Punching above their weight. It’s the mantra that Australian rugby has lived off for decades, at least since the sport went professional in 1995. Usually ranked third out of the four football codes, but arguably fourth now given the rise of football and the A-League over the past 11 years, it is interesting times for the 15-man game both on and off the field.
With Australia’s Super Rugby franchises struggling this season, several in dire straits financially, not to mention the Australia Rugby Union’s (ARU) own money problems, the next few weeks could be crucial. Earlier this week Australia kicked off their campaign at the World Rugby Under-20s Championship against Scotland. On Saturday the Wallabies start a three-Test series on home soil against England, who are now coached by former Wallaby boss Eddie Jones, ahead of the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship.
Both events could be helpful in gauging the wider health of rugby union down under. Aside from the Wallabies’ dramatic journey to last year’s Rugby World Cup final and the Waratahs’ 2014 Super Rugby title, both under Michael Cheika, it has been a lean couple of years for Australian rugby. Increased competition from rival codes, dwindling sponsorship deals, a squeeze from head office on junior clubs, problems at schoolboy level and off-field struggles combine to paint a worrying picture.
“League went professional in 1985, AFL went professional before that. We’ve got a fair bit of catching up to do,” former Wallabies captain Simon Poidevin says. “[But] we’re probably punching above our weight in many ways compared to the player base in the other major sports.”
The biggest battle in the Australian market is for kids, in participation numbers and for the best junior athletes. According to Roy Morgan data in 2015, 113,000 children aged 14 and over played rugby union, which put it above rugby league but below football, basketball, cricket and Australian rules football. Historically rugby has often been viewed as a sport for just those from Anglo-Saxon middle-class and upper-class backgrounds, those who attend public schools. But slowly that image is being altered.
In 2014 the ARU introduced the Junior Gold Cup, a development and competition program at Under-15 and Under-17 levels. It includes 48 teams across 24 centres competing in a national elite league. In 2015 the Oceania Rugby Under-20 Championship was launched, with national Under-20s teams from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu involved. And this year a Super Under-20s competition was introduced as a level underneath Australia’s five Super Rugby franchises, with matches scheduled as curtain-raisers to home games hosted by the professional sides.
“Cleary the Junior Gold program provided a very strong catchment to bring players, from both the more visible areas of the game and also players who normally wouldn’t be seen in those selection programs,” Poidevin explains. “It’s gone across public and private schools, and it gives those public schoolboys an opportunity to show their wares.”
Adrian Thompson, the ARU talent development manager and head coach of Australia’s Under-20s side, was one of the architects of the new structure. He says it is it all about producing more professional players and creating a better development system, giving these youngsters greater competition to allow them to reach the highest level possible.
“In terms of the pathways we’re getting things right,” Thompson says. “The big challenge is at the lower level is to make sure more kids play because if our numbers drop off then we’re going to struggle to produce those high-end kids. The challenge for any code, ours included, is to make sure our participation numbers stay high and keep growing.”
At schoolboy level the stereotype of the Sydney Greater Public School (GPS) system remaining king when it comes to elite rugby development, with famed production lines such as St Joseph’s Riverview, is no longer true. Other schools, like St Augustine’s College on Sydney’s northern beaches, are staking a claim as new factories of talent. In the past eight years the Catholic high school has won the Waratah Shield, the top knockout competition for school teams in NSW times, six times. St Augustine’s rugby program is led by John Papahatzis, one of the most successful junior coaches in the country. Wallaby Will Skelton, who came out of Hills Sports High School, is an example of top players being produced outside of the GPS structure.
“Rugby’s relatively strong in the schools,” Papahatzis says. “I think rugby’s got a great pathway for young people. The other codes are making a grab for the same type of player. Once a kid’s an athlete at 12 and 13 years of age I’m sure he can adapt to any code he puts his mind to. The secret is to make rugby such a great sport for young kids and an enjoyable sport that they stick with it.”
Competition isn’t just growing in the Australian sports market but across the rugby union world. The rise of Argentina, the emergence of Japan and the remodelling of England under Jones, not to mention the constant threats of New Zealand and South Africa – where rugby is the number one sport – is making it tougher at a global level. With Australia unable to match the riches on offer at European clubs for players, not to mention England’s enormous player base of more than one million, the green and gold have to keep doing more with less.
In the Under-20 World Championship, which began in 2008 and is held every year, Australia have generally struggled. They have made just one final, in 2010, and managed fifth place and seventh place finishes in the past three tournaments. There is hope this year that they can buck the trend – the Australian juniors have already knocked off their talented counterparts across the Tasman with a rare result. But in their first game of the World Championship on Monday, Australia were upset 15-10 by Scotland in Manchester, after suffering an early sending off. They still have two more games to rescue their campaign, time will tell if they can.
Thompson says the changes that have been made to the national pathways in the past few years are a long-term strategy aiming at future success, not short-term gains. “Both programs we’ve put in place aren’t about succeeding in the Under-20s level, they’re about producing Super Rugby players and professional rugby players. But if the Under-20s benefit from it then that’s a bonus. And I think in all honestly they will whether it’s this year or next year. That Super 20s comp will have a direct benefit on these players.”
The end game is the Wallabies and keeping Australia as one of the top three rugby-playing nations in the world. As the flagbearers of the game down under and as the code’s focal point, if the Wallabies are in good health then generally Australian rugby is in good health. “At the end of the day it’s how we are at that Wallaby level that matters,” Thompson says. “Everything else really needs to feed it and develop that. And there’s no question we’re heading in the right direction there.”
Doom and gloom merchants may remain but is not all bad, according to World Cup-winning Wallabies boss Bob Dwyer. The veteran coach believes it is not just about raw playing numbers or financial strength amidst local and global sporting rivals. “The game is alive and kicking and has the capacity to develop enough people to challenge at world level most of the time… What rugby has been able to represent and continue to represent, and present itself as, continues to matter. The culture of the game continues to matter. There is enough people concerned about that culture and what it represents for people, for it to continue to thrive.”
Australian rugby is used to making the most of its resources, squeezing every last drop of its player base and support structures. That is its status quo, its resting position. Dwyer takes inspiration from the other side of the Tasman. “The top nation in the world, New Zealand, has a population of around five million,” he says. “It wouldn’t really matter if you were No1 or No4, if you’ve only got five million people in the country, your sphere of influence numerically by world standards is long. But New Zealand punch well above their weight most of the time in most things they do. And probably Australia does as well.”
