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Opinion
Close your eyes. Can you hear the faint jingle of bells in the night sky? Do you hear the struggles of a large, ageing man in mid-chimney? If you’re lucky, he may have dropped off a gift for you. Go on, open it. If you’re an Australian rugby supporter, it might contain a wish-list of all those who have left home, to better themselves as rugby players and men.
Read it now, it could look something like this:
James O’Connor has been parachuted in from Sale, but all the rest of those players come from just three teams in England and Ireland. Connacht provide two from the Galway Bay, London Irish four from West London and the Exeter Chiefs nine from deepest Devon. There would be other good ‘uns populating the bench, like Ollie Atkins, Mitch Lees and Ryan McCauley up front; John Porch, Nick Phipps and Joe Powell behind.
Exeter, London Irish and Connacht may not constitute Australian academies, but they sure do provide the finishing schools. The trio stand out like a sore, red thumb against the backdrop of Rugby Australia’s mooted proposal to cut, rather than increase the number of overseas picks Dave Rennie is able to make for the World Cup next year, reported by Christy Doran on The Roar last week.
RA believes that ring-fencing the five Australian franchises in Super Rugby Pacific will attract Australian players back home in time for the 2025 Lions tour, and the World Cup two years later. The main problem with the theory is that those five teams have never been fully competitive in the tournament with their Trans-Tasman partners New Zealand.
Look back to 2021, where the cross-border matches only produced two Australian victories in 25 games. You only start building walls when you have something of value worth protecting.
RA would be far better off strengthening ties with those three clubs based in the UK and Ireland, rather than cutting its nose off to spite its own face. Why not build into those business relationships, and invest on a contractual basis rather than trying to break them off?
In on-field terms, clubs like Exeter Chiefs have been doing Australian rugby a big favour for many years by developing players who could no longer foresee a pathway for themselves within the domestic game. Nic White’s career was flatlining when he arrived at Sandy Park from Montpellier:
“I have never shied away from saying that my time in England with [Exeter] Chiefs certainly turned my whole career around. I felt like I was plateauing and my time with the Chiefs certainly helped me go to the next level with my game, and reignited my international career,” White told the club website.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
“A lot of what I have worked on from then is what I am taking forward, each and every season. I felt this year I went up another gear and I feel like my rugby has been getting better and better over the last few years since I started with Exeter…
“Exeter was a pretty special time for me and my family. We had our two little boys down there and as I say, the club had a huge impact on my rugby career.”
White is far from alone. Queenslander Greg Holmes also returned home from Devon re-energised, feeling that he had become both a better rugby player and a more rounded human:
“I look back to four years ago and I was a little apprehensive at the time. I was going from a club which I had been at for 12 years to the other side of the world. Beforehand, you hear bits and pieces from people about the place, but it’s not until you are actually here that you realise what Exeter and the Chiefs are all about,” said Holmes.
“These past four years have been amazing and this is a very special place to not only come and play rugby, but to live in and be part of a special rugby community. Some of my fondest rugby memories have come from my time here in Exeter and I’m just so glad I’ve been able to experience what I have – and be a small part in what has been a successful period for the club.”
At his best, White is one of the three best halfbacks in the world, while Holmes has the potential to become a top-drawer scrum and forwards coach both in, and for Australia.
Like it or not, rugby is now a global game and the energy of powerhouse European clubs like Exeter should be harnessed by Rugby Australia, not shut down. The rugby reasons why learning to play and live in different environments is so important can be illustrated with a few key stats:
| Team | Ball-in-play time | Time-of-possession | Tries 5+ phases | Rucks per game | LQB [0-3’ ball] % |
| Exeter | 38.9’ | 22.4’ | 54% | 119 | 66% |
| Brumbies | 32.7’ | 15.4’ | 24% | 65 | 31% |
The best team in Australia is the Brumbies, but they play a specific style and one size does not fit all. If you want to learn how to play in a multi-phase attack in a high ball-in-play time league, then Exeter is definitely the career ‘holiday hotspot’ for you.
That is what White did. He went to Sandy Park and learned how to service over 100 rucks per game. All three of his passing game, his manipulation of defenders near the ruck and his physical conditioning improved as a consequence. Now imagine Tate McDermott or Noah Lolesio or Ben Donaldson making the same pilgrimage, and try to calculate the benefits for Australian rugby in the future.
Exeter had two Australian representatives in the recent Heineken Champion’s Cup match against the Bulls province from South Africa: prop Scott Sio and centre Solomone Kata, both late of the Brumbies, and both enjoyed notable games for their new club.
Sio was responsible for three of the four scrum penalties in a 4-0 count to the Devonians, up until his substitution in the 53rd minute. His experienced opponent Jacques van Rooyen could not cope with the Wallaby loose-head on either feed:
Van Rooyen looks uncomfortable at the initial ‘set’, and all Sio has to do is lift and flex his upper body for the Bulls’ tight-head to buckle completely under the pressure.
Sio was also highly instrumental in the Chiefs’ first driving lineout try of the game, knocking the great man, Bismarck Du Plessis out of the outside corner of the defence to create a hole for his hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie to touch down. It is the same role that his ex-teammate Allan Alaalatoa plays for the Brumbies:
The resemblance to the Canberra outfit ended at that point. At Sandy Park, Sio was required to operate as the first receiver in a three-man pod on four occasions versus the Northern province:
The new add-ons just apply a little more polish to the gem, whether it is the pull-back pass to number 10 Joe Simmonds, or the tip-on to his brother, England number 8 Sam.
Kata also played an important part after entering the fray in only the 15th minute of the game. Exeter deploy him as a centre, not on the wing as he was used in Canberra:
Quick bust, quick ball at the ruck and another surge by Sam Simmonds takes play all the way to the Bulls’ goal-line. Kata had six carries for 52 metres and three tackle breaks in the game, and he seems well-suited indeed to a more central role in the back-line attack. He even got himself involved in another Exeter try from a driving maul:
The underpinning reason for any individual improvement is the jolt given by necessity – the need to adapt to a new environment with different expectations. At Exeter, both Sio and Kata, like White and Holmes and many other Australians at Sandy Park before them, are required to play in a multi-phase attack which asks more questions of their skill-sets and conditioning.
Just before half-time, Exeter showed their true mettle. From a scrum on halfway, they strung together 16 passes and seven rucks in just under two minutes of possession time to score an outstanding try:
More is being asked of both ex-Brumbies during this sequence: Kata makes a run on the right before recycling himself on the left to make another pass and attend a cleanout, Sio has to be both decoy in midfield and then carry when the ball bounces back in off the left side-line. Both actions occur on consecutive phases.
Tempo has to remain high, with quick ruck ball provided by decisive cleanouts. It is the kind of education which has benefited generations of Australian players in seasons past, and would profit them greatly in rugby’s uncertain future.
Summary
If Santa is coming down the chimney for Australian rugby this Christmas, the gifts he bears for Dave Rennie will be labelled ‘via air mail’. The likes of Quade Cooper, Marika Koroibete, Samu Kerevi, Will Skelton, Rory Arnold, Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Luke Morahan all have valid claims for inclusion in Rennie’s World Cup squad, and at least four of those are indispensable to Wallaby success in the tournament itself.
The value of players who have experienced successful environments in Europe and Japan cannot be overstated. They are exposed to new coaching philosophies, and a wholly different set of expectations which improve their skill-sets, their ability to withstand adversity and live through it. Ask White. Ask Holmes.
Just why RA may be feeling the need to circle the wagons around a failing professional structure in Australia is a mystery worthy of the festive season. It is hard to hold players hostage when they see a chance to win more silverware, make more money and fulfil their potential quicker elsewhere.
Would it not make more sense to build on the strong relationships which are already in place with clubs like Exeter and London Irish in the UK, and Connacht in Ireland? Two of those clubs are coached by Australians (Andy Friend and Les Kiss) after all, and Rob Baxter has proven over several years his affinity for the Australian game.
Why not make those relationships more transactional, via structured loan or exchange schemes for players and coaches alike? Keep primacy of contract, but accelerate the improvement of rugby skill-sets and IP at home by the transfer of talent and information between hemispheres.
Rugby in Australia will die a slow and unpleasant death in isolation, and the only cure is to break out of the circle of insularity, not to reinforce it. The festive season can deliver in both North and South, if Santa can make it down the chimney and common sense prevails. A Happy Christmas to All!