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Please don't mistake relief for hubris

23rd October, 2017
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Wallabies player Stephen Moore (centre) reacts after Australia wins the Rugby Championship, Bledisloe Cup match between the Australian Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Saturday, October 21, 2017. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Guru
23rd October, 2017
49
1908 Reads

Let me begin by mentioning Spiro’s article from Monday morning titled, “Are the Wallabies on the rise as the All Blacks decline?”.

It was a very rational piece, posing some interesting thoughts and questions in an attempt to answer both of those questions, but merely thinking about the types of comments it would receive from both sides of the pond left me wondering if they would achieve the same sense of rationality.

There are fans on all over the world who get spikey when long-term questions are raised in the immediate aftermath of an individual match. A reaction I totally understand.

In law there is the notion of ‘generality’; that it should respond to a general state of affairs and not individual events. It is a sound principle and one that politicians should perhaps aspire to more appropriately, but that’s another article for another site.

It is, however, not these questions that I want to address, but more so the response to the attitude that we have seen from the Australian media, fans and the players themselves. It’s the excitement, the joy, the delight in seeing our team get one over the old foe and explaining why it may seem a touch overdone to others.

The neutral observer can be forgiven for thinking the Wallabies won the World Cup.

The Wallaby fan can be forgiven for celebrating as hard as the players at home, pub or secretly watching under the table at the in-laws’.

The New Zealand fan can be forgiven for thinking that it was a serious over-reaction to a one-off game which proves nothing.

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But it needs to be understood for what it was. Relief.

I’ve seen comments from some All Black supporters in all forms of social media rightly put their trans-Tasman cousins in their place by providing figures which prove that this win should mean nothing.

I’ve seen comments from Wallaby supporters refuse to get excited because this win does mean nothing. Michael Cheika tried ‘unconvincingly’ to tell us that he wasn’t getting ahead of himself despite the fact I’m sure he was cheering inside.

Most people are looking at it the wrong way, though.

For the New Zealand fans and players, this win changes nothing about your place at the top just as the reaction shows nothing but respect for what your team has achieved.

The elation, the hugging, the fist-pumping, the groping and dry-rooting from the players is generated by the fact that the All Blacks have been that good, for that long, that it means that much.

People immediately looked at it like an example of churlish arrogance when in my personal opinion it’s the ultimate sign of humbleness. By wearing their hearts on their sleeves in the way that they did, the players were admitting that they have been seriously inferior and we’re not afraid to revel in even the smallest of victories.

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Israel Folau Wallabies

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

This wasn’t the reaction of a team who felt like they deserved the win necessarily, but just that they had earned it. Not many could deny this emotion.

For the Australian fans and players this win doesn’t bring us the Cup or change the history of shellackings we’ve received recently, but it does mean something.

It means that coupled with a decent turn out in Dunedin and Bloemfontein, there has been a steady build-up in ability and confidence and a win was the perfect way to make that mean more than just a one-off.

Wallabies fans are sick on one-offs. We know this is a short-term feeling.

We’re sick of hope too. Hope hasn’t done us any favours recently. But it did on Saturday night. It made it feel good and it was an enormous relief to start the “How many days since we beat the All Blacks” calendar again.

One thing that All Black fans should understand more is what it feels like to have to celebrate the little wins like they are the big things.

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New Zealand sports fans have had their fair share of this over the years and relied on the ‘David versus Goliath’ mentality and they’ve had some epic moments to savour as a result, consistently out-doing themselves in the sporting arena against international heavyweights.

This one is our version. Hopefully, it means we can bring the gap closer together and we can enjoy another one in less than 512 days.

I’ll take this one.

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