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A pin drop could be heard in the jam-packed Canberra pub. Lukhan Tui was tussling with a fan on the big screen, Rod Kafer was asking stock-standard questions to a distraught Reece Hodge and my mate Morgo was frantically ordering several schooners to numb the pain of this most recent Wallabies debacle.
Suddenly, and predictably, a bloke on a table just within earshot of us decided he would cast the first blow in anger, pointing to the problem seemingly everyone in the Australian rugby community agrees with.
“Mate, they’re just over coached,” he said.
“Too many structures, mate, we’ve just got to go out there and play footy.”
The familiarity of that phrasing is becoming like a trigger to me. I ask you, sincerely, what does that actually mean?
“Too much structure” – it’s called organisation.
Sure, there’s a certain beauty to 14 blokes showing up for battle in fourth grade on a Saturday afternoon, but this is professional footy.
The game has moved on from all-out action. I respect the greats of Australian Rugby, but they played a different sport to the one being played now. The way forward is not backwards. The best in the world play structured footy and we have to as well.
From grass-roots to the Wallabies, there seems to be an inherent fear and distrust of having a set game-plan in this country, the perceived knowledge being that if we play to a set of ideals, when the situation doesn’t match our plan, what then?
Simple – if plan A doesn’t work, go to plan B, then C.
The other one I hear is that structure stifles creativity in attack.
You know who plays to a structure – the All Blacks. Do you think the Kiwis rock up to Eden Park, pick a side then go out and free-wheel it for 80 minutes? No!
They play to shape, a structure. Everybody knows what everyone is doing at every time and place on the field for the entire game.
Most importantly, they coach the details. Catch-pass, ruck tech, the fundamentals of rugby, and then once the shape produces an overlap, the players have he skills to execute.
If Israel Folau wore black instead of gold, he wouldn’t last if he couldn’t pass the ball. Insanely talented or not, if you can’t move the pill to space you have no use for them
Props and wingers, backrows and halfbacks, they can all pass and I refute any claim that it’s simply a talent thing. It’s coaching.
Rugby is a game of controlled chaos, you have to put set structures in place to have a cohesive unit, then coach acute details so the structure works.
It’s time Australian Rugby embraced this modern approach to rugby and stopped being afraid of complex ideas, scared of giving players too much information.
It’s starts from juniors. There are U15 sides in the UK who run a lineout better than the Wallabies are at the moment, and that’s not hyperbole.
The Wallabies run almost exclusively, pre-called tempo lineouts. No read of the defence, no nuance.
Fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself. We can’t be the magical world refusing to say “Voldemort”. Structure is not rugby’s “he who should not be named”.
It’s okay to learn. Just because you aren’t good at something, doesn’t mean it has to be thrown out. The All Blacks are in a different stratosphere at the moment and the likes of Ireland, Argentina and even Scotland, are leaving the Wallabies behind.
We are a reluctant Ostrich with its head in the sand, choosing nostalgia over progress.
Like it or not, the game has moved on from 1998. We’re not even playing the same sport and other countries recognise this.
We can stay where we are, watching YouTube videos of Tim Horan and Joe Roff as we slip further down the rankings.
Or, we can adopt rugby’s new ideas and move forward.
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.