LONG READ How Australian rugby can combine gourmet home cooking and the overseas 'takeaway'

The ailing Exeter Chiefs, who lie ninth out of ten clubs in the Gallagher Premiership, are returning to their roots. The Chiefs have a long and successful history of recruiting Australian players, and director of rugby Rob Baxter is ready to rub the green-and-gold amulet once again to revive their fortunes.

The West Country outfit has always been the main hub for emerging players in Devon and Cornwall, but it has also been garnished generously with talent from the Land Down Under: Nic White, Greg Holmes, Dave Dennis, Dean Mumm, Lachie Turner, Mitch Lees, Ben White, Julian Salvi, Ollie Atkins, Peter Kimlin and Ryan McCauley.

Latterly the Brumbies have been targeted, with Solomone Kata arriving for one season in 2022, fellow centre Tamati Tua and prop Scott Sio on the current roster and Wallaby second/back row hybrid Tom Hooper signed on the dotted line in January. The testimonials from the other side of the world are flooded by an overwhelming tide of gratitude, and thus the fibre of the connection between the West of England and Australia grows and becomes stronger.

“I was going from a club [the Reds] which I had been at for 12 years, to the other side of the world. These past four years have been amazing and this is a very special place to not only come and play rugby, but to live in and be part of a special rugby community. Some of my fondest rugby memories have come from my time here in Exeter and I’m just so glad I’ve been able to experience what I have – and be a small part in what has been a successful period for the club.” [Greg Holmes]

“If an [Australian] player in the future asks me about coming to the Chiefs, I’d say ‘Jump at it!’ [Nic White]

Now it looks very much as if a trifecta of Aussies have heeded White’s advice and are taking the plunge into deepest Devon. In October, Baxter made tentative enquiries about White returning for a second stint, but now he has trumped that ambition with the recruitment of no fewer than three Australians, two of whom are current Wallabies. On a recent media call, the director of rugby announced Len Ikitau, Jake Gordon and English-qualified New South Wales hooker Julian Heaven are all likely to join the club within the next week.

The main point of interest is a completely fresh point of balance struck between home-cooked selection and the overseas takeaway. Ikitau has been signed on an initial nine-month deal that could be extended up until 2027, but with contractual exceptions which mean he remains Wallaby-eligible. On the November tour later this year, he should be available for at least three of the five Tests. If a similar deal is done with Gordon, currently rated the top scrum-half in Australia, it will set a new precedent for cooperation between European clubs and a southern hemisphere union. From now on, you may be able to ‘mix ‘n’ match’ your mealtimes.

There is a caveat – of course there is. Brumbies assistant Rod Seib was appointed head coach of the revived Australia A side which played a couple of fixtures alongside the Wallabies last November, which suggested he was riding high in the national coaching pecking order – but Seib has since signed for Irish URC province Connacht as attacking assistant at the end of the current Super Rugby Pacific season. Ex-Brumby back-rower Scott Fardy already coaches the Galway outfit’s defence after playing 78 times for Leinster.

Another Aussie coach who has travelled in diametrically the opposite direction, Andy Friend, landed in his homeland as head coach of the Brumbies Super W women’s team when he was recommended as ‘a great fit’ for the Wallabies top job by one of charges in Connacht, wing John Porch. If that implies a lack of pathways for the available coaching talent in Australia, it is confirmed by the difficulty ex-Wallaby great Chris Latham has experienced finding a role in his own country. In company with Stephen Hoiles and sevens supremo John Manenti, he is now ‘sharpening his tools’ in the USA Major League with the Seattle Seawolves, while ex-Rebels coaches Tim Sampson and Kevin Foote have exited to the Fijian Drua and South African U20s set-up respectively.

While Australia is making plans to close the gap between home and away for their players, the gusher of coaching talent overseas, and the difficulty of re-casting it in the right role when it returns home, is proving a decidedly thorny issue.

At least the four surviving Super Rugby Pacific head coaches are enjoying the extra material the tailor has to work with in the first two rounds of this year’s competition. Simon Cron has won his first two games with Western Force, and the last round was a significant away win against the Brumbies. The condensing to four franchises and a redistribution of personnel has already resulted in some meaningful Wallaby squad mini-trials: in Canberra, it was Pollard versus Dolly/Paenga-Amosa at hooker, Frost versus Swain in the second row, Reimer against Tizzano at number 7; Lonergan versus White at 9 and Corey Toole against Harry Potter on the wing.

The saving grace for the Force was their defence, which may seem odd comment in a game when they shipped 42 points and six tries. It was however nothing less than heroic, in the context of the 40 minutes the Westerners spent with only 14 men on the field. Just like England against Scotland at Twickenham on the same weekend, the Force made over twice as many tackles as their opponents, but the D was if anything more ‘forceful’ than that of the men in white in those all-important wide areas.

Where England tended to back off and give up metres to get their multiple 7s into the action, the Force adopted a far more aggressive stance on the edge, one which will serve them well in 2025. The tone was set as early as the 10^th minute.

Plug in England versus France or Scotland, and the last man on the right edge [14 Potter] might be staying deep and taking the ‘jockey’ cue from the men inside him – looking to mop up the attack further downfield and await the arrival of the ‘sevens cavalry’. But Potter rushes straight upfield from 10-metre depth, looking to pick off the looping pass from Andy Muirhead and convert a potential ‘line-break against’ into an actual ‘intercept try for’ the visitors.

Attacking sides are always wary of shifting the ball too freely to width after catastrophe has occurred, and bad memory haunts the back of the mind.

With the intercept try under his belt, Potter can start taking a few liberties and ‘gaming’ the offence: in the first clip he takes a step forward, threatening the rush before backing off, and that is enough to force the Brumbies back into the thick of the Force defence on the inside; in the second he is once again playing as the highest defender and this time the ‘inside force’ delivers a fumble.

From small seeds, mighty oaks do grow.

Where at the breakdown ‘the low man [player closest to the ground] wins’, in defence it is the ‘high man’, the player furthest upfield who tends to be most influential.

In the modern game, it is often the wing who keys the ultimate shape of the D, and his activity is central to a successful rearguard action. Along with Force 7 Tizzano, Potter stymied two Brumbies’ touchdowns over the goalline, and he was a proactive force helping on the other side of the field.

In the clip, Potter is running all the way from the right sideline to make a ‘centre’ inside his fellow wing on the left, allowing Dylan Pietsch to break on the pass.

Even after a line-break had been made against them, the Westerners were still coming hard off the edge and looking to attack rather than just soak up pressure.

Solid progress is being made Down Under. The four teams remaining after the demise of the Rebels do look significantly stronger than the previous five. They have won five from six games the first two rounds, and with the solitary loss an all-Aussie affair. The litmus test of the top New Zealand franchises is looming, but Aussie at last looks competitive.

Further encouragement is offered by hints of a more unified relationship between European club ‘hubs’ for Aussies abroad such as Exeter and Rugby Australia. If Ikitau has indeed negotiated Wallaby release clauses into his contract with the West Countrymen, and if Gordon can do the same, it will ease concerns over overseas selection policy.

The one remaining issue would be the successful creation of coaching pathways back home for Friend, Latham, Hoiles et al, after time spent away in foreign climes. If their knowledge base can be reabsorbed and redirected for the nation’s good, Australia may just rediscover a superior rugby diet, and the ideal balance between home cooking and the foreign takeaway.