaining from other countries is catching up on them. The idea that an AB captain is no longer sacred in the refs mind is something that others will applaud. You mentioned the Eden park test. A classic example where the ref penalised the Australians 4 consecutive times in the first 10 minutes. All for the backline being offside when using a rush defence. The fact that they only rushed up once the ball was out the ruck was ignored by the ref. He wanted an open game and any side made to wait for the ABs to come attack them will be punished accordingly. As for your other comments about the driving maul, I would still argue that it is poorly adjudicated because of the complicated laws involved. It takes away the contest for the ball it encourages and allows teams to take out players off the ball, it can punish an attacking team when the defending team lies all over the ball and kills it when the maul collapses. In other words it is the one area of play that hypocritically encourages players to do what is totally against the laws of the game in all other circumstances. Not only a blight on the game but so poorly adjudicated that I wouldn't waste time teaching a team to be good at it. A lottery on every decision with normally the home side (or side perceived to be better at it) holding the lucky numbers. Unfortunately Australian rugby will suffer because our crowds won't tolerate boring rugby. Too many other sports to waste time with a penalty kick-a-thon from one collapsed maul to another. If that's the way they want to play the game in the Northern Hemisphere then good luck to them. The lack of open athletic play hasn't helped them despite a massively larger pool of players to choose from.
ajh
Guest
Johnno, Real rugby is that played by the ABS and that played by the 84 WB Grand slamand 99 RWC Wallabiexs. Running Rugby will always beat NH Real Rugby. There was a some real progress with the NRC and those Brisbane City props are the sort of props we needat the Wallaby side. More bulk less athlectic but with real impact at the set plays. Running rugby has to be played on a foundation of strong set play and dominance at the breakdown. Deans tried to turn the WBs into NH real rugby players with disastrous results with both results and turning off fans with a style of dour Rugby which has resulted in a massive turn off that we are yet to recover from.
canadiankiwi
Guest
You sum up everything which is wrong with rugby in Australia: 1. The All Blacks dominate the Wallabies and you blame the referee, rather than acknowledge that the Wallabies' weaknesses.All home teams, including Australia, are favoured by referees in rugby at every level. The All Blacks were yellow carded twice as much as their opponent's in 2014, including Eden Parktest vs Wallabies. 2. You criticize the rules which apply to driving mauls, which apply to the opposition as well, instead of mastering the the use of the maul as an Australian weapon. This is the same flawed response that Australians have had toward the scrum: since we are not good at it, we criticize and dismiss it, and lobby to change the laws of the game to de-power it. 3. Australian scrum' is weak because, when their opposition chose to attack it and not play the ball out of it, the Wallabies are driven BACKWARDS. If you want to change the perception the scrum is weak, the answer is simple, drive the opposition pack BACKWARDS, frequently. Do not collapse it, do not wheel it, drive it BACKWARDS. Australian rugby will return to its 1990s level of excellence when the media and fans stop obsessing with the backline and embarrass he importance of the dark arts of forward-oriented rugby (scrums, driving mauls, pick'n'drives).
richard
Guest
Hard work and attitude will only take you so far.You need talent as well,and frankly in rugby terms,you don't have it where it counts i.e up front.
Daz
Guest
So I don't buy your defeatist theory either.
Daz
Guest
We should be outclassed in a so many other sports too from surfing to swimming to snowboarding but we're not and the difference is pure hard work and attitude.
MAJB
Guest
I have just checked, thankfully, Epping Boys High, still plays Rugby. I have been BSed.