OPINION – So after four seemingly very long years, the Wallabies finally beat New Zealand to go half way to claiming back the Bledisloe Cup, one of the world’s most hotly contest trophies between two teams. After a good performance brought on by a successful month in which they posted wins against South Africa and Argentina respectively, they outlasted the visitors 26-19, sealing the game in the last 10 minutes.
But such has been the reaction from the Australia rugby media and the Wallaby fans in the past week that you would have thought they’d won the Rugby World Cup without conceding a try throughout the whole tournament. Perhaps Australia had been so starved of a victory against their much smaller neighbours that a win against them and the ‘look away now’ Ashes embarrassment prompted them to lose their minds…
Whether or not they saw it as a chance to rub it in to their neighbours’ noses, their reaction to the win show that this Wallaby side doesn’t possess the humility nor the characteristics of a Bledisloe Cup and Rugby World Cup winning side.
When the team that held the Bledisloe Cup stood as one and held the World Cup aloft at Millennium Stadium in 1999, it was a team that you could generally feel happy for – even if you were on the losing side. The humble characters of captain John Eales, Steven Larkham, Matt Burke, David Wilson, Toutai Kefu and Tim Horan meant that it was hard to begrudge them for their joy in winning the Rugby World Cup.
That characteristic is sorely missing from the Australian Rugby Union team and whether or not it’s a feature of Australian rugby in days gone by, other teams manage to retain the type of humility that keeps them in the papers but away from the headlines, such as the current England side, Joe Schmidt’s Ireland team and the World Champion All Blacks who have a very hard-to-hate captain in Richie McCaw despite the no.7 being found on the other side of a ruck more than often.
The reality facing the Wallabies is that they’ve been so loud this week that if they fail to win back the Bledisloe Cup in Auckland on Saturday than they’ll end up with serious egg on their face and the faces of their rugby media, breaking down any confidence they’ve built up in the past month. Last year, they were sucked in after drawing against the All Blacks in Sydney before being blown away in Auckland so no-one can say that they haven’t had a chance to learn their lesson.
Then again, we all know what their media is like – the kind of media who fails to show the replay of the day of cricket due to the national team losing on that day. However that doesn’t excuse the kind of talk that’s come out of the Wallaby camp so from a fan of the game and how its played, it is disappointing to see
Perhaps another loss at Eden Park on Saturday and the failure to pass the group stage at the Rugby World Cup would go some way to instilling them with the kind of qualities fitting for winning team.