It is a huge week for Australian rugby union. The code’s powerbrokers will convene on Wednesday to lock in the master plan for the much-vaunted “golden decade” highlighted by the 2025 British & Irish Lions tour, the 2027 and 2029 home World Cups, and the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. If Australian rugby is to survive and even thrive in the new era, true union starts today.
It has been nine months since Wales humiliated the Wallabies 40-6 at the 2023 World Cup in France and fans have endured Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell since then – the resignation of national coach Eddie Jones, the liquidation of Melbourne Rebels from Super Rugby Pacific, the defection of Wallabies stars Carter Gordon and Mark Nawaqanitawase to the NRL, and Rugby Australia’s admission that they are almost $89m in debt and paying $5m a year in interest alone.
No wonder the game is eager to look ahead, to a brighter future RA is claiming can generate $225m in cash flow and, more importantly, pump life and hope back into the code’s heartlands. In the 25 years since the Wallabies were last world champions, there have been many false dawns. The first Test of 2024, against Wales in Sydney on Saturday night, cannot be another.
Already this week the sleeping giant has shed more old skin. At the weekend, Kurtley Beale’s fairytale comeback was derailed when the 95-Test tyro blew his Achilles playing Shute Shield. Former talisman Michael Hooper retired on Monday after a 125 Test career. The same day Nawaqanitawase confirmed he will join Sydney Roosters after an Olympic Sevens tilt in Paris.
Each was a bitter blow to a battered code. Yet as each door shut, another opened. Into the light walked new coach Joe Schmidt holding 23 Wallabies jerseys to be filled by those who want them most. The former Ireland coach and All Blacks mentor has shelved a retirement fishing Lake Taupo to raise the gold leviathan for what he says is for “the good of world rugby”.
Schmidt is exactly the shrewd operator Australia needs to restore its wounded pride. Jones’ smash-and-grab mission on the World Cup ended up a debacle, with his coaching staff of NRL and AFL acolytes blowing the campaign up in the pool stages, and taking plenty of young talent – not to mention fans and future sponsors – down with them.
The straight-shooting Schmidt won’t take Jones’ scattergun approach. Since his appointment in January, the 58-year-old has moved calmly like a safecracker, recruiting a crew of old pros by stealth – a “Dad’s Army” of set-piece gurus in Mike Cron, 66, and Laurie Fischer, 69, along with Rebels assistant coach Geoff Parling, 40. Irish analyst Eoin Toolan, 42, also joins to help Schmidt run the backs.
Together, they must pick the players – and a captain – to kickstart this new Wallabies era. Although Schmidt only truly hit the hustings in the last fortnight, there are several credos recurring: a need for “cohesion” in play, “continuity” in selection and restoring “fundamental” skills. All went MIA in the last era of “good athletes, poor performance” reckons RA CEO Phil Waugh.
With so much to play for, Schmidt could be forgiven for starting his reign with a ‘win-ugly’, ‘embrace the grind’ philosophy. Instead, he is talking “tempo”, a ‘sort the biz, bring the rizz’ vibe which stays true to the “Wallaby Way” of running rugby. That’s an exciting and terrifying prospect for local fans weary from years of seeing entertainment dissolve without discipline.
With Australia ninth and Wales 10th in the IRB rankings, Saturday’s Test sits on a knife’s edge. Wales went winless in the Six Nations and have lost their last seven Tests, including last weekend’s 41-13 demolition by South Africa. But the Red Dragons still have Wallabies blood in their nostrils from the World Cup and coach Warren Gatland will have them ready to challenge for a first Test win over Australia on their home turf since 1969.
Wales’ last tour of Australia was in 2012when both nations were flying high. The tourists were the 2012 Six Nations champions, Australia winners of the 2011 Tri Nations under Robbie Deans. Australia took a 3-0 series victory but it was tight: 27-19 in Brisbane, 25-23 in Melbourne and 20-19 in Sydney. A fourth contest in Cardiff that December saw Australia win again 33-28.
In each of those final three Tests, Wales led before Australia clinched it at the death. Lately, Wales have reversed the trend. In the five Tests prior to the thumping in Lyon, the eight-point gap in Australia’s 29-21 win in 2017 was the biggest margin. Wales then won a trio of slim victories: a 9-6 slog in 2018, 29-25 at the 2019 World Cup and the 29-28 thriller in 2021.
Australia’s first Test as “the Wallabies” was against Wales in 1908. Even back then there was nothing in it, with a late penalty delivering the home side a 9-6 victory before 30,000 fans at Cardiff Arms Park on an afternoon when shops were barricaded lest the men in gold prevail. Australian rugby can’t afford history to repeat this Saturday or it could be Wallabies fans in an uproar.
