By Rodney J Smith

Here’s a look at the Big Three of world rugby in terms of where they’re at ahead of the 2010 Tri Nations tournament. The teams will also have one eye firmly on long-range preparations for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand too, which adds to the pressure in this year’s Tri Nations.

Australian Wallabies

Considering the relatively low profile of rugby union in Australia and the fact that much of the athletic talent gravitates towards rugby league or Aussie Rules football, it’s a testament to the Australian fighting spirit and “never say die” attitude that they are so competitive in rugby union. Australia tends to favour an open running style of rugby, relying on fast, elusive backs and not a little guile to run rings around their opponents, which can be very entertaining to watch. Teams that are successful against them tend to try and force a more structured, forwards-oriented game on them to capitalise on what is perceived as their main weakness: an under-powered front five, particularly in the scrumming department.

It’s something that coach Robbie Deans is trying hard to address ahead of the 2010 Tri Nations and next year’s world cup. Many questions still remain after the summer internationals against the northern hemisphere sides, which this Tri Nations tournament may go a long way towards answering. If they can manage to be more competitive up front, one feels that the core of this young side could carry the Wallabies forward for the next decade.

New Zealand All Blacks

Although the Kiwis are a relatively small nation, rugby is religion in the Land of the Long White Cloud, which means the sport enjoys the pick of the athletic talent. Their ranks are further bolstered by imports from the various Polynesian islands whose people, both culturally and physically, seem born to play rugby. Arguably the team to beat over the years, the All Blacks have perhaps the most balanced approach to the game, combining strong, incisive running backs with tough battle-hardened forwards who are capable of dominating against most teams in world rugby. They are a formidable prospect, with few obvious weaknesses.

Their achilles heel seems to be an inability to win that most elusive of prizes: the world cup (apart from the inaugural tournament). Each year they seem to be the team to beat going into the competition, yet somehow they have not managed to win it, earning them the tag of “chokers”. Perhaps their problem is that they want it too much? Anyhow, one thing is sure: the Kiwi public will tolerate nothing less than a win at next year’s world cup on home soil – otherwise the players and staff may as well pack their bags and go play in the Heineken Cup!

No such problems in the Tri Nations though – the All Blacks have been dominant over the years, and will be keen to re-establish the natural order of things after under-performing in last year’s tournament.

South African Springboks

Rugby has traditionally been a white man’s game in South Africa. But since the birth of the Rainbow Nation, more non-white players have been coming through the ranks. Whilst this is still somewhat of a political process rather than pure rugby development, the future looks bright for the Springboks if they can tap deeply into the local talent pool. The Springboks have traditionally played “10 man rugby” built on a very powerful forward pack with a kicking flyhalf and the rest of the backline there mainly for defense but more recently they’ve made progress in becoming more balanced – sometimes swinging too far the other way – but lately seem to have to the balance just about right.

After a very successful couple of years in which they have won just about everything going, the challenge for them is to keep developing to stay ahead of the pack. Many of their stars are nearing the end of their playing careers, and it remains to be seen if suitable replacements can be found to take over the mantle after next year’s world cup. At the moment depth doesn’t seem to be much of a problem, but one or two injuries in key positions could have a big impact.

Be sure to catch all the excitement of the 2010 tri nations rugby tournament over at http://trinationsrugby.blogspot.com

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Australian Rugby sure needs to take a good hard look at itself. The results over the last few years on the International arena have been poor to say the least.

In 2006 the formally mighty Wallabies produced dismal results against some of the world’s lower ranked northern hemisphere teams.

The new coach John Connolly, who took over from ousted Australian coach Edie Jones, has managed to reproduce the same dismal results by doing more of the same.

It was clear to many a fanatical Wallabies supporter that every time they had thrown the game away and bought on the reserves such as Matt Rogers the team lifted and actually started scoring.

Why the coaching staff never picked up on this is beyond belief after all trying the same thing time and time again and expecting a different result is surly a form of insanity.

The team always manages to play as poorly or as good as the opposition it faces. If they are playing teams like the All Blacks or South Africa it brings out the best and the result, while not always in favor of the Wallabies, are at least respectable. Putting the team up against less fearsome competition such as Ireland usually results in the Wallabies being dictated to and not following a game plan, other than to let the other team gain confidence and eventually take any self belief away from the team.

The Wallabies’ past track record in the modern era of the game has been impressive. Competing in all five of the Rugby Union World Cups the team won the World Cup on two occasions, in 1991 and 1999 and lost in the final match in extra time to England in 2003.

Rugby union in Australia has always taken a back seat to its big cousin rugby league. This could have been broken when rugby league went through turmoil in the 90s when the opposite code started Super League. After this, Rugby League was fragmented and its supporter base was left reeling.

Why did the ARU not capitalize on this and invest in heavy campaigning to convert these valuable fans?

To think it can’t be done was naive to say the least. One only need to look at the rise and rise of Australian Rules Football (AFL) in what was once a Rugby League strong hold state, Queensland.

So what is needed at the ARU to get the results it surly deserves?

1. Don’t bring in a coach that has not produced results. The Queensland Reds finished a dismal 12th in the Super 14 competition in 2006 under the watch of Connolly. How could he do any better with the Wallabies?

2. Don’t put players in unnatural positions. Let the player’s natural game shine through by enabling them to do what they do best.

3. Practice as they play. All the Wallabies are currently being rested from Super 14 matches to save them for the 2007 World Cup and in the past they have trained at half pace to avoid injury. Practice as you play or you will invariably play as you practiced.

4. Take away the stigma that Rugby Union is for toffee nosed wimps. In New Zealand everybody plays union, rich, poor, black or white.

5. Get Rugby Union on free to air television. Even if it’s delayed coverage.

6. Convert New Zealand supporters to Australian supporters. There are some 1 million New Zealanders living in Australia and I would bet the majority still follow their New Zealand teams.

The Wallabies play a great game when they believe in themselves, they just need the backing from the coaching staff, ARU and the Australian public and they can pull another Rugby World Cup out of the bag.

Sam Wolfe
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/the-downfall-of-australian-rugby-union-115091.html

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34 tests. Australia have won 20, England 13. They have drawn once.

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