Fresh from delivering the worst year for the Wallabies since 1958, Michael Cheika is reported to have a roadshow with Rugby Australia’s high-performance manager scheduled next week to visit the Australian Super Rugby franchises.
On this tour, the pair will aim to persuade the Australian Super Rugby sides to give up ten days of pre-season training with their Wallabies in January while Cheika runs a training camp, and to have key Wallabies training and playing workload’s reduced by 20% during the Super Rugby season.
During ordinary times, many Wallabies supporters might regard this sort of a deal as the holy grail, finally following in the footsteps of better teams like New Zealand and Ireland, to put the national team first. However, these are not ordinary times, with Cheika taking the Wallabies backwards since 2016, to the Wallabies current lowest ranking of seventh place in the World Rugby rankings.
That is indicative of far bigger problems than player workload management by Super Rugby clubs and after such an extended period of failure, Australian Rugby supporters are unlikely to have any confidence that he has the answers to turn things around.
Furthermore, Cheika has had opportunities to practice what he preaches on managing player workload management but flogs his best players during the international season by playing them constantly. Take, for example, his decision to run an already injured David Pocock during the game against Italy in November, when he had alternatives who were quite capable of supporting Michael Hooper in the back row, during a game against the lowly ranked Italians.
After that, for Cheika to have the hide to ask the Brumbies to give up their talisman for three or four games next season for the sake of the national team is beyond belief.
On the Super Rugby side of the discussion, while 2018 only saw mild and inconsistent improvements in the Super Rugby franchises, they are improvements that need to be nurtured.
The Waratahs managed to get into the semi-finals after two years of not making finals footy in 2016 and 2017, with coach Daryl Gibson finally seeming to work out how to get a good game of footy out of his Wallaby-laden team.
The Rebels managed a best-ever ninth spot finish, with their new coach Dave Wessels and his merged Rebels/Force squad.
The Reds managed their best finish in five seasons under new coach Brad Thorn.
(AAP Image/Albert Perez)
The Brumbies were the only team to go backward under new coach Dan McKellar, falling out of the finals for the first time in six seasons, though improved towards the end of the season with four wins from their last five games. Notably, David Pocock returned from injury layoff during the second part of the season, showing why he is essential to the fortunes of that club.
All of this shows that the Australian Super Rugby revival is in its infancy and is fragile, so there needs to be a chance of a very significant payoff in terms of Wallabies success, for the Super Rugby clubs to risk their own fortunes by resting Wallabies players. From their perspective, it must be very hard to see how Cheika’s record as coach offers any realistic prospect of that sort of payoff, even if players are rested.
Of course this week we had news of Rugby Australia fluffing around with Jake White’s offer to take over and apply his World Cup-winning coaching abilities to the Wallabies. So there doesn’t even seem to be much point holding out hope that by giving up their best players, the Super clubs might be helping out a new, more capable coach to win our national team back some respect.
So really what resting Wallabies players in 2019 would amount to, is to sacrifice Australian rugby’s chances of rebuilding the sport in Australia through Super Rugby improvement. All to provide a coach and a peak organisation who are out of their depths, with a fig leaf in lieu of a plan for the next nine months.
Personally, I can’t see how that is worth it for the franchises, I reckon most fans have now given up on the Wallabies in 2019 and would just love to see their Super Rugby teams play some good footy in the first half of the year. So really, the franchises should dig their toes in and hold over on agreeing to any sort of central player management until after the World Cup.
Roll on 2023.
Jacko
Guest
Thorns career is on the line if he has another poor season. Yeah coaches in Aus are sacked when they improve teams are they? Best season for Qld in years under Thorn....Clearly Cheka is 100% safe then
Jacko
Guest
That sounds like an interesting dinner to attend Rhys
Rugby wizard
Guest
So true,when building towards a rugby world cup building depth in positions is very important, I still dont understand why Hooper had too play 40+ test matches since Chieka took over in a row,surely gill could have had 10+ starts of that,knowing he was in Cheika's plans he might have stayed longer.
Luis
Guest
To show you the bias Cheika has towards picking Queenslanders ( Yes i`m calling it ) The Reds have a total of 99 test caps in their entire 2019 squad. Sekope Kepu has 101 test caps.
Zado
Guest
Disagree with Hamish Stewart,he is Mcintyre 2.0. Slowest young Aussie 10 i`ve ever seen .No good. You can`t teach speed and Stewart hasn`t got it. Maybe that's why Thorns brought in a Rookie 10 from New Zealand to play in 2019.
Nicolai
Guest
@ Craigo -- NO Kiwis in our LARGE group of REBELS Members!!! South African Aussies, Mauritian Aussies, Australian Aussies, and a few other nationalities in our group!! YES we do sometimes invite an Kiwi along -- but only 1 in a large group.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Start with this list... https://www.news.com.au/sport/rugby/wallabies/isi-naisarani-named-in-wallabies-tour-squad-but-he-wont-play/news-story/86ecfafcb5bfc62e19582371e6c89e22
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
RW, That ship sailed years ago. This isn't spoken about much, but when you shun players that are clearly the best in their position, you drive them overseas. Gill and Fardy are some of our best back-rowers that we may never see playing on our shores again.
Humey
Guest
Twas in your infinite wisdom and knowledge of the game unsurpassed can i ask you who should the Qld Reds rest ?, i can only think of 5 Reds players at best Cheika may pick in his Wallabies RWC squad and only 1 of those is a definite ( Rodda ). I`m just going on his past horrendous selection history of dropping players for good and never seeing them again and not picking players who are playing better than his preferred incumbent favourites etc etc. Izzack Rodda : Is safe you`d think, but if whispers are correct Skelton may join the world cup squad battling it out with Coleman Simmons Arnold Tui and Rodda and possibly Jones and Philip. Lukhan Tui : With his love of backrowers Hanigan Dempsey Hooper Samu and (Pocock the champion) as his backrowers, will Lukhan Tui get a crack there? imo he really is a lock at the moment. Tongan Thor ? Well he dropped him for Ainsley, so going on that he is not a lock in is he ? . Or was that a massive error that Cheika will never repeat ?.Not sure. Samu Kerevi ? Will he be selected as a 12 or 13.? Let`s see who he is up against for the 12 13 jersey. AAC Hodge Toomua Foley Beale Kurindrani and Petaia . Kerevi is not a definite. Jordan Peteia ? As above . Slim chance imo as pundits are all saying he is too young which i think is BS . Refer Horan Little Tune Flatley Roff Eales. Oh yeah How many should the Tahs rest ? The whole team basically is a chance of playing for the Wallabies aren't they.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
And ultimately preserving players for the RWC will only ensure that if teams make finals, their best players are actually in the best condition for finals too.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Except Wallaby income subsidizes the Super Rugby teams. So the Super Rugby clubs need them a bit more. Should the whole thing collapse, the Wallabies structure and contracts could possibly be preserved. Without the Wallabies structure, there's not enough money to fund Super Rugby.
Rugby wizard
Guest
Morahan is better than Folau agree totally with that.Rassie Erasmus had the luxury of calling up Kolbe who had little international experience is a good player but not as good as Morahan and look what a difference it made against all blacks,if only Cheika could have called up Morahan. I do believe if he was in the wallaby team besides the threat he brings,the likes of Beale and Folau would have been more of a threat by having him in the team with them.JOC maybe as well. The wallabies are short a few good attacking weapons,a 10 general,and a more physical back row,its not as bad as it seems,Cheika just needs too make the right calls.
JohnMc
Guest
I see little point working towards RWC2019 with Cheika at the helm. The results will be no better than current prospects. I agree that we should instead work for the longer term and allow our Super franchises to rebuild and operate at full strength.
Rugby wizard
Guest
Maybe my initial thought of title contenders might be a year too early,maybe 2020 is probably more realistic,I think 2019 will be a good year for Sautia ,hockings could become our premier wallaby lock in years too come,Stewart seems like a very good 10 but would have loved the reds too make a move for Barnes just too add some experience too the backline,who knows maybe he comes in on a short contract,which will be great.
Rhys Bosley
Roar Pro
“Without the Wallaby top ups the Super Rugby teams would lose their Wallabies to overseas.” Without the players having a Super Rugby club the Wallabies would also lose their players overseas. I suppose some could be played under Giteau’s rule, but I doubt the likes of Mourad Boudjellal would be keen to rest those players either. Rugby Australia needs the Super Rugby clubs as much as the vice versa and in this case, they hold all the cards. Plus votes to sack RA Board Members, as Alan Jones keeps reminding us lately.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Nah. RA need to replace Cheika to maximise results. Absolutely. Doesn't mean they shouldn't implement other measures do to this also.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Can you tell us your sports science credentials to support your view that managing player workloads will have zero benefit?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It's a perfectly reasonable request in concept if it's executed reasonably. Without the Wallaby top ups the Super Rugby teams would lose their Wallabies to overseas. However the requests need to be reasonable, well communicated and done so early unlike the farce that occurred this year with the Brumbies. It's the type of thing that with injuries, may not affect many players in fact as long as it's reasonable. To me reasonable would be asking that perhaps each of 35 players are rested for 3 games at the discretion of the franchise, perhaps with conditions around that (i.e. you can't just rest them for their first 3 games as that won't help come end of season), and the agreement that it is assumed all players play finals if the team makes it.
JP
Guest
No they wont. they will try hard, but they are very weak at 10 . So crucial. Will not make finals because of that.
JP
Guest
Beale and Foley could do with a permanent rest !!