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This week we’ve seen the launch of Rugby Australia’s five-year plan, an ambitious plan that targets Bledisloe wins, Super Rugby semi-finals and the number one spot in the world rankings. Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Unlikely. But these lofty targets are absolutely necessary in the landscape of the game today.
Rugby is littered with corporate jargon and with the global game being in such a precarious position financially, the unions that will not only achieve but survive will be the ones that are run efficiently. Even the likes of the Irish Rugby Football Union, who are often used as the standard to be measured by, reported a loss of €18.4 million (AUD $34.4 million) in the 2023/2024 season. A staggering amount considering sell-out stadiums for Ireland games and record sponsorship deals. The World Cup in France was a significant cost. Ireland spared no expense in their tilt to break their quarter-final hoodoo, which ultimately didn’t reap any rewards.
According to the IRFU’s chief financial officer, this loss was predicted and factored into their long-term plans. Which once again puts the onus back on Rugby Australia.
With this in mind, Rugby Australia’s new ‘From Green to Gold’ plan is vital and finally, with Phil Waugh at the helm as CEO, Australia finally seems to have a director who is focused on the sport’s future as opposed to his own bottom line. Australians are hyper-fixated on the need for the Wallabies coach to be an Australian, someone who understands the culture, the history. Total nonsense. Someone like David Campese, a Wallabies legend, is the most recent example to highlight how Rugby Australia needs to bring itself into the modern professional era.
101 Wallabies caps does not a scout, coach, exec or CEO make. In fact, he’s so far removed from the game in its current iteration, I question his ability to even comment on the current situation. Back in October, Campese told The Rugby Paper, “I don’t believe we should have a Kiwi coach”. “I was in New Zealand last week for the Test and they all said: ‘Isn’t Schmidt a good coach,’ I said: ‘Why? What has he actually won?’ He hasn’t won anything.”
A Six Nations championship in 2014, 2015 and a Grand Slam in 2018. He also took home World Rugby Coach of the Year in 2018.
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Why the rugby public in Australia cares so much about the opinion of a man, who doesn’t even care enough to do a quick Google search of his next head coach, I will never know.
Look at Matt Faessler scoring off the back of a Wallabies maul, Tom Wright scything through the line or Max Jorgensen diving across the line and tell me Joe Schmidt doesn’t “get” Australia or its style of play. For God’s sake, he hired Australia’s favourite son Laurie Fisher to join him at the helm!
Joe Schmidt. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Joe Schmidt is a coach who cares. Unforgiving, demanding and detailed yes, but he cares about the game and his players. His involvement in the upcoming Youth Rugby Coaches Forum exemplifies that – he wants to give to the sport around the country. It’s time Rugby Australia was led by the head from the likes of Waugh and not from the let’s call it Campese-esque heart.
Joe Schmidt was the perfect hire combining the two. A person who can empathise with Australia’s struggles but also be free from the weight of its history to go about his work.
And for those of you who agree with Campese, Rugby Australia is currently being led by former Waratah Phil Waugh and Queenslander Daniel Herbert. They’ve even balanced it with a forward and a back, just in case Campese kicked off about the style of play being impacted one way or the other. CEO and chairman of the board are exactly where Australians should be leading from the front.
With 79 and 67 caps, Waugh and Herbert understand the DNA of rugby in Australia. It doesn’t take an Australian on the sidelines to position players and coach ruck accuracy. However, having former Wallabies at the helm, looking at the needs of the union as a whole is far more useful.
If Joe Schmidt does decide to leave post Lions tour, not only has he stopped the rot on the field post-Eddie Jones, he has guided this Wallabies team in a whole new direction.
Waugh and Herbert got the Joe Schmidt hire spot on, if Schmidt leaves, let’s back them to get the next hire right too. They understand what the game needs as a whole moving forward.
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