Winning really is everything
SOLE focus on Rugby World Cup is unhealthy.
"The win-loss ratio of the Wallabies is clearly a barometer you just can't hide from. There's not too many trophies in the cabinet."
THE above statement was made by John O'Neill but not, Robbie Deans will be relieved to hear, in the aftermath of last weekend's dismal loss to England in Sydney.
It was instead made by O'Neill in December 2006, shortly before his return to the Australian Rugby Union and not long after John Connolly's Wallabies came home from their annual northern hemisphere spring tour. It was, remember, Connolly's first year as coach, a year in which he and the rest of Australian rugby desperately tried to glue back together the pieces of the broken team left behind by Eddie Jones.
The Wallabies had completed their northern hemisphere sweep with a 2-1-1 result - precisely the same outcome Deans' team achieved on last year's tour - to wind up a 7-5-1 year in which they had beaten England 34-2 and 43-18, Ireland 37-15 and South Africa 49-0 (yes, 49-0) and 20-18 and pushed the All Blacks to 9-13 in Brisbane and 27-34 at Eden Park.
Still, that left Connolly with a barely acceptable 58 per cent win ratio, although he would nudge that figure up to 64 per cent by the time he was moved on at the end of the following year.
Deans' win-loss ratio currently stands at 17-13, with one draw, his 54.8 per cent success rate the lowest recorded by a Wallabies coach in the professional era. And if the Australian side should turn in a repeat this year of its 2009 Tri-Nations effort, when it won only one of six Tests, that figure would freefall to 50 per cent, even if the Wallabies were to defeat Ireland at Suncorp Stadium tonight.
There has been no comparable statement from O'Neill this week, and understandably so. Back in 2006, he was still on the outside looking in and under none of the constraints that now bind him as chief executive and managing director of the ARU. Besides, Deans will be Australia's World Cup coach - deservedly, I believe - so nothing is to be achieved by publicly undermining him.
Yet while silence in this instance does indeed imply consent, that is not to suggest that O'Neill or anyone else in Australian rugby, Deans included, can be happy.
Deans insists the Wallabies will be "right on the money" come the World Cup and he may well be right. By following a deliberate strategy of leaving some of the old warhorses out in the pasture this year, there is no doubt that he is broadening the Wallabies base. Ben Daley, Saia Fainga'a and Salesi Ma'afu might have been handed their heads by the England front-rowers, but they all are infinitely better rugby players for the experience.
As Daley said last week, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and while he darn near got killed a few times in the scrum, he was still standing proudly at the end of the series.
Indeed, it was nothing short of staggering that he still was making thundering runs into the thick of the England defence after having expended so much energy trying to keep the Wallabies scrum stable. Ditto for Fainga'a and Ma'afu.
But it is a risky business, this continual process of building towards the next World Cup. Putting all of Australia's eggs in the Webb Ellis Trophy is a recipe for a crunchy omelette if, as happened in 2007, someone trips up. Had Stirling Mortlock's penalty goal attempt right at the death in the quarter-final against England in Marseille sneaked over, the Wallabies might well have gone on to win the World Cup. After all, they downed the eventual winners, South Africa, 25-17 in Sydney earlier that year and looked to have them beaten in Cape Town too until two late Francois Steyn drop goals saw the Springboks scrape home 22-19.
Certainly the Boks held no fears for the Wallabies that year but sadly, the Wallabies never got to play them. Mortlock's kick just drifted wide and rugby in Australia has been wallowing ever since.
Even the best-laid plans can go wrong. This time next year when Deans starts weaving all his strands together - the young Wallabies of right now, the many stars out injured, the hardheads he now is declining to use and maybe a Dan Vickerman or two back from overseas - the Australian side might indeed be "right on the money".
But, who knows, something could go amiss. A dud call from a referee, a string of critical injuries - and let's face it, injuries at Test level are unstoppably on the rise because there is no way of making shoulder, knee and ankle joints collision-proof - a missed shot at goal, and a four-year journey can grind to a halt two stops short of the terminus.
Australian rugby can't allow itself to fall into the trap that has ensnared Australian soccer, of sacrificing everything else to a single tournament held every four years.
The game has to be sustained along the way. And there is only one way of doing that. By winning.
