THE Barbarians playing the Wallabies at Twickenham are made up of South Africans, New Zealanders, Argentinians, Italians, Irish, Fijian, French and British players. But despite the festival listing of the match, it is really the start of the RWC 2015 campaign for the Wallabies.
The aphorism, "a journey of a thousand miles must start with the first step," is as true of success at rugby as it is for revolutions. Before the 2011 World Cup, Francois Pienaar, the captain of the victorious 1995 Springboks, opined that it was possible for South Africa to win the tournament with a couple of months intensive preparation. The Springboks went out in the quarter-finals. So much for the Pienaar thesis. The All Blacks won the tournament with a four-year plan that covered every possible contingency and challenge. It was not an accident, for instance, that the fourth-choice No. 10 Stephen Donald, who came on with 50 minutes remaining in the final, was the match winner.
He had played 28 times for the All Blacks. The planning even involved rehearsing a deliberate total-defence game against the Wallabies two years earlier. This game was then employed in the last half hour of play in the final when it was needed to defeat the strong, attacking challenge from France.
Despite the intensity and quality of their preparation, the result was still a close-run thing for the All Blacks. Their 8-7 victory was the smallest winning margin in a RWC final. And this is the lesson the Wallabies must take. World Cups are won during a four-year campaign preceding the tournament.
Right now in Australian rugby there are only three forwards (David Pocock, Stephen Moore, James Horwill) and three backs (Kurtley Beale, Will Genia, James O'Connor) who are world-class players. The Wallabies fielded 10 players in their strongest starting line-up in the World Cup who were 23 years old or younger. So the challenge, starting from tonight, is to develop a team with depth in all the positions by 2015, from this group of younger players. And to enhance the play of the established players to create a winning culture that comes through (as it did for the All Blacks) in a tight final.
This is easier said than done. David Campese, a contrarian on and off the field, has launched a massive attack on the Wallabies coach, Robbie Deans, branding the World Cup tactics as "brainless." In the last Test before the tournament, the Wallabies defeated the All Blacks at Brisbane with an opening 40 minutes of total rugby that experts like Nick Farr-Jones said was the best played in a decade. The main tactic at Brisbane, the short box kick and the forcing of an attacking turnover, was used against the All Blacks in the RWC 2011 semi-final. But Cory Jane at Eden Park, unlike Zac Guildford at Brisbane, caught everything Genia kicked at him. The real question about the tactics is not their initial use but their continued use. During the tournament, too, the Wallabies' defensive effort to defeat the Springboks in the quarter-final was applauded as one of their greatest ever. The key tackling back in that effort was Pat McCabe. Campese specifically criticized his selection in the team.
Where Campese has a valid point is his criticism of Quade Cooper for his twittering encouragement to New Zealanders to keep booing him because "I just love it." Cooper's poor form at number 10 dragged down the overall performance of the Wallabies throughout the tournament. The long-term number 10 for the Wallabies must be James O'Connor. Dominant play-makers are crucial for teams aspiring to win the World Cup.
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