The next big splurge Rugby Australia should make is on a director of rugby and a high-performance system to feed the Wallabies.
The organisation landed a few jabs on rugby league’s fragile sense of self with its $1.5 million a year signing of Joseph Suaalii last month. Chairman Hamish McLennan’s verbal joust with Phil Gould, Phil Gould’s verbal joust with Trent Robinson, and several fretful stories about the next NRL player on McLennan’s ‘hit list’ turned the coup into a week-long story.
But four losses by Australian teams to Fijian or New Zealand teams in Super Rugby have brought the game back to earth with a thud. The Rebels were blown off the park by the Blues in Melbourne on Saturday. With the exception of the Brumbies – a phrase in danger of being worn out – Australian teams are well short of the mark against their Kiwi rivals.
Unless RA can put some meat back on the bones of its high-performance systems, fast, it is possible Australia’s second shot at a golden era will come and go without a single piece of silverware added to the cabinet.
Alarmist? Are you watching Super Rugby? Eddie Jones is. During the Waratahs’ 24-14 loss to the Chiefs in round five, the broadcast camera lingered on Jones looking tired and weary in a box watching on. Notwithstanding he had recently returned from Europe, the Wallabies coach had the look of a man who had just realised what he’d walked into. It was a sobering visual contrast to the bravado of the coach’s public messaging.
Rebels without applause: After leading early, the Rebels fell to the might and power of the Blues.Credit: Getty
The Waratahs unlocked something in their nail-biting loss to the Brumbies in round six and they will be expected to hit the same notes again against the Force this weekend.
But when Jones was asked about Suaalii’s recruitment at the unveiling of his first Wallabies squad last week, he first cautioned that he might not be in the job by the time the Roosters wing is eligible for Test selection.
It was a line he had trotted out before in private and will continue to use to keep his focus on the immediate “smash and grab” World Cup campaign that will kick off in five months. Make no mistake, however. He was only half-joking. Australia’s professional pathways need rebuilding.
A director of rugby would be a good place to start. Jones has worked in the good, bad and ugly of rugby systems but it is not his job to come up with a 10-year plan to get the Wallabies humming. His job is to get them winning games now. A director of rugby would game out a strategy for medium and long-term success.
It was reported last November that RA asked David Nucifora, the man responsible for Ireland’s men’s team’s sustained success, whether he was interested in a return to Australia. He was not, the story went. Fair enough.
Eddie Jones at Manly Savers Junior Rugby Club training last week.Credit: Rugby Australia
What about Nick Stiles? The experienced former Reds and Kintetsu coach has been the experienced, senior voice in the background in Melbourne, helping Kevin Foote and his assistants turn the Rebels into the most-improved team in Australian rugby with sound recruitment decisions and the benefit of almost 20 years in coaching.
A director of rugby is just the top of the tree. The professional game needs a nationwide integrated high-performance system taking in everything from player contracting, athletic performance, nutrition, psychology and sports science. RA has been working on a national contracting model, we’re told, but it remains a work in progress.
Then there’s the elite pathway, which is jargon for the competitions that talented players mature in between school and Super Rugby. As Herald writer Paul Cully pointed out, Australian teams were the only ones that did not play in the three-day Super Rugby U20s competition held in New Zealand last month. You can bet finances were behind that. Despite flagging a third-tier competition as a priority in 2021, RA has not delivered one.
None of this will change until the game can find some more money. There are two ways RA says it will do this: first with private equity investment and then with a substantial upgrade on its current broadcast rights deal with Nine and Stan.
If and when both those things happen, McLennan and the RA board will have many mouths to feed. RA has made commitments to professionalise its women’s XVs programs and invest a significant amount in grassroots rugby.
But if they want to get the Wallabies winning again, a big-talking, world-class coach and one of the game’s hottest young talents won’t be enough.
Australian rugby needs a plan. A public one. For how RA is going to spend any future money to grow the game and capitalise on the next seven years of once-in-a-generation opportunities.
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