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It was a lousy year for the Wallabies and their 40 per cent win rate, but fans are being asked to believe that this is because of the challenges associated with blooding 13 new players.
However, anybody who watched the tests with more than a passing interest this year knows it’s not the new players who have been losing Wallabies the big games.
Take the final test of the year against England. The Poms scored four tries, three of which were the direct result of stuff-ups by Australian players with three or more years of international experience doing things that they should have known better than to do.
Think Nick Phipps, a Wallaby for six years, and his sideways stroll in front of an advancing line of big English forwards, which resulted in a wobbly pass Sekope Kepu dropped, allowing Jonathan Joseph to swoop and run away for the try.
Consider also Ben Youngs’ try from a tap and run. Michael Hooper, a Wallaby for four years and a vice-captain, turned his back on Youngs after the penalty was called and Kane Douglas, a four-year player, stood flapping his arms while Youngs darted past, leaving Phipps to – unfairly, in my opinion – cop additional flak for missing a difficult tackle he never should have had to make.
Thank too of three-year-player Bernard Foley’s pass to David Pocock, who is a great ruck monkey but not an attacker, when he had the choice of passing it to some of the best attacking players in the world in Hooper, Tevita Kuridrani, Israel Folau or Quade Coope, which ultimately lead to the Joseph intercept and try.
These are just three examples of poor decision-making by experienced players, not to mention three-year-player Kuridrani’s decision to leave Hooper and Phipps to try and clean out five Poms after Folau’s break leading to a pinched ball and a near miss down the other end.
There are plenty of other examples throughout the season: Dean Mumm – a player for eight years! – dumping an Irish player on his head and copping a yellow, Kuridrani and Folau’s unwillingness to pass and Foley at 12 crowding Cooper when he knows very well where a 12 is supposed to stand.
None of this reflects a lack of skill on the part of the Wallabies and it certainly doesn’t reflect difficulties in integrating the debutants, but what it does reflect is attitudinal problems among the more senior players, who are making poor decisions out of carelessness or selfishness.
The Wallabies appear to be missing a culture of personal responsibility, and I wonder from some press reports about how Cheika operates whether the coaching style is causing the problem.
Cheika recently stated that he lets the assistant coaches come up with the game plans while he spends time with the players, ensuring that their emotional state is optimised. He also seems to take a lot of personal responsibility for poor performances on their part – the Scotland game in the world cup is a prime example of him saying he hadn’t prepared the team properly when in fact individual players were just plain sloppy.
The way this would be dealt with in the Australian army, where I spent five years of my youth, would have been to point out to the group what was going wrong and to throw it back onto them to solve. In the army this was usually accompanied by some sort of group reward or punishment – probably not possible with a bunch of elite athletes, but I would have thought the question, ‘How much do you blokes want to win?’ would provide sufficient motivation.
When it is left to the group to solve the problem, it creates internal accountability, which motivate individuals and creates an environment in which leaders emerge.
The layer of leadership from senior players below the captain and vice-captain is lacking in the Wallabies at the moment, which has implications both for decision-making and for the mentoring of new players. The current senior players are probably capable of stepping up, but they have to be allowed to, and if the coach is always sniffing around playing amateur psychologist, I find it hard to see that happening.
If Cheika were to spend less time bothering the players, he would have more time to spend on thinking through game plans with his assistant coaches. While they clearly have vast experience in rugby, the final decision needs to made with time to understand what is being recommended to allow the coach to say yes or no from there – otherwise you end up with a sub-optimal committee decision, with the lack of variety in Wallabies game plans in particular being a symptom of that.
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.