Why new Rugby Australia chair Daniel Herbert needs to be quiet
I would encourage new Rugby Australia chairman Daniel Herbert to be quiet.
Don’t air the organisation’s business in public. Don’t hire a national coach capable of going rogue. Don’t go seeking publicity and sugar-hits from raids on rugby league players.
Do the boring stuff. Grow your game, coach players to get better, support them at all times and cherish your competition and broadcast partners.
I tend to mythologise the Wallaby teams of the last 1990s and early 2000s but, actually, for much of my life Australia has been an outstanding rugby nation.
I properly started watching test rugby in the 1980s. I well remember Australia’s series win over New Zealand in 1980, David Campese running rings around us at Athletic Park in 1982, Alan Jones coaching them to another series here in 1986, the world champion All Blacks surrendering their long unbeaten run at Athletic Park in 1990.
Their 1992 series win over the All Blacks was an absolute belter too.
Big forwards, skillful backs, there was so much to like about Wallaby rugby.
In the absence of apartheid South Africa, they were by far our greatest foes.
The Home Nations weren’t the forces they are now. France was always competitive, but there was a sense of shared endeavour in the way rugby was run in New Zealand in Australia.
We each needed competition and each needed to grow and we largely did that together.
I won’t linger on the departure of Hamish McLennan as Rugby Australia chairman or the search to find a Wallaby coach to replace Eddie Jones.
Both men are gone and picking apart their tenures is of no benefit to anyone. We need Australia now as much as we’ve ever done.
It’s not for New Zealand to hold the whip hand in the trans-Tasman rugby relationship. It’s not for us to tell them how to run their game or even to criticise the capability of their Super Rugby clubs.
If Australia isn’t good at test and franchise level, we won’t be good either. We’re not big enough to go it alone. If there was a market for an elite domestic competition here, we’d have it by now.
If we have designs on winning Rugby World Cups again, then we have to ensure our strongest competition comes from Australia.
It’s not a time to be at loggerheads or resorting to the foghorn diplomacy, of which McLennan was fond. We need collaboration.
So let’s have more competition and a greater sharing of ideas. Schools rugby, club rugby, provincial rugby – let’s play each other at as many levels as we’re able.
Rugby in Australia loses players to other codes in a way we don’t really have here.
Well, clear pathways to high performance – that include regular competition with your New Zealand counterparts – might keep more future Wallabies in the game.
If I was running rugby in Australia and New Zealand, I’d want a strategic partnership at all levels of our game. I’d want to attract people to rugby and work hard to keep them via a shared pathway.
The All Blacks and Wallabies will largely take care of themselves in the short term but, if we want sustained success on the world stage, we have to work together.
Comments on RugbyPass
Can someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
227 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
3 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
86 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
19 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
29 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
1 Go to commentsABs lost against a side playing without a hooker - The guy playing, had one shoulder. Line outs were a gimme for the ABs, and the last 8 minutes 14 played 14 against a team that had been smashed 3 weeks in a row… Yet with all that possession, with all that territory, with all the advantages they actually had, especially in the last 8 minutes, they couldn’t buy a point. Those last 8 minutes determined if they outplayed the Boks or not. History will show that the Boks completely outplayed the ABs, especially in those last 8 minutes, the business end of any rugby match
227 Go to commentsWould’ve, could’ve, should’ve, didn’t.
227 Go to commentsKok will become a fan favourite
1 Go to commentsI am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
19 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
19 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to comments