The Alan Jones success story started before he was appointed Wallabies coach in 1984.
The 1981-82 Wallaby grand slam tour was a bitter disappointment, beating Ireland 16-12, but losing to Wales 13-18, Scotland 15-24, and England 11-15.
This team should have won the Wallabies’ first slam, but the whole tour was beset by Queensland versus NSW jealousy around the selection table, with Tony Shaw captain and Bob Templeton coach – both Queenslanders.
The worst of the many putrid decisions was playing Queenslander Paul McLean ahead of the clearly superior Mark Ella at fly-half against Ireland and Wales, and when the muck hit the fan and Ella eventually played against Scotland and England, McLean played centre against Scotland instead of Michael Hawker, and fullback against England instead of Roger Gould, who at the time was the best in the world.
But McLean was a dud on that tour as a player, and even more importantly as the number one goal-kicker.
Those Wallabies scored eight tries to three on that tour in the four internationals, but McLean had a mere 30 per cent success rate with the boot, with the worst of them two out of six against Wales, and one from five against England.
Had McLean landed just 60 per cent of his goals, the 81-82 team would have been Australia’s first grand slammers.
So when Alan Jones took over in 1984 that Queensland-NSW jealousy was still evident.
Ella was captain at the time, so to diffuse the interstate jealousy element, Jones made the tough decision to replace Ella with Queenslander Andrew Slack, even though Ella was the clearly superior player – the best in the team.
The move was a masterstroke.
Slack turned out to be an outstanding captain, leading the Wallabies to become the only grand slammers, and win back the Bledisloe Cup.
In fact, Slack was the captain when the Wallabies last won against the All Blacks at Eden Park in 1986, and that was 17 Tests ago.
Ella retired after the slam tour at 25 with just 25 caps, a terrible waste of talent.
But during Slack’s captaincy, mercurial Mark, the greatest number 10 I’ve ever seen, played the best rugby of his exciting career, culminating with a try in all four of those slam internationals – a fitting finale.
For the record, Ella was captain for ten of his 25 caps with four wins. Slack led the side for 19 of his 39 caps for 14 wins, a success rate almost twice as good as Ella’s.
Alan Jones proved his point.
(Photo by S&G/PA Images via Getty Images)
Michael Cheika is faced with a similar decision, even though there’s no interstate jealously involved of any description.
David Pocock was Wallaby captain when he suffered two knee reconstructions in as many seasons in 2013 and 2014.
He was one of the two best open-side flankers in world rugby at the time with Richie McCaw, but for two years he never played a Test. In fact, he hardly played a game as both severe injuries were early in the season.
That gave Michael Hooper his chance, and he grabbed it.
But it would be fair, and accurate, to say had Pocock never been injured, Hooper would only have appeared off the bench, at best.
But since they were both available, the “Pooper” experiment has surfaced with Pocock forced to play number 8 to accommodate Hooper, who is too small for 6 or 8.
So the best 7 in Pocock has to play out of position, and to magnify the dilemma Pocock is the best captain, but he’s playing under Hooper’s leadership.
Unlike Alan Jones, who had to back his own instinct, Michael Cheika has both the captaincy records of Pocock and Hooper at his fingertips.
Pocock won four of his six Tests as captain before he was twice injured for a 66.67 per cent success – Hooper 12 wins from 30 for 45 per cent.
There’s no debate, the decision is obvious.
Rhys
Guest
You almost had me with you, then you picked Rona at 13.....
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
And only today on the radio Alan Jones making a highly offensive racial slur. That's who you're sided with.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
And yes. The Force took them to court. And lost because they had no case. It cost RA a lot of money. But it cost a lot less than $6.2M every year...
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Have you ever heard of the term "commercial decision"? You continually just want to ignore reality. If Cox taking legal action was going to cause more financial pain - regardless of whether he won or lost why is making a settlement not the best option? It's RA's responsibility to minimize the impact to themself at the time. Nobody has ever said it's RA's responsibility to pay Cox anything beyond what contracts state, so stop with the straw man arguments. When did the Rebels receive over $10M in a year? Or an additional $10M last year compared to other Super Rugby teams as you falsely claim in your letter to Castle All teams received $6.2M. The Rebels received $6M over 4 years, it was about $2M in 2015, diminishing annually. So last year they should have received somewhere around $8M. But hey, not everybody can be the genius that you are though...
Bakkies
Roar Guru
'And the fact it was a settlement for threatened legal action likely explained it sufficiently.' Not the RA's responsibility to pay them off. It also doesn't explain why the Rabble received over 10 million dollars. 'Should they have just spent more money instead?' They did that anyway. Not just the fact that another organisation took them to court. The RA stupid as stupid does.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
And the fact it was a settlement for threatened legal action likely explained it sufficiently. You can't point to all of these things like the Royal Commission and ASIC investigation and say they are going to vindicate your vicious and aggressive claims and then just say they have no credibility when they don't find what they want you to find. Cox threatened legal action over losses that were claimed to have been suffered in 2017 due to the uncertainty created over the Rebels position. Now he may not have ultimately been successful. But for that to occur RA would have needed to incur significant expense in order to reach that unsuccessful verdict. Should they have just spent more money instead? I look forward to you deflecting this answer, and responding with yet another unsubstantiated claim. Them you can go back to the 10 people that comment on TWF where I'm not a member and tell them how you really told me.
Bakkies
Roar Guru
'Because the Royal Commission didn’t recommend it be looked at – because they had no reason to suspect any wrongdoing.' Typical response from you Cameron. A not for profit in the RA paying off directors that sit on the board of a taxable entity so it could be sold for a dollar should raise plenty of red herrings.
Whattheruckqld
Guest
Like this team - but it ain’t going to happen while Mr. Cheika is the coach
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Nah it wasn't. Because the Royal Commission didn't recommend it be looked at - because they had no reason to suspect any wrongdoing.
Offside
Guest
You need to watch more Rugby David if you think Mark Ella was the finest 1st 5 you have ever seen. Although he was a very talented player, Lynah was more solid and Larkham was the best 10 Australia has ever had. Although still miles behind the likes of Fox, Carter and Barrett. Alan Hewson was the best fullback in the world in 1982, not Roger Gould. Alan Jones was a great coach. However his star fell in 1987 after a miserable world cup and then lost to Argentina when Argentina was Hugo Porta and 14 Argentinian men. Agree with the Pooper dilemma. Hooper needs to have the captaincy stripped and put on the bench (at best). Pocock should go back to 7 as he is a midget when it comes to a #8. He is also much better playing loose instead of tough. Chekia however isn't worthy of tying the shoes of either Jones (Alan or Eddie).
Deborah Buckley
Roar Rookie
ASIC largely looked at 2015 not last year which is what needed to be looked at.
Dontcallmeshirley
Guest
Nobody should take any leaf for any book associated with Alan Jones!
In brief
Guest
Hodge is generally unreliable so happy for Foley to take over
PHIL jackson
Guest
Why do people like David lord keep talking about the past. The old days are history. The wallabies are at the apex of Australia's rugby movement. Why don't we have a national coaching strategy like the ABs. All Australian coaches from 1st and 2nd grade sides at capital city level to provincial and super level up should have to attend a national coaching academy to ingraine an Australian brand of rugby so that any players graduating to higher honours are already familiar with what is required of them at the highest level. Rugby is not rocket science but getting the fundamentals right is of the utmost importance. Defence set play and attack should be a given. Intensity, patience and commitment forces mistakes from the opposition giving scoring opportunities from broken play. .
AJ
Guest
Well said. Nasty and irrelevant.
sheek
Guest
Kane, Is this a declaration of war? You trash one of my heroes Ella! From my reckoning Ella missed four tests during this time, of which the Wallabies won 3 - France (1) 1981, Ireland 1981, Wales 1981 & Scotland (2) 1982. The only lost test was against Wales. Here's my take on the three big series Ella participated in against the ABs. 1980. Unintentionally, coach Bob Templeton had to select a young, untried backline because his two most experienced players, Paul McLen & Andy Slack, were injured. So he gave them their head, replacements Ella & gould to the fore, & their inventive play shocked the ABs leading to a 2-1 series win. 1982. 10 leading Wallabies pulled out of the tour, including 7 key forwards. Losing so many key forwards really hurt the wallabies. Yet under Ella's magical leadership, the Wallabies ran the ABs close 1-2. 1984. Clearly an opportunity lost. After winning the 1st test & having the 2nd test in control at half-time, unnecessary hubris set in & the Wallas lost. The stop-start 3rd test nature didn't suit the Wallas, & they lost the test & series narrowly. It was a bitter defeat with the Wallabies good enough to win if they had applied themselves the entire series. But as often happens, the ABs outsmarted them tactically.
Manc Mike
Guest
Let me clarify I'm saying that to beat the All Blacks you must have the capability in attack to score more points. I'm not suggesting all put attack at the expense of defence. Saturday's attack was painful to watch. While I've heard from many people it was our defence that was what drained us, you can't ignore the effort required to recycle the ball on negative/marginal gains. We were never on the front foot offensively and worked far too hard with the ball in hand. I think the team above is capable of more points and similar, though not as strong, defence. A happier marriage to beat the ABs.
wade fite
Guest
"the worst of the many putrid decisions" David was your decision to vent your spleen in such a foul and vulgar way. Paul McLean was a terrific player. In my opinion Mark Ella was a better player. Paul McLean was a relatively successful goal kicker and was chosen ahead of ME for his goal kicking... as it turned out he had a horrible tour wrt the kicking tee / mud pile. I suspect he still has cold sweats at night knowing his poor kicking during that tour lost his team a grand slam. Show some grace and try to behave yourself.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
*All I know.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Well I comment pretty regularly so not sure about that. ASIC are toothless. They haven't been able to punish adequately when they've found wrongdoing, which they often have. But that's not the case here as they haven't found any wrongdoing. All I need is one party in all of this is independent, and has all the facts available. ASIC. And they've found nothing wrong happened.