- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Australian rugby has had a rocky ride in the last few months (years perhaps, decades even) but let’s not dwell on that. Instead, let’s look ahead to when (not if) calm returns to our embattled sport and the most pressing priorities for the revitalised leadership.
Most of us are probably hoping that new Rugby Australia (RA) chair Daniel Herbert and CEO Phil Waugh will thoughtfully identify the way forward, unite the warring tribes and pave the way for the restoration of Australian rugby’s reputation for quality and innovation. The theory, of course, is that if RA does its job, the scoreboard should look after itself.
Promisingly, Herbert has already suggested that the board won’t seek short-term sugar hits. But given both he and Waugh are relatively new to their roles, here are some hints about what’s important.
1. Model honesty and openness
Vision of anguished Rob Valetini, Angus Bell and Nick Frost following the Wallabies’ loss to Wales in their Rugby World Cup pool match should become a moment of enlightenment for Australian rugby.
The agonising rawness of the moment was the blast of reality that Australian rugby needed after months of bombast, spin and ultimately empty promises of glory being within the Wallabies’ grasp. Despite a certain duo (they who shall not be named) making repeated claims of wanting to save Australian rugby, neither seemed sufficiently self-aware to realise that they themselves posed the biggest danger to our game.
The new era will eschew spin for honesty and narratives for the simple truth. Beyond a few corporate types, rugby fans by and large are not given to blazer-wearing or braggadocio. There’s no stereotype. We’re as diverse as the players, and mostly respectful, thoughtful, knowledgeable and deeply concerned. We smell BS from a mile away so let’s be done with it, and tell it how it is from now on – constructively, of course.
Rob Valetini consoles Nick Frost of Australia at full-time following the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Wales and Australia at Parc Olympique on September 24, 2023 in Lyon, France. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
2. Let the kids play
Somehow, despite a succession of crises at the elite level and the Wallabies’ slide down rugby’s greasy pole, kids still seem to love the game. They turn up to club games and Super Rugby Pacific and Super W matches and fan days, even if – as David Campese claims – they don’t know a single player’s name. Some even play rugby, enough to ensure a decent supply chain of talent through the pathways. We can’t take it for granted, however, so ensuring rugby wins young hearts and minds is a must.
Supporting established rugby schools – from Joeys in Sydney to Brisbane State High – so they continue to underpin our playing ranks is essential and surely very achievable given existing connections. Getting rugby into more public schools, however, is vexing.
When you consider the talent that has received government schooling, from Mark Ella (Matraville High) to Valetini (Westall Secondary), it’s clear that there’s a rich vein of rugby potential at government schools but how much talent slips through the cracks? This website has already covered the great work being done at Fountain Gate Secondary College in Melbourne but is there a role for RA through the states and territories to deliver kid-friendly rugby programs or provide training for interested teacher-coaches? It doesn’t have to start big, but it must be a consistent, ongoing commitment, and requires development officers on the ground. From little things, big things grow.
3. A question of skill
Talking of kids, let’s get them upskilled while they’re having fun. Every man, woman and their dog is is incessantly complaining about skills in the professional ranks. So, let’s invest in the creation of quality RA-endorsed rugby skills programs available to any schools and clubs that want them, ensuring young players are developing constantly and consistently. A company run by former Wallaby and renowned schools coach Barry Honan apparently created a well-regarded multimedia coaching program consisting of drills and exercises for schools coaches some decades back. Perhaps there’s a conversation to be had about dusting this off and updating it for the current era.
Of course, development is as important for coaches as it is for players. It’s widely accepted that the demise of the national coaching director position, originally held by Dick Marks was a mistake. Do we revive the position? Do we reinvent it? The National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC), to which Marks, Honan and several other luminaries have contributed, was set up a few years ago to interrogate key areas of our game. We’ve seen the committee’s influence in the trialling of experimental laws and revival of the Australia A program. Phil Waugh, there’s a lot on your plate right now but getting NTAC’s input into a more robust approach to coaching skills and pathways is probably even more important than the next broadcast deal.
4. Hear her roar
The more the Wallabies struggle, the greater the scrutiny. The greater the scrutiny, the more they struggle. National coaches being summarily sacked or walking out in a huff just adds to the unwanted attention on the players. It’s not fair on a pretty young and green team to expect it to carry the weight of our rugby nation under that kind of pressure, especially when there’s a golden rugby story to tell right under RA’s noses.
Yes, I’m talking about Australia’s women’s sevens team, which in 2022 won the triple crown – Commonwealth Games gold, as well as Sevens World Cup and World Series – and are major contenders for Olympic gold in 2024. They’re not only winners but great characters, including the sister act of Maddison and Teagan Levi who could be superstars. RA’s PR department has probably been in fulltime damage control in recent years but, for goodness’ sake, the Wallabies don’t always have to be the shopfront window. There’s a glittering opportunity to get the girls out and about not only in the media but in the community on the runway to the Paris Games. They are the story right now, so tell it!
5. Putting the super back into rugby
Super Rugby Pacific or Super Rugby AU? It’s a question that occupies much space and time on this and other websites. But the reality is that we are committed to Super Rugby Pacific for the remainder of the decade. That’s a good thing. It represents certainty, of which we are sorely in need. Not only that, our provincial teams get to play the provincial teams of consistently the best rugby playing nation on earth every second week or so, as well as two Pasifika teams, with one a rising power. And we still get to indulge our own state-v-state tribalism, multiple times in a season.
Queensland’s Harry Hoopert. (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)
Super Rugby is what we make it and it could be an absolute gem. If we fully exploit its possibilities as a celebration of Pacific-style rugby and culture, it could be even better than the original iteration of Super Rugby. That’s why the new Super Rugby Pacific Commission, if it does what it’s supposed to with the active support of RA, could be the most positive development this year. It needs to restore the integrity of the tournament, to eradicate the perception that the competition exists purely as prelude to the Test season. Super Rugby Pacific must start pulling its weight, in terms of capturing hearts, minds, media attention and dollars. The competition must be thrilling, the atmosphere intoxicating and the teams well-resourced with top coaches and our best players so that between February and June, it’s all anyone is talking about.
So, there you have it, my list for Herbie, Waughie and the other decision-makers at RA. Most of it is not new, of course, and many in the rugby community will have one or more of these among their own priorities. It’s likely too that our rugby custodians are quietly active in some or all of these spaces without the wider community being aware of it. That’s all we can ask. Do your job and the scoreboard will look after itself.
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.