Steady Eddie, the heady days are on the way

As I read The Roar and other comment sites, I can’t help but be impressed how so many people have such strong opinions on just about every subject.

I look at their moniker and I read some of their posts – I try to imagine their avatar – hard in some cases because of some of the ridiculous monikers that some Roarers give themselves.

I try to imagine, for example, their age, their former rugby prowess, what level of rugby did they play, did they play at all, or are they just living through their kids, or through their opinions?

Are they just a part of that modern day wave of knockers who feel safe hiding in plain sight in the maelstrom of social media? which certainly has empowered us to have a crack at anything and everything that raises its head above the parapet.

Eddie Jones is one such soldier, and the parapet is there everyday for him.

When was the last time a Wallabies coach put himself into videos, making ads, which were designed to take the mick out of the common bloke? You have to appreciate his hubris and his commitment to the cause.

Come to think about it, when was the last time the poor bugger got a full night’s sleep?

(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

Regardless of what we may think about Dave Rennie and his fate, that is in the past. Eddie is in the now, and what a mountain he has to climb.

He has inherited a system that is broken. The fact that we do not have a proper second tier competition is probably responsible for the fact that our elite players feel entitled, don’t really know why, and do not approach matches with 100 percent commitment. When the whistle goes against them, there is that hazy stare, that says, WTF?

Translated, means, how did that happen? and what do I do next? The first AB try last night was a case in point. Did anyone see the looks on the Wallabies faces?

I am not questioning the commitment of the players, but they need to learn some seriously hard lessons around being hard, and they needed to learn them last week, last month, last year.

That is what Eddie is trying to bring back, but how do you do that when the players cannot fully appreciate what is expected of them?

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As I wrote in another comment recently, the old ARC/ NRC, if it had been allowed to continue would now be in its second decade.

Think about that, the improvements and tweaks that would have been made, the product that it would have produced, not to mention that tribalism would now be well established and we would all be united behind one of the franchises, of our choice.

We let it go, because Australian rugby fans always want the quick fix and are not prepared to do the hard yards. As I said, in my post, build it and they will come, but add ….. sometime down the track, not tomorrow or the next day.

Eddie is suffering the consequences of all the sins of neglect that just about everyone but him have committed and now people are pillorying for it.

Unfair, I say.

The bloke wears his heart on his sleeve and is single-handledly trying to get all of us to swing in behind him, so why don’t we try something new, innovative and rare – positive bloody thinking!

He’s the coach, he gets the big bucks and he can lose his job as easily as he was given it. The Wallabies made strides last night and there are more to be made.

Who can remember back to the 1991 RWC? That side was all but picked in 1989, until Tim Gavin smashed his knee, but it went through without any change for the next two years, so is it any wonder that we won that World Cup?

Professional coaches just don’t have that luxury any more.

Back then we had two franchises, made up of a lot of intelligent private school blokes who would go on to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, stockbrokers and the like.

There were probably more intelligent thinkers amongst those groups than we have today. No offence intended, modern day players, but have we really got a pool of elite thinkers, or more so, just a bunch of gifted athletes? Which one works better under pressure?

Too controversial? Too bad, suck it up, buttercups!

We have done nothing really, in this country, to improve the IP of our rugby. We have arrogantly sat here, assuming that our systems are great, while all the time ignoring the fact that just about every country in Europe was setting up excellent academies, and developing their systems.

We didn’t even notice that the NH teams were playing more exciting running rugby. Just watch about any London Irish game to see the exciting brand of rugby those poor bastards were playing, just before they got the boot from the Premiership.

We didn’t even start to talk about “possession rugby” (whatever that is) until Eddie re-surfaced.

Come on people, let’s get serious about these debates. We leave things to RA who have mountains to climb, then we position “snipers” all over those mountains to take pot shots at them.

It’s about time the Roarers took a position on all of this and looked at how we can help, not tear things down.