Supporting the Wallabies is a bittersweet decision. While you can have moments of euphoric elation, these are often interspersed with crushing defeats or insipid performances.
On Saturday night I started writing this article sitting at the SCG, with a grand view of the field. The players had finished warming up and the marching band duel had begun with great enthusiasm, perhaps a sign of what was ahead.
Flames rose around the stadium as 43,000-plus fans filtered to their seats.
Despite the view and the occasion, I was wracked with nerves.
Why the butterflies?
Since Eddie Jones took the reins of England rugby, they had won eight in a row. The 2016 home defeat was particularly crushing, with Michael Cheika and his team being outplayed and outsmarted at every turn.
Despite winning the series opener in Perth, the Wallabies were manhandled in the first half in Brisbane. Gifting a 19-0 lead to England was never going to lead to success.
This is where the butterflies flutter thick and fast. Yes, we won the match in Perth. But our previous encounters were a 32-15 defeat at Twickenham last year and the crushing 40-16 demolition in the quarter-final of the 2019 World Cup.
I’m scared that we’re going to lose. Again. To England. To a smug Eddie Jones with that smirk on that face.
My heart can’t handle that.
The smirk in question (Photo by Mark Evans – RFU/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)
Eddie has just left the media room. The smirk was everything I was worried about.
“The result is always important, but the development of the team is what’s important… we’re developing a team for the World Cup,” says the victorious coach.
To be fair, he deserves the smirk.
The criticism levelled his way after the defeat in Perth was unwarranted. He’s always said he has a direction for his England team. Last week, they were a battering ram. This week, England were good enough to take the minimal opportunities presented to them by a wasteful Wallabies team.
The wastefulness, the choices to go for the corner rather than take points, the incredible ‘what if’ moments such as Frost’s charge down. They stack together as ongoing frustrations for fans of the green and gold.
“We weren’t clinical enough… at this level we have to take our opportunities,” said Dave Rennie post-game.
For the last 10 years, the Wallabies have been near enough but not good enough. They give you hope, that tantalising taste of success that makes you crave more, only for your mouth to be filled with ash in our eventual defeat.
I trust Rennie. Calls for his replacement are ridiculous and short-sighted.
His guidance and stability is a welcome change from the Cheika era.
I also believe in the players. I believe they’re capable of consistent performance above and beyond what we’ve seen.
I strongly believe they can match the hope and expectations that we as fans have for them.
Argentina awaits.
Francisco Roldan
Roar Rookie
Hello Ando...! The discussion around @Wallabies is very interesting, since at a certain point it resembles the controversies around the @LosPumas game. From my point of view, @Wallabies generated important break chances but failed to convert them into points. An interesting metric indicates that 26.5% of the attacks executed by @Wallabies created breaks, but they reflected only 2.1 points for each Visit to the red zone of 22 M. In other words, the difficulty could be in the definition of each attack.
Joe King
Roar Rookie
The problem is not the coach. The problem is the rugby system in Australia. This is as good as it gets. We’re not going to suddenly change and be consistently better. If we could, we would have already. No coach has been able to do that. Breaking away from SR won’t change that. Everything changed after we started to expand the SR teams. Not complaining. I realise there are good reason for that happening. But it affected our cohesion levels negatively, which has had negative consequences for the Wallabies. And that’s just the way it is. We can still enjoy our rugby. Rugby won’t die in Australia. But there is no special dawn about to come upon us. We’ve been thinking there is for almost 20 years. We’ll still be hoping for it in 20 more. So we just have to enjoy the wins here and there and get use to inconsistency.
Morsie
Roar Rookie
England play "rope a dope" rugby. We were the dopes.
Check-side for the boundary
Roar Rookie
Yes, Biltong, that's very correct ! I should not have used the 'ten man rugby' terminology. . I think that the expression goes back to the 1930s ... ? I more meant to keep the ball in their half and take no risks ...
Check-side for the boundary
Roar Rookie
Yes Ethan, unlikely I think too … . Sad to say but Jake ball might be the answer … ?
Ando
Roar Rookie
If we force them out, who do we replace them with? What damage would that do to Aus Rugby and how long would it take to recover?
Ando
Roar Rookie
Some pretty hot takes here Jimbo! Regarding combinations such as Gordon/Edmed, isn't that what we have in White/Lolesio? Aside from that, I do agree that Noah (and the backline) has managed to effectively unlock defences on their own try line. I struggle with the view towards Hooper. It seems that almost every single coach that speaks about Hooper praises him incredibly highly. I really don't believe that highly trained and experienced coaches would be wrong, and punters like yourself and I would be right.
Ando
Roar Rookie
That's the truth of it huh! We keep coming back for more...
Ando
Roar Rookie
What if it was consistent success? I think I'd happily be bored then :stoked:
Ando
Roar Rookie
Darren Coleman when asked about taking the 3 with the Tahs clearly stated that the team have a plan/approach for when to kick to the corner, and when to take the 3. I don't think the commentary around tries vs penalties should be centred around the captain. He would, almost without a doubt, be following the directions of the coach.
Ando
Roar Rookie
Here's hoping Mr Fox, thanks for the read!
Hhhmmmm
Roar Rookie
Wow I didn’t realize the record was that bad in Sydney. My son is nine and has only seen the wallabies lose once at suncorp. I keep saying he has a very skewed experience of being a wallabies fan.
PeterK
Roar Guru
passing in front of the player is a basic skill for all backs and far too often the pass was at or behind them
Biltong
Guest
It isn't supposed to be easy, that is why it is test rugby.
Guess
Roar Rookie
Ok you saw the errors and concluded they are bad at basics should they just try to improve basics skills by your logic and the problem will be solved? As for Ireland for me it's not Ireland being that good it's ab being unrecognisably bad that won them the series.
Reframe
Roar Rookie
Guess, Perhaps the simple statements that are being espoused after every single outing. The need to do the simple things better. Simple things are basic things. England and Ireland seemed to understand that concept. This may be hard to understand but just because you are paid to perform a task does not always mean you are good at it under pressure. Given that the use of "fans" in your comment does not include you I would ask you then why have you decided that fans are unable to or cannot recognise basic failures in skills. The ability to objectively look at a game and say that was not good, does not make you stupid. Boxing is a very good example of doing the basics better. There are a lot of paid boxers whose skills may be considered rudimentary but when facing an opponent whose rudimentary skills are able to be performed better under pressure who wins? So, to follow your logic why would professional coaches readily admit that the team failed to do the basics well enough? No emoji required.
Guess
Roar Rookie
That's it. It's not the basics then
Guess
Roar Rookie
"just" Easy to do it in theory especially when no England bricks coming at you
Guess
Roar Rookie
Sort of true. You don’t know what to expect from them
PeterK
Roar Guru
they can in training , but not at speed under pressure