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There remains a culture of excuses in Australian rugby
We’re still patting the All Blacks on the back for beating Australia 39-35 in Sydney, back in 2000.
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It’s regarded as one of the great test matches, with lovingly crafted television and print features commemorating the occasion.
Even people who weren’t alive back in 2000 know that Jonah Lomu scored in the corner to seal an epic win for New Zealand.
We spend less time concentrating on the 24-0 lead the All Blacks coughed up on that night or their capitulation in Wellington two weeks later, when Wallabies captain John Eales kicked a penalty to win the match 24-23 for his team and retain the Bledisloe Cup for another year.
I was reminded of that series – and that era of Bledisloe Cup rugby in general – in the wake of Australia’s narrow loss to the British & Irish Lions in Melbourne, last Saturday.
The All Blacks weren’t much good back then. They finished the 1998 season in disastrous fashion, were bundled out of the Rugby World Cup by France the following year and, of course, didn’t regain the Bledisloe Cup until 2003.
They played periods of good rugby, but tended to wilt under pressure. And, the more they coughed up handy leads, the more often it happened again.
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We all blamed luck, cheating opponents and incompetent referees for the team’s continued struggles. Even the revered Wayne Smith found he wasn’t suited to head coaching during this time, as results refused to improve.
The team’s mental frailty persisted right through until they finally secured the 2011 Rugby World Cup, as the rest of us became increasingly thinskinned and irrational.
Endless corners were proclaimed to have been turned, only for that alleged dawn to be revealed as a false one.
The All Blacks never quite descended to the depths the Wallabies are plumbing now, but I feel like there’s a valid comparison to be applied here. Along with a measure of sympathy.
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Any number of people connected to rugby in Australia have made fools of themselves since the final whistle blew at the MCG on Saturday night.
And I understand why, because New Zealanders were in a similar boat for such a long time, during the late 1990s and 2000s. We wanted the All Blacks to succeed so badly that we became part of the problem.
The problem still persists now, in many ways. Ever since the All Blacks lost to Ireland in Chicago, back in 2016, they have only been a better than average team.
Not good and certainly not great and, yet, in often pretending that they are, we condemn the team to remain above average. It’s C+ to B- season after season, because so many people can’t take a breath and look at things objectively.
It’s easy to knock the Wallabies and Australian rugby from this side of the Tasman. Just as it’s easy for them to regard that criticism as smugness on New Zealanders’ behalf.
The truth is we have little to be self-congratulatory about over here, as I hope Argentina and South Africa prove to us in the coming weeks. Great All Blacks teams learn from their success, this one requires failure.
I don’t think they’re learning at all in Australia, just as we didn’t back in 2000. If you’re up 23-5, as the Wallabies were at the MCG, you have to win.
There’s no doubt the manner of Saturday’s 29-26 defeat was disappointing and – if you care deeply about the Wallabies and are desperate for signs of improvement – it’s maybe natural to fixate on the finale rather than the surrender of what should’ve been a decisive lead.
We spent years doing that here and it doesn’t help. When the All Blacks coughed up a 24-10 advantage, with seven minutes remaining, against France in the 1999 Rugby World Cup semi-final, New Zealanders didn’t take that on the chin.
No, they joined the chorus of All Blacks forwards complaining that the French had been a bit rough with them.
You can wallow in misfortune – as Australian rugby folk are and their Kiwi counterparts once did – or you can get on with getting better. Winners march on, while losers stew about the injustice of it all.
And I think the Lions will march on in Sydney this week. I think for all the Australian talk that it was only refereeing that did them in, the tourists will show the true gulf that exists between these sides.
There remains a culture of excuses in Australian rugby and they won’t improve while that remains.