It gives me no pleasure to see how low Australian Rugby seems to have sunk in the last few years.

The Australian teams in Super Rugby have arguably never been weaker, with three of the Australian teams (Waratahs, Rebels and Reds) placed in the bottom five of the overall Super Rugby ladder.

The Wallabies haven't won the Bledisloe Cup since 2002 and have only won the Rugby Championship/Tri Nations twice in the last sixteen seasons. On both those occasions they were tied for the silverware with NZ.

Their 3rd tier competition, the NRC, is in very poor health. It's a non-event, with no-one watching live or on TV and almost zero marketing or advertising. The NZ Mitre 10 Cup gets better ratings on Fox Sports.

And to top it all off Rugby Australia has recently lost its best, highest profile and highest paid player, Israel Folau, in what has been an extremely messy and acrimonious affair. This case is now before the courts and there is a chance that Folau could win and successfully sue Rugby Australia for millions. He could potentially bankrupt the organisation.

I don't want to sound too alarmist, but the game is in trouble here.

To be fair it's been like this for a number of years and probably worse in 2015.

What's hampering our teams is poor coaching, at all levels of the game. We have plenty of good individual talent in super rugby teams but they are poorly utilised. What are we doing to address that?

NRC needs to be promoted better. There are things we can do without spending a lot of money. Use social media more, get fans invovled more. Fans also have a responsility to promote the game, attend games, etc. Too many are fairweather fans which disugsts me.

And the Mungoes are laughing at us

The Folau debacle is a new and particularly concerning affair. For weeks Australian Rugby was dragged through the ringer, with negative press and bad headlines day after day. And the threat of losing that court case is a major concern. With Allan Jones funding Folau's court costs this could drag on for some time.

The Wallabies won the RC in 2015 and qualified for the RWC final, if they can do that this year they'll be very happy.

To answer literally - it has been lower. RU was practically wiped out 100 years ago. It took until the 1950s to reappear in some locations.

But not being around back that far I'll stick with eighties and onwards - and IMO it's lowest since then.

I won't try to narrow it down to one "worst" season. It's much of a much a consistent slide.

Building up through the nineties were great times for the game here.

It's been on the downside for two decades though, now.

Perhaps all those headlines arent' necessarily a bad thing. It didn't really paint Rugby Australia in bad light. It showed what an idiot Folau was. You know they say any publicity is good publicity.

I somehow can't see Wallabies makign the finals. Cheika is a poor poor coach. We were a bit lucky last time. We didn't play that well (only really played well against England and Wales) but somehow managed to make it to the finals. This time I am not convinced we'll be that lucky.

The only thing that will save Austrailan rugby is long term strategic plans to improve the game ground up. Sadly I haven't seen anything from ARU to suggest that they are interested in that.

Yep

I agree that Rugby Australia has emerged from the Folau debacle looking pretty good, in my eyes at least. But right-wing nutjobs such as Allan Jones and Ray Hadley certainly led a sustained attack against RA on their radio stations, as did Sky News after dark.

The major issue was losing their best player. Imagine Brodie Retalick or Beauden Barrett being lost to the game in such a way? It was incredible.

I hope Australian U20 team will make the finals. Wouldn't it be great if they won it? That team seems to have a lot of good players including good forwards and they seem to be well coached. Finally some positive news for Austalian rugby.

if they select well they will be difficult top cope with come WC

however - folau will be a massive loss

Is Chieka a poor coach? He seems to have done remarkably well in the past and seems well respected by most players who’ve been inside the system.

Robbie Deans was certainly not a poor coach. Nor McKenzie. The reality of the AU game is that it’s a bottom tier one nation. Systems are not cohesive enough to promote and propel talent. The NRC, imho is a missing link to allow a critical mass of players enough first class games to put together performances. This is evident in the quality of Australian derbies compared with NZ.

On an international level the Wallabies benefit from regular competition with the All Blacks. So I’d argue that AU just doesn’t have the cattle.

No doubt about it. DHP has shown he's not really up to test rugby or even super rugby. He must be the slowest fullback in world rugby.

Is he a poor coach. Yes extremly poor at test rugby. Results speak for themselves. Poor tactics and selections. He loves picking his favourite players. He's the worst Australian rugby coach in modern era.

McKenzie was a much better coach but unfortunately due to circumstances he had to leave the job.

I think we should get McKenzie involved in Australian rugby again at least at super rugby level. He's a great tactician.

the boy from the brumbies looks good

How far down does Tier 1 go ... 10 teams?

If so, I'd still say we're in the middle ... i.e. 5th-6th (on a real shit day, 7th) rather than Eight-Nine-Jack



Yep


It's more complicated than that.

Might elaborate in a later post.

I dare say we do have the cattle but the cattle is poorly coached and poorly utilised.

The last few weeks have been very disappointing after a better start to Super rugby this year. We have enough good players to take a very competitive squad to the RWC but Cheika has to realise his methods of the past 3-4 years have not, and will not, be successful.
Changes are needed in personnel and the way we play. It might be a bridge too far for MC.

Yep

Coaching is certainly part of the problem...

Australia did well in between 2011 - 2015 when we had the likes of Link, Jake White and Cheika coaching Super Rugby teams...

2011 - Reds champions, Waratahs qualifying finalists
2012 - Reds qualifying finalists
2013 - Brumbies runners up, Reds qualifying finalists
2014 - Waratahs champions, Brumbies semi finalists
2015 - Waratahs and Brumbies semi finalists

We also had five teams during that period... and usually one of the Force or the Rebels would finish at a respectable position (Force 8th in 2014).

Since then the quality of the coaching teams in Australia have diminished, particularly at the Reds with Graham, Stiles and now Thorn in the 6 years since Link departed...

Anyways, it's just one issue.

What depresses me is that on paper we have a very good squad, but I have no confidence that Cheika, Grey, Raiwuli, and the soon to be appointed puppet attack coach who will have that role in name only will be able to get the best out of that group...

The selection panel might force Cheika's hands though, but his tactics need to be overhauled, and the defensive structures are complete balls...

I'm also fed up seeing a group of forwards who excel in the set piece at Super Rugby level being brought down to complete amateurs when they play together in gold... I still can't comprehend how the Wallaby lineout can be so ridiculously bad when we can have some of the best lineout operators in the competition who are also playing for the Wallabies.

This is the biggest lie in PR history.
I imagine AC slowly stroking one out while he fingers his bum hole as he imagines how shit all the first choice wallabies have been while at the same time double fist pumping his penis thinking about how execellent the crusaders have been this season. there is no universe where his self love does not happen.

Its a good troll but not worthy of a multi MVP.

I salute you sir but am also a little sad at how poor this attempt was.

They're not, you know. They've vaguely heard of you, but they can't quite place you.

I would say that one is issue is a huge issue. I dare say we would have done much better with the same cattle if we had better coaches, not just at super rugby at test rugby but at all levels. I guess it's a symptom of poor structures in Australia.

Reds won with a lesser squad than Rebels had this year and last year because they were better coached and had better game plans.

Totally agree. Hopefully having more selectors and Johnson having some input will help but I won't hold my breath.

Reading comments on facebook and other sources on the Interweb, yes they are laughing at us. A lot of them would love for Australina rugby to completely disappear. But that's not going to happen. We will rise from the ashes like a Phoenix. One thing Rugby has is the international game.

Being serious for a moment (ugh) I agree.

Latham-light. Definitely better than DHP!

Knowing Cheika he'd still pick DHP.

Banks needs to be in the back 3 with no Folau to give us some punch in attack.

nope. tom banks is a lock in. with DHP at centre

Wait until you reach the low points that Wales have in the past then you will know what real failure is.
You need to lose to Wales and Fiji at the RWC to have reached a real low point tbh.

We should try the KK train again. Where do we fit Beale?

If I was a bad man I would say "slagging off the coaches wife" but im not. Im a nice man

Bench for the RC

Brrrrrr is it cold in here or just me

Monk has it right. Banks is quite a good player and definitely better than DHP. His only flaw that I consistently notice is his kicking for touch from penalties. He quite often tries for too much ground and gets the line wrong or gets ambitious with how far he can kick which results in him failing to find touch.

They also get a boost from playing the Sunwolves twice, wheras the other teams only play them once, without the Sunwolves they would look even worse on the table.

I agree with the headlines being positive and also the WC draw favours the Wobs. Beat Wales (easy), then Argies qtrs, then Ire (semis).
Wobs are better now than 2015 (I want to believe)

Australian Rugby won’t get better until gets it head out of the sand. Cameron Clyne is still the Chairman says it all. The internal politics is a joke and there are suggestions that the NRC will eventually go to satisfy certain clubs which will set back the game for a long long time. The Brumbies have shown this season the importance of utilising the NRC to identify players to build more depth for Super Rugby.

It will also take the club game back to the dark old days of Sydney Uni stockpiling players. The Shute Shield has only just recovered over the past few years with the likes of Eastwood, Norths and Warringah winning titles. Clubs with junior bases and Gordon have improved a lot this year putting a big score on Sydney Uni. A national club comp filled mostly with the same Sydney and Brisbane clubs and Tuggeranong Vikings each year will be unhealthy and players will gravitate towards these clubs while the rest will get ignored.

The national coaching plan that was set up in the early 80s by the likes of Dick Marks and Warren Robilliard to turn around Aus Rugby after the days of the Woeful Wallabies was dismantled by John O’Neill. This slowed down the development of quality coaches. That was an awful decision given the importance of coaching in modern Rugby.

No Wallabies head coach should have an autocratic hold on the team like Cheika has. Matt Burke penned an article in December 2018 stating that Cheika was able to negotiate a contract that had no conditions that made him not accountable for results. He didn’t have the guts to resign which he should have done after the floggings from Scotland and England in 2017. When the same opportunity to do so after another year of poor results he failed to do the right thing. Instead choosing to throw Larkham under the bus while keeping Grey was appalling.

The ARU’s solution of moving Larkham sideways on to another role only lasted a few months. Barely much has been published in the press about the appointment and Nucifora actively head hunting him to get another coach out of Australian Rugby.

Next year the Wallabies will have three locks unavailable for selection due to signing overseas contracts Arnold, Coleman and Carter. This goes with the departure of Samu Kerevi. Neither player is remotely close to playing sixty tests. Big losses.

After losing a test series to France at home in 1972 (14-14 and 15-16) the Wallabies kicked off their tour of NZ with a 0-26 point defeat by Otago (with four point tries) and went on to lose the test series 6-29, 17-30, and 3-38.

The following year, the Wallabies lost to Tonga 11-16:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTSvWo4eh6U

Then set off on a tour of the northern hemisphere which resulted in a 0-24 loss to Wales in Cardiff and a 3-20 loss to England at Twickenham.

So, no.

Possible bright points:
- U20 (of the back of improving Aussie school boy results)
- Financials somewhat better (albeit into a RWC year where they take a hammering)
- Brumbies (who looked good, played well with a really goof)
- Scott Johnson
- timing

The last two are the best things in my mind for RA. AT the end of this year they will have completed a WC cycle and likely ended the reign of Chekia. Like Eddie Jones Chekia is a short term coach (where he is good via force of personality) - who is found out in the medium term (as lack of depth, alternativve approach and inability to create the structure for success over the medium to long term).

With a clean position - a good talent pool - and a focus on the medium to longer term success i think Aus will do well. I didn't rate Johnson the coach - but using the Scotland model i think there is a positive future for Aus rugby (Australia has a lot more talent and depth than Scotland).
- new head coach for the beginning of the RWC cycle
- new structure to feed the four teams into that Wallaby structure
- further push of the NRC (and some strong grass roots support still on clubs - i only see Sydney)

In my mind Australia are building for 2027 (to win) with a top four finish in 2023 (with a relatively young team). I think they need to exist a number of players just after the RWC from the national team and focus on building depth from Australia based players (this includes the like of Pocock - a distraction - Folau - a distraction - etc). There will be genuine loses (Kerevi) but overall they need to move on (e.g. pick a young 10 and give him game time at the expense of Foley).

So yes they're in a bad place - but bright future if they lean towards change now.