Days out from the World Cup, and Australian fans are on tenterhooks. Winless in their five lead-up games, the Wallabies enter rugby’s big dance ranked ninth in the world with the youngest squad since 1991 (average age 25.8) and only five players over 30. Most pundits and bookmakers don’t give them a hope in hell.
But World Cups are strange beasts – a little luck and a lot of effort can go a long way. Eddie Jones’s side are on the easier side of the draw and, although they face danger games against Fiji (ranked seventh) and Wales (10th), if they can win both and build some much needed confidence against Pool C minnows Georgia and Portugal it will give their callow squad crucial momentum for the crunch end of the tournament in October.
“To ignite belief they’ve got to win a game no one expects them to win,” says 67-Test centre Daniel Herbert, part of Australia’s 1999 champion World Cup side. “In 1999 we had a playing group where winning was a habit. Our 2023 guys need to learn that. So far they’ve looked frenetic, like a team that hasn’t played a lot together. But that’s understandable given all the changes in personnel and coaching staff.”
Herbert, a Rugby Australia board member, believes administrators must unite too. “The whole organisation has been a little disjointed but it’s slowly coming together. When we went to the World Cup in 1999 our leaders – CEO John O’Neill, captain John Eales and coach Rod McQueen – were really connected. Yes, they had their differences, but they worked in sync. We’re seeing that now. The board has backed Eddie’s vision for this World Cup campaign and also the one coming up in 2027.”
Herbert’s old centre partner Tim Horan – of the 1991 and 1999 World Cup-winning Wallabies – says that vision extends to the style of play Australia bring to the 2023 tournament. “Eddie is trying to adjust the game plan to fit the players he’s picked in this squad,” says Horan. “He’s trying to establish – or reestablish – the team’s identity which is running rugby with ball-in-hand. That’s the Wallaby way and it’s Eddie’s way too.”
Jones has picked a youthful side for the “smash-and-grab” mission on the 2023 World Cup, young dynamos he hopes will form the spine of the squad for the 2027 edition in Australia.
Yet Horan says two veterans – 31-year-old winger Marika Koroibete and inside centre Samu Kerevi, 30 this month – must step up and lead their junior teammates. “England won the 2003 World Cup with an average player age over 28,” he says. “Marika is a proven matchwinner but Kerevi also has to lead by example at 12.”
However, James Horwill, who led the 2011 Wallabies to the World Cup, says youth, not experience, is the edge Australia need in France. “Kids bring that confidence that nothing can hurt you, let’s just play. Fans want to see our boys throw caution to the wind and have a crack. There’s nothing better than young players having a real dig.”
The flipside is they learn on the run and often leak points. In their five games this season, Australia have conceded 179 points and scored half that (87 points) themselves. “Defences are much more organised today and that’s a big challenge for the young guys,” says Horwill. “Can our off-the-cuff attack dismantle such structured defence?”
As David Campese’s dazzling 1991 World Cup and Horan’s heroic efforts in 1999 proved, sometimes glory detonates not from teamwork but individual brilliance. Herbert’s theory is this: “You need five world-class players to beat the best in the world, and it’s an exciting time in Australian rugby because those players are emerging. Taniela Tupou and Angus Bell are back, Will Skelton and Richie Arnold dominate European football. With Nick Frost and a strong back row, it’s a really good pack.”
But he says it is two young backs who hold the key to Australia’s fortunes in 2023. “Eddie was brave enough to pick a young side – the kids who took their opportunities. For me two young guys have that x-factor: (fly half) Carter Gordon is tough. Like ‘Bernie’ [Stephen] Larkham, he’s happy to take punishment and give it back. And (winger) Mark Nawaqanitawase reminds me of Campo [Campese], always bobbing up and causing chaos.”
Herbert tips France and South Africa for the title. “When it comes to brute force in tight games, South Africa have the big dinosaurs to do it. And France has been on this World Cup wave for some time, just waiting to peak in the next six weeks.”
Horan disagrees and says the All Blacks deserve to be favourites. “Their depth of experience will be key. Sam Whitelock, Richie Mo’unga, Brodie Retallick, Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett and Dane Coles are playing their last World Cup so New Zealand will want to get it done for those guys. I think the first game of the Cup – France v New Zealand – could very well be the final game [on 29 October) too.”
And Australia? “Things are starting to click so there’s definitely hope,” says Horan. “But at World Cups it’s the hope that kills you.”
