- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I watch too much rugby. And not just Australian, but a lot from other Southern Hemisphere countries and Europe too. And the Australian way of playing rugby, from the grassroots level up, is obsolete.
We have had a series of legendary, and accomplished coaches (Robbie Deans, Ewen McKenzie, Michael Cheika, Dave Rennie and now Eddie Jones). None have rebuilt the Wallabies to our expectations, and if anything, the fundamental parts of the game have become worse (discipline especially).
As much as I think Rugby Australia have ruined the game in Australia, I do not believe they have had a big role in the demise of the Wallabies. As blasphemous as it is to say, I think the fans bear some responsibility for that.
There are 6sixkey attributes to success in rugby, itself an increasingly strategic sport. Work ethic/rate, athleticism, size, strategy, skill and rugby union intelligence. We are top 3 in the world on all of the first 3 in my view.
Strategy ain’t too bad either, because of a long line of great coaches in charge (although I didn’t love every year of Cheika). Skill could be better in some areas, but a lot of things like passing, offloading, lineout jumping, scrummaging technique, we are world class. And we have intelligent players who can and do produce moments of magic, but we are intelligent, not rugby union intelligent.
A few examples…
When you watch a Super Rugby game in Australia, players are frequently booed for kicking the ball. Kids at grassroots level are taught to play running rugby and ignore kicking. Yet, kicking is the means of gaining territory and getting in good positions to play running rugby. The most entertaining teams on the planet right now are very good kickers. This is no coincidence. Scoring from within your own half through a zero kicking strategy has worked, never? This attitude towards kicking is not reflected elsewhere in the world to anywhere near the same extent and this manifests itself as all the kicking duels the wallabies lose. Our kicking is not a big threat and so opposition teams can have more plays in the defensive line against us.
Perhaps a consequence of rugby league’s influence in Australia, Australians are the tier 1 fanbase with the most resistance to new foul play laws. All well and good to protest if this is the hill you want to die on but we sure haven’t adapted to the new rules. But if there is a culture, from grassroots to super rugby, of letting these things slide, then the Wallabies will suffer.
Speaking of rugby league, our players are fantastic at the more rugby league-esque aspects of the game. The hard running, hard hitting, offloading. We’ve got that in spades. Our weaknesses seem to be in discipline not just in giving away penalties, but also in more technical parts of the game like ruck entry technique, organised pods, you know, the less flashy things.
Australian teams do very little, sometimes none of the shithousery things that win you rugby games at this level – like dragging a defender a bit towards you to give more space to compete at the breakdown, a little bit of obstruction for a kick chase or knowing which rucks to attack. We play like a rugby league team playing rugby union. This worked great in the early days of professionalism, but in 2023 it is so unbelievably obsolete it’s insane.
The idea that our players lack size (we have been one of the biggest teams on the planet, perhaps the biggest this year) is ludicrous to me.
Our players who play for other nations are not exactly terrible either. Mack Hansen is a world beater, Sione Tuipulotu is a guaranteed starter for the best ever Scotland side, Tyrel Lomax is starting for the All Blacks. None did much in Australian Super Rugby.
The idea that our players lack athleticism is also ludicrous. Who are these rugby league athletes who are SO MUCH BETTER that our meek and mild Wallabies will be out of their places when they come? The differences in athleticism at the top level is minimal, it has plateaued in recent years.
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
In terms of size and athleticism, the Wallabies are better than Ireland (the world number 1). I’d wager if you were an alien and all you knew about was the size and athleticism of the various rugby teams around the planet, you’d take Australia to win the World Cup. We need a lot more than that though.
When I watch the team as well, the strategy and work rate of the boys seems pretty spot on. But we always do dumb things. Scapegoats are fun and all but it’s pretty much across the entire team, it’s not a couple of players with screws loose. In a rugby landscape where intelligence is increasingly required, we are being left behind, and a top-down approach will take a long time. Eddie Jones is the rugby coach with the greatest number of incredible achievements in rugby history. Many would say he’s the greatest coach ever. If he can’t work magic on these boys, I’m not sure who can.
Take a look at Ireland. They are undoubtedly the best team in the world currently. But their players are smaller and less athletic than ours. But my god are they smart. Across the board they are disciplined at every single facet of the game. They give away basically zero silly penalties. High tackles only happen when a player dips. The team is not super physical in defence but have set up a defensive system that is designed to essentially have back up tacklers every time someone misses a tackle, and it’s executed to perfection. No silly offloads. Pods and ruck entries are sublime.
It’s all so pristine and focused on team success. They work as a unit, unlike the Wallabies reliance on individual brilliance. Ireland is the antithesis of Australian rugby, and a lot of other international teams are heading that way. Every other team is improving their rugby IQ at a rate of knots, and we are still focused on whether or not our players hit hard enough. It won’t matter.
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.