The Wallabies must lift their game and gain 'cutting edge' says new Rugby Australia boss
Rugby Australia's new chief executive has placed the onus squarely on the Wallabies to lift their game, saying the success of the national team is critical to reviving the flagging code's fortunes within Australia's fiercely competitive sporting market.
Zimbabwe-born former Wales international Andy Marinos formally took over from interim CEO Rob Clarke on Monday and nominated the results of the sixth-ranked Wallabies, as well as those of the Wallaroos and men's and women's sevens teams, as paramount.
Marinos concedes rugby trails the AFL and NRL among the football codes and the only way to improve its position in the pecking order is by winning more games at the elite level.
"It's inextricably related. You can't be successful off the field if you're not successful on the field," Marinos said.
"So that's our biggest challenge. To improve our high performance and get a more competitive and winning team.
"That makes the rest of the business a lot easier to manage and drive commercial value.
"We're wanting to get out and grow the game in the community; well, people need heroes.
"People need aspirations and we can only really achieve that if we've got a winning women's team and a winning XVs team and winning sevens teams."
Marinos felt the Wallabies made some positive progress during the truncated Tri Nations championship, bouncing back from a record 43-5 loss to the All Blacks with a rare victory over the New Zealand juggernaut.
But he lamented the Wallabies' lack of a "cutting edge" and inability to close out games after two drawn Tests with Argentina.
Former SANZAAR boss Marinos blamed inexperience and an unstable team "spine" for the stalemates.
The fractured relationship between Marinos's predecessor Raelene Castle and former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika culminated in Australia's worst-ever World Cup showing two years ago.
Marinos, though, insisted he wouldn't tread on Dave Rennie's toes or weigh into team selections while also making it clear that the coach would be very much accountable for the Wallabies' results.
"That's certainly not my role or not my style to go and stick my nose in and tell him what to do," Marinos said.
"I'll be there more as a sounding board, to bounce off if he has any ideas or thoughts and at times just to share my view.
"I fully respect that he's got a role and a job to do and I'm going to performance manage him against that to make sure that he delivers against the standards that we've set.
"At the end of the day, we're all part of the same team. If he wins on the field, we win off the field - and vice versa."
Latest Comments
Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
Go to comments