Where is Australia's next generational talent?
The longest drought in Australian rugby, a 35-game winless streak against New Zealand opposition has led to many questions surrounding the state of the game in Australia.
Prior to the Reds match against the Chiefs, Queensland prop James Slipper was asked how this had happened.
“It’s a good question and I’m sure if we knew the answer earlier we would have rectified it,” Slipper said.
“There’s a bit of a gap between the Aussie and Kiwi teams but I believe we are clawing it back with hard work.”
When pressed to explain the difference James Slipper explained that New Zealand has opened the gap by “staying up with trends in play, (superior) skill execution and how they have been coached.”
“And, honestly, it’s always down to the basics that the Kiwis do well and we are working on…catch-pass, tackling, set piece, running hard and winning collisions,” Slipper said.
Whilst those are all valid and accurate points, it could be argued these are all merely symptoms of a game losing its relevance in the Australian sporting landscape. With four professional football codes – Aussie Rules, Rugby League, Football and Rugby Union, Rugby Australia has lost countless battles to keep the game at the forefront of the market.
At the same time across the ditch, the rise of professionalism in rugby has led to a turbo-charged production line in New Zealand from schoolboys through to Super Rugby. Throughout the early 2000’s the game was relatively early in its days as a professional game and as such a large proportion of schoolboy teams were still the ‘two trainings a week’ type with limited to no strength and conditioning.
By the end of the decade, the 1st XV schoolboy competition had become intensified nationally, with vast amounts of money being invested by schools in semi-professional rugby programmes. As the national code, upwards of a 100 schools dedicated serious resources to the game.
With a time lag of roughly 4 years between ending school and making it to Super Rugby, those graduating from 2008-2010 would hit the pros around 2012-2014. This new generation has been training like professionals since they were 15 and playing upwards of 30-40 competitive games a year, not just against local competition but the best of the best nationally.
Meanwhile, the game in Australia has always been held within insular associations of private schools in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. The strongest and most prominent are the GPS associations of around nine member schools in both states, who play within each association. In Queensland, they play each other competitively eight times in a year.
With New Zealand’s best talent playing at least four times more than that, for every one year of skill development for an Australian player the Kiwi player is effectively getting three or four. Fast forward to the time they play professionally and that’s a big difference in learned skill and experience. We are seeing that play out every time a New Zealand side plays an Australian side despite Kiwi sides getting younger and Australia hanging on to players of yesteryear.
This is not the fault of the GPS schools, without them the game would be officially dead. Rather, Rugby Australia has failed to align with them, increase the number of games they are playing, and find a way to foster competition on a national level that benefits the development of the players. At this stage, the chasm is so wide the point of no return has been reached.
Australian sides will eventually beat a Kiwi side, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Once every twenty or thirty matches is no competition. There is no stopping the avalanche of points coming every time New Zealand sides play Australian sides until there is a structural change from the bottom up.
Australia got left behind and it might be too late to do anything about it.
Comments on RugbyPass
It was a pleasure to watch those guys playing with such confidence. That trio can all be infuriating for different reasons and I can see why Jones might have decided against them. No way to justify leaving Ikitau out though. Jorgensen and him were both scheduled to return at the same time. Only one of them plays for Randwick and has a dad who is great mates with the national coach though.
53 Go to commentsBrayden Iose and Peter Lakai are very exciting Super Rugby players but are too short and too light to ever be a Test 8 vs South Africa, France, Ireland, and England, Lakai could potentially be a Test player at 7 if he is allowed to focus on 7 for Hurricanes.
5 Go to commentsPencils “Thomas du Toit” into possible 2027 Bok squad.
1 Go to commentsDon’t see why Harrison makes the bench. Jones can play at 10 if needed, and there is a good case for starting her there to begin with if testing combinations. That would leave room for Sing on the bench
1 Go to commentsWhat a load of old bull!
1 Go to commentsOf the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.
29 Go to commentsIrish Rugby CEO be texting Andy Farrell “Andy, i found our next Kiwi Irishman”
5 Go to commentsI certainly don’t miss drinking beers at 8am in the morning watching rugby games being played in NZ.
1 Go to commentsThis looks like a damage limitation exercise for Wales, keeping back some of their more effective players for the last 20/25 minutes to try and counter England’s fresh legs so the Red Roses don’t rack up a big score.
1 Go to commentsVery unlikely the Bulls will beat Leinster in Dublin. It would be different in Pretoria.
1 Go to commentsI think it is a dangerous path to go down to ban a player for the same period that a player they injured takes to recover. Players would be afraid to tackle anyone. I once tackled my best friend at school in a practice match and sprained his ankle. I paid for it by having to play fly-half instead of full-back for the rest of that season’s fixtures.
5 Go to commentsJust such a genuine good bloke…and probably the best all round player in his generation. Good guys do come first sometimes and he handled the W.Cup loss with great attitude.
2 Go to commentsWord in France is that he’s on the radar of a few Top14 clubs.
5 Go to commentsGet blocking Travis, this guy has styles and he’s gonna make a swift impact…!
1 Go to commentsWhat remorse? She claimed that her dangerous tackle wasn’t worthy of a red! She should be compensating the injured player for loss of earnings at the minimum. Her ban should include the recovery time of the injured player as well as the paltry 3 match ban.
5 Go to commentsArdie is a legend. Finished and klaar. Two things: “Yeah, yeah, I have had a few conversations with Razor just around feedback on my game and what I am doing well, what I need to improve on or work-ons. It’s kind of been minimal, mate, but it’s all that I need over here in terms of how to be better, how to get better and what I am doing well.” I hope he’s downplaying it - and that it’s not that “minimal”. The amount of communication and behind the scenes preparation the Bok coaches put into players - Rassie and co would be all over Ardie and being clear on what is expected of him. This stands out for me as something teams should really be looking at in terms of the boks success from a coaching point of view. And was surprised by the comment - “minimal”. In terms of the “debate” around Ireland and South Africa. Nice one Ardie. Indeed. There’s no debate.
2 Go to commentsThere’s a bit of depth there but realistically Australian players have a long way to go to now catch up. The game is moving on fast and Australia are falling behind. Australian sides still don’t priories the breakdown like they should, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to compete on the international stage. That goes for forwards and backs. The Australian team could have a back row that could make a difference but the problem is they don’t have a tight five that can do the business. Tupou is limited in defence, overweight and unfit and the locks are a long way from international standard. Frost is soft and Salakai-Loto is too small so that means they need a Valentini at 8 who has to do the hard graft so limits the effectiveness of the backrow. Schmidt really needs to get a hard working, tough tight 5 if he wants to get this team firing.
3 Go to commentsSorry Morgan you must have been the “go to for a quote” ex player this week. Its rnd 6 and there is plenty of time to cement a starting 15 and finishing 8 so I have no such concerns.
2 Go to commentsGreat read. I wish you had done this article on the ROAR.
2 Go to commentsThe current AB coaching team is basically the Crusaders so it smacks of wanting their familiar leaders around. This is not a good look for the future of the ABs or the younger players in Super working their way up the player ladder. Razor is touted as innovative, forward looking but his early moves look like insecurity and insular, provincial thinking. He is the AB's coach not the Golden Oldies.
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