Super flop isn’t a forerunner to national failure
THE WALLABIES:
It’s easy to scoff. After all, Australia have become so bad at Super Rugby that that can’t even cull the right team. The Western Force are, by far, the most admirable, hard-working, competitive team Australia have got and yet they’re the one getting the chop.
If you want to talk flops and teams who woefully underachieve, then look no further than the Waratahs and Reds.
The one consolation for this overall lack of competitiveness is that the Wallabies have been in camp for a comparative eternity.
Having five – soon to become four – average-to-awful Super sides isn’t a great look for the game in Australia, but that doesn’t mean they can’t distil it all down into a decent national team.
Throw in Kurtley Beale and Will Genia and the Wallabies shouldn’t be too bad when they host the All Blacks at ANZ Stadium in Sydney tomorrow night.
Australia didn’t get within 20 points of New Zealand, during last year’s Rugby Championship/bledisloe Cup series. You look at the scores: 42-8, 29-9 and 42-10 and assume the games were absolute mismatches.
The first one definitely was, before the Wallabies produced a niggling, combative exhibition of damagelimitation in the second.
They actually played rather well in the third match and briefly drew level at 15-15, early in the second half. Only the TMO then controversially ruled Henry Speight’s try out and the All Blacks kicked away to win by plenty.
The game was a contest, the Wallabies contributed significantly and yet they looked up at the end to find themselves a whopping 32 points in arrears.
That’s why it’s so easy to scoff. Australia can play well – well enough to believe they could win – and still lose by so much it’s not funny.
Not all their players are particularly good. But in abrasive lock Adam Coleman, prop Scott Sio, centre Samu Kerevi and new captain Michael Hooper, Australia at least have a few blokes you can build a team around.
History is a hard thing to overcome, though. The All Blacks have held the Bledisloe Cup since 2003 and both sides have become accustomed to a certain outcome in these games.
It means that, no matter how well the Wallabies are going or how grim things might appear for the All Blacks, both sets of players are conditioned to believe one team will win.
June’s drawn British and Irish Lions series was evidence of how important that belief is. The All Blacks appeared to play those games with a fear of the consequences, rather than the certainty that marks so much of their football.
The Wallabies will be much more competitive and difficult to beat tomorrow than their Super sides have proved this year. And so they should be.
But it’s still highly unlikely that they’ll end up within 20 points of New Zealand come fulltime.
The Wallabies will be much more competitive and difficult to beat tomorrow.