There are Super powers out there, Australia just needs to learn to tap in

“Be strong enough to stand alone, be yourself enough to stand apart, but wise enough to stand together when the time comes.”

Those wise words accompanied a picture of some wolves, in a house where I was seeing someone similar to the Oracle off the film The Matix.

I always leave this place with epic clarity.

Surprisingly, this brings me to Super Rugby, and Australia needing to be more supportive of each other.

The Super format was altered out of a desire to make more money. The executives worked it like any product and dabbled, varied the structure, and then pitched it as amazing.

They had a near-perfect structure, with sublime players prior to the changes, and with their greedy ambition forgot the soul of the game.

Now they’re realising the fans aren’t that dumb, and they desire more than just more rugby with a lucky-dip points system, especially at the expense of the spirit of the game.

Because rugby is not just any product. It derived, most of the time, from a pure, youthful place where the game is played because people love it.

As a teenager I would train in the dark for rugby league (I also played rugby); rain coming down, a long way from home.

I lived in the Upper Hutt mountains (it’s a valley but I was near the top), and here I was, somewhere close to Wellington, tackling big Maori guys. They were huge compared to me. I was a halfback and had to be fancy on my feet or real trouble lurked in the shadows.

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In the two years I played in this competition (just five games every year), I received a broken nose and a broken collar bone – the latter of which I played with the following day.

I remember thinking about my new girlfriend at training as the rain poured and the cauldron waited. It seemed if she wasn’t there, she would never understand or believe me.

I was playing for Wellington under 19s and going into a competition where you play five games in a row, over five days, then the Junior Kiwis were picked. My team was pretty epic: I had Steve Kearney as captain, Tana Umaga playing centre, and Earl Va’a (he later played for Samoa in rugby) just outside me at standoff.

I was a favourite to make the Junior Kiwis – there was a lot of pressure for me to make it, and a big reason why I played with a broken collar bone. I really wanted it of course, and at the time I didn’t know it was broken. I remember thinking Auckland must think I’m a pretty lame, as the first scrum collapsed around me and I was screaming from the pain.

I thought about the girlfriend because it seemed surreal to be this slim, emo kid walking around ‘the Hutt’, pretending to be tough in my trench coat, then transforming and battling away in the rain. For a brief moment, I might have actually been tough!

I mention all this as that’s the heart of the game – you do it out of love, joy, and ambition. Not because it’s a product.

The All Blacks have done so well partly because there’s a common interest: everyone wants the All Blacks to be successful.

If a player is pulled out for a couple games in Rugby World Cup years, the Super coach generally understands. His goals are twofold: be the best for your club, but allow their All Blacks to grow, thrive and be the best.

It’s pretty simple really; it’s sharing, looking after yourself, and knowing when you need support and when to support another.

Australian rugby needs to be wise enough to know when to stand together.

It just might be now.