Galvin's Shinpads
Vital Football Legend
watching paint dry will be a highlight compared to this.
D
Departed
Guest
I always thought the Irish had enough depth to be fun to watch at all times.
D
Departed
Guest
Really looking forward to seeing the Lions play the Wallabies tomorrow. 2 great teams. I hope Higginbotham plays. Totally neutral on this one. should be a fantastic game.
Oh and Galv the Canada Ireland game was great up until 60 minutes, then the Irish depth showed through. Biggest crowd for a rugby game in Canadian history over 20,000. Fantastic atmosphere.
Oh and Galv the Canada Ireland game was great up until 60 minutes, then the Irish depth showed through. Biggest crowd for a rugby game in Canadian history over 20,000. Fantastic atmosphere.
D
Departed
Guest
Woooohooooooooo!!!!!!!
Lions 2013: Brisbane braced for another Australia v Lions epic
By Bryn Palmer
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Date: Saturday, 22 June Kick-off: 11:05 BST (20:05 local)
No-one, it seems, is in any doubt about the scale of what is about to unfold in Brisbane on Saturday night.
The hype around the first Test of a British and Irish Lions series can make mature rugby men voice grand pronouncements, and the participants wide-eyed with anticipation.
"It is unique, not just in rugby. It is unique in world sport," said Australia coach Robbie Deans. "It's going to be an epic occasion."
Continue reading the main story“
Sam Warburton, preparing to lead the Lions into action, observed: "I have led Wales out in some pretty big games, but this will blow it out of the water."
By 20:00 local time (11:00 BST), with kick-off approaching, the 52,500-capacity Suncorp Stadium will be jumping, swirling with emotion and expectation that has been building for 12 years.
That is how long it has been since the last Lions Test in Australia, and the window of opportunity is something players, coaches, supporters, hoteliers and publicans are keenly aware of.
It would be an exaggeration to say the country is gripped by Lions fever. At the start of the week, media coverage was still almost an afterthought following rugby league, Aussie Rules football, cricket, the football Socceroos, golf and even the NBA finals.
It is only in the last 48 hours that the traditional fervour accompanying a Lions tour has been apparent, with the arrival in Brisbane of an estimated 25,000-30,000 travelling supporters.
The covered, open-air bars of the city's Queen Street mall are doing brisk business. There are red Lions jerseys and jackets everywhere, and plenty of Welsh accents.
The beauty of Lions tours is their rarity. They only arrive every four years, with New Zealand and South Africa their other destinations. And the allure of witnessing some of the greatest moments the sport has to offer is compelling, despite the cost.
With the price of a schooner (less than a pint) of beer around $A8 (£4.70), Australia is now one of the most expensive countries in the world. City centre hotels were charging between £400 and £600 a night for this weekend.
Platinum tickets for the Tests cost A$295 (£175) each. Those scrambling for them received a last-minute boost on Friday when officials released a final batch of 500 for sale.
One couple, Judith and Graham from Newport, South Wales, spent two years - and £30,000 - planning and saving to follow the tour from Perth, the first match in Australia, to the finale in Sydney. They are not alone.
This is their fifth Lions tour. On their first, also the first of rugby's professional era in 1997, they were among around 5,000 Lions fans present when the tourists won the series in Durban.
By the time of the next tour, of Australia in 2001, at least five times that amount were thought to be at The Gabba in Brisbane for the Lions' mesmerising first-Test victory. The impact of this vast army of travelling fans is huge, not just on the local economy, but the players too.
"When we ran out it felt as though the ground was three-quarters red," recalled Brian O'Driscoll, the day before he embarks on a fourth Lions series in the same city where he scored one of the great tries in Lions history 12 years ago.
"It gives you an extra pep in your step and gives you added incentive, providing you with that inspiration you need to play the game of your life."
Wallabies coach Deans has brought in former players involved in the 2001 series to forewarn the current side of what to expect. "The passion that came out was at another level," he noted. "The fact that there were so many away supporters, with a clear delineation, made it so special."
The hosts are trying to avoid a repeat on Saturday. The Australian Rugby Union will be handing out 15,000 gold safari hats to Wallaby fans to combat the anticipated sea of red. The same will happen in Melbourne and Sydney for the second and third Tests.
To ramp up the patriotic fervour another notch, 'rock legend' Colin Hay, the frontman of the group Men At Work, will perform their iconic hit (I Come From a Land) Down Under before kick-off as part of the 'Welcome to Australia' theme to the pre-match entertainment.
Those lucky enough to be present are likely to see a thrilling spectacle. Although steady rain hit Brisbane on Friday, conditions for the match should be perfect, with the forecast for Saturday dry and warm.
The Wallabies have a formidable record in Brisbane, having lost only two of the 17 Tests they have played in the city since the last Lions tour in 2001. They are undefeated in their last six Tests in the city.
But then the Lions also have fond memories of the Queensland capital.
'The Battle of Ballymore' - the brutal second Test in 1989 - and the brilliance of 'Waltzing O'Driscoll' at The Gabba in 2001 are both ingrained in Lions folklore.
They come into this series with momentum, having won the two biggest games leading up to the Test series against Queensland Reds and New South Wales Waratahs, the latter in some style.
The midweek defeat by ACT Brumbies was a jolt to the squad, but only one of the players who started that game - Ben Youngs - is in the Lions' match-day squad on Saturday.
Several players and coaches have made the observation that this Lions party is stronger than the one that came agonisingly close to a series victory in South Africa four years ago.
The pool of talent is deeper, and there is "savage competition" - in the words of Irish forward Paul Connell - for places. They are fitter, faster and more powerful than probably any previous Lions squad, and well drilled by Warren Gatland and his fellow coaches.
"There is almost like an arrogance running off them where they believe they can win this series," observed Shane Williams after his dramatic call-up from international retirement to join the squad for the Brumbies game. "That's great to have. Sometimes these tours are won mentally rather than physically and they are in a strong mental place at the moment."
The Wallabies are more of an unknown quantity, having spent three weeks in camp together rather than play any warm-up matches.
They have three players making Test debuts, and several others coming into it with little game time under their belts. But their ingenuity and resourcefulness always make them dangerous opponents, whatever the circumstances.
The Lions start marginal favourites, but a victorious Lions tour is a precious and increasingly rare thing. There have only been four in the 17 full series since the Second World War.
The successful teams of 1971, 1974, 1989 and 1997 are legends of the game. The current crop - especially icons like Irish duo O'Driscoll and O'Connell - are desperate to join them.
It is not just the Lions who feel this way. Their opponents do too. Wallabies full-back Berrick Barnes said this week "there's more excitement for this series than there was for the World Cup".
In case the hyperbole goes too far off the scale, Barnes could at least bring a little perspective to a game in which both sets of players will be under inordinate pressure to perform.
"There's a lot riding on it but we're not trying to cure cancer," he said. "It's a game of footy that will be great to be involved in."
Or as O'Driscoll put it: "It's just another rugby match. But it's a big rugby match."
Whatever the result, Brisbane will be painted red.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/23006864
Lions 2013: Brisbane braced for another Australia v Lions epic
By Bryn Palmer
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane Date: Saturday, 22 June Kick-off: 11:05 BST (20:05 local)
No-one, it seems, is in any doubt about the scale of what is about to unfold in Brisbane on Saturday night.
The hype around the first Test of a British and Irish Lions series can make mature rugby men voice grand pronouncements, and the participants wide-eyed with anticipation.
"It is unique, not just in rugby. It is unique in world sport," said Australia coach Robbie Deans. "It's going to be an epic occasion."
Continue reading the main story“
Sam Warburton, preparing to lead the Lions into action, observed: "I have led Wales out in some pretty big games, but this will blow it out of the water."
By 20:00 local time (11:00 BST), with kick-off approaching, the 52,500-capacity Suncorp Stadium will be jumping, swirling with emotion and expectation that has been building for 12 years.
That is how long it has been since the last Lions Test in Australia, and the window of opportunity is something players, coaches, supporters, hoteliers and publicans are keenly aware of.
It would be an exaggeration to say the country is gripped by Lions fever. At the start of the week, media coverage was still almost an afterthought following rugby league, Aussie Rules football, cricket, the football Socceroos, golf and even the NBA finals.
It is only in the last 48 hours that the traditional fervour accompanying a Lions tour has been apparent, with the arrival in Brisbane of an estimated 25,000-30,000 travelling supporters.
The covered, open-air bars of the city's Queen Street mall are doing brisk business. There are red Lions jerseys and jackets everywhere, and plenty of Welsh accents.
The beauty of Lions tours is their rarity. They only arrive every four years, with New Zealand and South Africa their other destinations. And the allure of witnessing some of the greatest moments the sport has to offer is compelling, despite the cost.
With the price of a schooner (less than a pint) of beer around $A8 (£4.70), Australia is now one of the most expensive countries in the world. City centre hotels were charging between £400 and £600 a night for this weekend.
Platinum tickets for the Tests cost A$295 (£175) each. Those scrambling for them received a last-minute boost on Friday when officials released a final batch of 500 for sale.
One couple, Judith and Graham from Newport, South Wales, spent two years - and £30,000 - planning and saving to follow the tour from Perth, the first match in Australia, to the finale in Sydney. They are not alone.
This is their fifth Lions tour. On their first, also the first of rugby's professional era in 1997, they were among around 5,000 Lions fans present when the tourists won the series in Durban.
By the time of the next tour, of Australia in 2001, at least five times that amount were thought to be at The Gabba in Brisbane for the Lions' mesmerising first-Test victory. The impact of this vast army of travelling fans is huge, not just on the local economy, but the players too.
"When we ran out it felt as though the ground was three-quarters red," recalled Brian O'Driscoll, the day before he embarks on a fourth Lions series in the same city where he scored one of the great tries in Lions history 12 years ago.
"It gives you an extra pep in your step and gives you added incentive, providing you with that inspiration you need to play the game of your life."
Wallabies coach Deans has brought in former players involved in the 2001 series to forewarn the current side of what to expect. "The passion that came out was at another level," he noted. "The fact that there were so many away supporters, with a clear delineation, made it so special."
The hosts are trying to avoid a repeat on Saturday. The Australian Rugby Union will be handing out 15,000 gold safari hats to Wallaby fans to combat the anticipated sea of red. The same will happen in Melbourne and Sydney for the second and third Tests.
To ramp up the patriotic fervour another notch, 'rock legend' Colin Hay, the frontman of the group Men At Work, will perform their iconic hit (I Come From a Land) Down Under before kick-off as part of the 'Welcome to Australia' theme to the pre-match entertainment.
Those lucky enough to be present are likely to see a thrilling spectacle. Although steady rain hit Brisbane on Friday, conditions for the match should be perfect, with the forecast for Saturday dry and warm.
The Wallabies have a formidable record in Brisbane, having lost only two of the 17 Tests they have played in the city since the last Lions tour in 2001. They are undefeated in their last six Tests in the city.
But then the Lions also have fond memories of the Queensland capital.
'The Battle of Ballymore' - the brutal second Test in 1989 - and the brilliance of 'Waltzing O'Driscoll' at The Gabba in 2001 are both ingrained in Lions folklore.
They come into this series with momentum, having won the two biggest games leading up to the Test series against Queensland Reds and New South Wales Waratahs, the latter in some style.
The midweek defeat by ACT Brumbies was a jolt to the squad, but only one of the players who started that game - Ben Youngs - is in the Lions' match-day squad on Saturday.
Several players and coaches have made the observation that this Lions party is stronger than the one that came agonisingly close to a series victory in South Africa four years ago.
The pool of talent is deeper, and there is "savage competition" - in the words of Irish forward Paul Connell - for places. They are fitter, faster and more powerful than probably any previous Lions squad, and well drilled by Warren Gatland and his fellow coaches.
"There is almost like an arrogance running off them where they believe they can win this series," observed Shane Williams after his dramatic call-up from international retirement to join the squad for the Brumbies game. "That's great to have. Sometimes these tours are won mentally rather than physically and they are in a strong mental place at the moment."
The Wallabies are more of an unknown quantity, having spent three weeks in camp together rather than play any warm-up matches.
They have three players making Test debuts, and several others coming into it with little game time under their belts. But their ingenuity and resourcefulness always make them dangerous opponents, whatever the circumstances.
The Lions start marginal favourites, but a victorious Lions tour is a precious and increasingly rare thing. There have only been four in the 17 full series since the Second World War.
The successful teams of 1971, 1974, 1989 and 1997 are legends of the game. The current crop - especially icons like Irish duo O'Driscoll and O'Connell - are desperate to join them.
It is not just the Lions who feel this way. Their opponents do too. Wallabies full-back Berrick Barnes said this week "there's more excitement for this series than there was for the World Cup".
In case the hyperbole goes too far off the scale, Barnes could at least bring a little perspective to a game in which both sets of players will be under inordinate pressure to perform.
"There's a lot riding on it but we're not trying to cure cancer," he said. "It's a game of footy that will be great to be involved in."
Or as O'Driscoll put it: "It's just another rugby match. But it's a big rugby match."
Whatever the result, Brisbane will be painted red.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/23006864
D
Departed
Guest
Did I call it or what? Israel Folau. WHAT a player. That is what test rugby should be. Very enjoyable.
D
Departed
Guest
Ugly win. Excitement plus. Great set up for the third and final game.
D
Departed
Guest
Any bets on who will win........I would think James O'Connor will be replaced.
Galvin's Shinpads
Vital Football Legend
It's really Wales vs Australia now.
Gatland is too conservative for the Lions.
Gatland is too conservative for the Lions.
Galvin's Shinpads
Vital Football Legend
Whoopsie do. A four nations dream team beat a single nation.
Although, I'd still watch it, if SKY didn't monopolize the thing.
Although, I'd still watch it, if SKY didn't monopolize the thing.
D
Departed
Guest
Just finished watching the game. Disappointing. Will Genia was especially disappointing over the series.
D
Departed
Guest
This would explain why Will Genia was so angry during most of the series. O Connor made a lot of stupid mistakes.
O’Connor at heart of Aus rot
August 19, 2013
James O’Connor has been singled out as the poison among Australia’s three Amigo bad boys.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Andrew Webster wrote a fascinating piece over the weekend. Take a read. Hugely insightful.
Here is Webster’s article:
SOMEONE had to say something.
It is August last year, and the scene of the crime is Eden Park. It often is.
The All Blacks have just smoked the Wallabies 22-0, and Sonny Bill Williams held the flame-thrower.
Nose for trouble: O’Connor and Quade Cooper. Photo: Lawrence Smith
It is the first time in 50 years that Australia has failed to score a point against New Zealand. It is their 14th straight loss to them. It is the 10th time in as many years that they have failed to get a fingernail on the Bledisloe Cup.
Within the confines of the away dressing room, the mood is predictably bleak. In such times, coach Robbie Deans barely talks. He will have no choice in the next half-hour when he fronts a news conference to explain – again – why he should not be sacked.
”It’s not about me,” Deans will say. ”It’s about the team and what we do.”
But right now, the coach is in a dark place and will not be delivering any spirited oratory about where to from here. Someone prods ARU chief executive John O’Neill.
”Twenty per cent of you are letting down the other 80 per cent,” O’Neill says, according to witnesses in the room that night. ”That 20 per cent are the same 20 per cent who have their mobile phone in their hands right now. The same 20 per cent are the ones on the grog midweek instead of complying with the rules.
”So put your f—ing mobiles away. In fact, don’t even bring them with you on match day. I’m your employer. I’m not your mate. You’re getting paid for the privilege of wearing the gold jersey and representing your country. And you are letting us down.”
O’Neill did not single out any player but he had tapped into an intractable stench that attached itself to the Wallabies throughout the Deans years – and still lingers if ever so slightly heading into Saturday night’s Bledisloe Cup opener at ANZ Stadium under new coach Ewen McKenzie.
It is the stench of a generation of players who have forgotten about the history and significance of the jumper they wear.
Specifically, many point to the self-appointed ”Three Amigos” of Quade Cooper, James O’Connor and Kurtley Beale, all of whom have drifted in and out of the side, in and out of the prized No.10 jumper, and in and out of favour with senior players and coaches and the wider rugby family.
Blame it on alcohol. Blame it on social media. Blame it on Generation Why-The-Hell-Not-Don’t-You-Know-Who-I-Am?
For many fans their ilk is a far cry from the days when the likes of Farr-Jones, Horan, Lynagh, Poidevin, Eales, Burke, Gregan, Larkham, Mortlock and others wore the jumper.
A new dawn is promised under McKenzie but as it stands, those same supporters are entitled to ask: How did it ever get to this?
When they came into the Wallabies set-up five years ago, Cooper, O’Connor and Beale represented the fresh vanguard of Australian rugby. Young and abundantly talented, they were schoolboy superstars destined for fame and fortune and television advertisements spruiking vitamins while wearing purple pants.
Then O’Connor went AWOL on the morning of the announcement of the squad for the 2011 World Cup, at Sydney Airport, in a major embarrassment for major sponsor Qantas and ARU management. He had been spotted at the Golden Sheaf in Double Bay and The Eastern at Bondi Junction the night before.
Then Cooper made the astonishing public declaration, via Twitter, that he could no longer play in the ”toxic environment” of the Wallabies under Deans – something that stunned his teammates who had seen him miss team meetings and rehab sessions and thumb his mobile phone minutes after soul-destroying international losses.
”We were stunned,” says one senior Wallabies player. ”Because he had been at the centre of the toxicity.”
Then a drunken Beale punched Rebels captain Gareth Delve and teammate Cooper Vuna in Durban – which resulted in a sobering flight home after Vuna revealed the incident on Twitter.
There is no need to trawl through every incident concerning all three players. No need to examine if the burgers really are better at Hungry Jacks. At 4am. Days before a critical Test against the Lions.
Perhaps the most damning episode in the short lives of the Three Amigos came in March this year, when they posted on social media a photo of themselves a day after the Queensland Reds had defeated the Melbourne Rebels. Clad in iridescent speedos, with tattoos and flexed muscles glistening in the sun, Cooper, O’Connor, Beale, former Wallaby Digby Ioane and AFL star Lance ”Buddy” Franklin posed up in a rooftop spa. The ensuing night ended with an associate of Ioane charged with assault.
As Ioane told the Twittersphere: ”I’m a lover not a fighter … God always has my back … #truth #Godbless my twitter friends.”
As McKenzie said a day later, after he had stood down his player: ”As an organisation and as a team, we’re not happy about some of these things that are going on and the headlines that goes around with that.”
As it stands, Ioane and his brother Jayson are still facing charges over an alleged assault outside a Melbourne hotel. They will next face Melbourne Magistrates Court next Thursday.
In the eyes of some rugby officials, Melbourne had become their code’s own version of Vegas.
That is where the Three Amigos transform into the self-named ”Bungy Brothers” and hook up with Franklin. The nocturnal habits of the Hawthorn full-forward, who is the brother-in-law of discarded Wallaby Matt Giteau, is the stuff of legend in Melbourne.
For some time, the ARU has been concerned about the influence of Franklin on some of their players. Others, though, identified a poisonous influence on the likes of Beale and O’Connor long before this year.
Former England five-eighth Danny Cipriani breezed into Melbourne in 2011, played a handful of matches, stole a bottle of vodka from behind the bar, was stood down for failing to reach ”team standards”, missed some tackles and was released last year.
”He’s been awesome around the club, he’s been so good for club culture,” O’Connor said at the time. ”He’s definitely left his mark.”
When it comes to the waywardness of the Three Amigos, the fingers of blame are pointed with the speed of a drunken tweet. In the wake of the Durban incident, the people closest to Beale privately blamed O’Connor for leading him astray.
Some have blamed dumped Rebels coach Damien Hill for failing to bring the pair into line. Now the coach and both players have left the Melbourne franchise.
Those who know Beale, who has admitted to deep-seated alcohol issues, feel his expected move to the Waratahs will be beneficial because he cannot rely on O’Connor when he needs support.
As for O’Connor, Melbourne Storm players – who often share facilities with the Rebels at AAMI Park – report he was a player on the outer. ”He seemed very much on the nose,” offers one.
O’Connor’s people will point to the fact that their guy has never faced a police charge, has his own charity and does shoots in glossy fashion magazines while the other two have led themselves astray.
But then one senior ARU official tells Fairfax Media this: ”Kurtley gets into trouble because of alcohol. Quade doesn’t know any better. O’Connor was the most cunning. He knew what he was doing. It was never an accident. He always escapes before the heat arrives. He’s usually the architect of the problem. The best result is not having the three in the one team at the one time.”
But the main finger is always pointed at Dingo Deans, and the amount of rein he handed his Three Amigos.
The coach rubbished reports in August 2011 about an incident in Paris the previous November when the three teammates were reportedly involved in an altercation with each other during a night out in the French capital.
Photos taken before kick-off for that match, on November 27, clearly show Beale sporting a black eye. The Amigos laughed it off, as did Deans.
”Some of the suggestions are nonsense,” the coach fumed. ”Yes, they had an argument, which people who are close do. Beyond that, there was nothing. There was no incident as such. There’s no police file. There’s no file of an internal fine. There’s nothing.”
That defence of his Gen-Y stars bewildered senior players, even today. ”Well, there was definitely an altercation,” a player who witnessed the incident said this week. ”And there was definitely law enforcement there. I guess the language barrier saved us. If it happened in Australia, there would’ve been lengthy bans. The senior players imposed player fines. Money was to be donated to charity through the ARU.”
The breathless defence from Deans had been too much for some senior players to stomach.
The early years of the Deans era had been stamped by his decision to move on the likes of Matt Giteau and George Smith. Challenging him did not help.
Some players had grown tired of seeing younger upstarts walk into team meetings with headphones plugged in, and the formation of a ”team within a team”.
When Deans dropped Nathan Sharpe for his 100th cap, for the World Cup semi-final in 2011, it rankled many within.
”The three of them got away with too much, too early,” says one player from that campaign. ”And they became bigger than the team. Robbie backed them when they got into strife. I don’t know whether it was pride or what the reason was, but he wouldn’t go back to calling on guys he’d left out.
”In my opinion, for too long, there was too much that was swept under the carpet. There was an understanding they could get away with more than most because of their value to the team. They would’ve learnt their lesson if they were dealt with earlier. But they were always picked the next week, always went on the next tour.”
Deans supporters say criticism of his defence of Cooper, O’Connor and Beale is unfair.
He invested many hours into Beale, who late last year looked like developing into the No.10 the coach had long craved since Cooper’s fall from grace at the World Cup.
Beale and O’Connor often strayed when they were in Melbourne, away from the Wallabies fold. How, then, to explain why Cooper only seemed rebellious whenever he was under Deans’ command?
Irrespective of how he treated them, what is not in dispute is the inescapable fact that the ones Deans valued the most were the ones who ultimately cost him his job.
He did not reply to Fairfax Media’s request to be interviewed.
At his first team meeting as Wallabies coach, McKenzie told his players they had a clean slate – but also what is expected of those wearing the gold jumper he once squeezed into himself.
That said, claims he is a ”disciplinarian” are off the mark. ”He’s not that at all,” insists one Reds powerbroker. ”He works around the grey.”
If Gen-Y has infected the Wallabies, McKenzie can at least rest easy knowing he has dependable men like David Pocock, James Horwill, Stephen Moore and Adam Ashley-Cooper maintaining the tradition.
Many see the decision to select Matt Toomua as the starting five-eighth for Saturday night’s Test as a signal that raw ability does not automatically ensure inclusion.
The Three Amigos have been accused of reading too much of their own press, but they are also making the right noises. Publicly at least.
”You learn from the past,” O’Connor said this week. ”If I could change a lot of things, not only what’s happened this year but in previous years, I would.”
”I had made mistakes and I got chances,” Cooper said last month. ”But when you do get your second chance, or you’re lucky enough to get a third chance, you’ve got to make sure you do all that you can to show the respect for those people that showed faith in you.”
If change is to happen, though, it will start and end with respect – and that starts and ends with the boss.
After a World Cup match in New Zealand in 2011, the Wallabies climbed on to the team bus.
O’Neill was among them, and jumped into a vacant seat. ”You can’t sit there,” Beale told him. ”That’s Quade’s seat.”
O’Neill’s response did not come with a hashtag, an emoticon or any other form of Twitterspeak – but it was loud and clear.
”Get stuffed!”
http://www.keo.co.za/2013/08/19/oconnor-at-heart-of-aus-rot/
O’Connor at heart of Aus rot
August 19, 2013
James O’Connor has been singled out as the poison among Australia’s three Amigo bad boys.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Andrew Webster wrote a fascinating piece over the weekend. Take a read. Hugely insightful.
Here is Webster’s article:
SOMEONE had to say something.
It is August last year, and the scene of the crime is Eden Park. It often is.
The All Blacks have just smoked the Wallabies 22-0, and Sonny Bill Williams held the flame-thrower.
Nose for trouble: O’Connor and Quade Cooper. Photo: Lawrence Smith
It is the first time in 50 years that Australia has failed to score a point against New Zealand. It is their 14th straight loss to them. It is the 10th time in as many years that they have failed to get a fingernail on the Bledisloe Cup.
Within the confines of the away dressing room, the mood is predictably bleak. In such times, coach Robbie Deans barely talks. He will have no choice in the next half-hour when he fronts a news conference to explain – again – why he should not be sacked.
”It’s not about me,” Deans will say. ”It’s about the team and what we do.”
But right now, the coach is in a dark place and will not be delivering any spirited oratory about where to from here. Someone prods ARU chief executive John O’Neill.
”Twenty per cent of you are letting down the other 80 per cent,” O’Neill says, according to witnesses in the room that night. ”That 20 per cent are the same 20 per cent who have their mobile phone in their hands right now. The same 20 per cent are the ones on the grog midweek instead of complying with the rules.
”So put your f—ing mobiles away. In fact, don’t even bring them with you on match day. I’m your employer. I’m not your mate. You’re getting paid for the privilege of wearing the gold jersey and representing your country. And you are letting us down.”
O’Neill did not single out any player but he had tapped into an intractable stench that attached itself to the Wallabies throughout the Deans years – and still lingers if ever so slightly heading into Saturday night’s Bledisloe Cup opener at ANZ Stadium under new coach Ewen McKenzie.
It is the stench of a generation of players who have forgotten about the history and significance of the jumper they wear.
Specifically, many point to the self-appointed ”Three Amigos” of Quade Cooper, James O’Connor and Kurtley Beale, all of whom have drifted in and out of the side, in and out of the prized No.10 jumper, and in and out of favour with senior players and coaches and the wider rugby family.
Blame it on alcohol. Blame it on social media. Blame it on Generation Why-The-Hell-Not-Don’t-You-Know-Who-I-Am?
For many fans their ilk is a far cry from the days when the likes of Farr-Jones, Horan, Lynagh, Poidevin, Eales, Burke, Gregan, Larkham, Mortlock and others wore the jumper.
A new dawn is promised under McKenzie but as it stands, those same supporters are entitled to ask: How did it ever get to this?
When they came into the Wallabies set-up five years ago, Cooper, O’Connor and Beale represented the fresh vanguard of Australian rugby. Young and abundantly talented, they were schoolboy superstars destined for fame and fortune and television advertisements spruiking vitamins while wearing purple pants.
Then O’Connor went AWOL on the morning of the announcement of the squad for the 2011 World Cup, at Sydney Airport, in a major embarrassment for major sponsor Qantas and ARU management. He had been spotted at the Golden Sheaf in Double Bay and The Eastern at Bondi Junction the night before.
Then Cooper made the astonishing public declaration, via Twitter, that he could no longer play in the ”toxic environment” of the Wallabies under Deans – something that stunned his teammates who had seen him miss team meetings and rehab sessions and thumb his mobile phone minutes after soul-destroying international losses.
”We were stunned,” says one senior Wallabies player. ”Because he had been at the centre of the toxicity.”
Then a drunken Beale punched Rebels captain Gareth Delve and teammate Cooper Vuna in Durban – which resulted in a sobering flight home after Vuna revealed the incident on Twitter.
There is no need to trawl through every incident concerning all three players. No need to examine if the burgers really are better at Hungry Jacks. At 4am. Days before a critical Test against the Lions.
Perhaps the most damning episode in the short lives of the Three Amigos came in March this year, when they posted on social media a photo of themselves a day after the Queensland Reds had defeated the Melbourne Rebels. Clad in iridescent speedos, with tattoos and flexed muscles glistening in the sun, Cooper, O’Connor, Beale, former Wallaby Digby Ioane and AFL star Lance ”Buddy” Franklin posed up in a rooftop spa. The ensuing night ended with an associate of Ioane charged with assault.
As Ioane told the Twittersphere: ”I’m a lover not a fighter … God always has my back … #truth #Godbless my twitter friends.”
As McKenzie said a day later, after he had stood down his player: ”As an organisation and as a team, we’re not happy about some of these things that are going on and the headlines that goes around with that.”
As it stands, Ioane and his brother Jayson are still facing charges over an alleged assault outside a Melbourne hotel. They will next face Melbourne Magistrates Court next Thursday.
In the eyes of some rugby officials, Melbourne had become their code’s own version of Vegas.
That is where the Three Amigos transform into the self-named ”Bungy Brothers” and hook up with Franklin. The nocturnal habits of the Hawthorn full-forward, who is the brother-in-law of discarded Wallaby Matt Giteau, is the stuff of legend in Melbourne.
For some time, the ARU has been concerned about the influence of Franklin on some of their players. Others, though, identified a poisonous influence on the likes of Beale and O’Connor long before this year.
Former England five-eighth Danny Cipriani breezed into Melbourne in 2011, played a handful of matches, stole a bottle of vodka from behind the bar, was stood down for failing to reach ”team standards”, missed some tackles and was released last year.
”He’s been awesome around the club, he’s been so good for club culture,” O’Connor said at the time. ”He’s definitely left his mark.”
When it comes to the waywardness of the Three Amigos, the fingers of blame are pointed with the speed of a drunken tweet. In the wake of the Durban incident, the people closest to Beale privately blamed O’Connor for leading him astray.
Some have blamed dumped Rebels coach Damien Hill for failing to bring the pair into line. Now the coach and both players have left the Melbourne franchise.
Those who know Beale, who has admitted to deep-seated alcohol issues, feel his expected move to the Waratahs will be beneficial because he cannot rely on O’Connor when he needs support.
As for O’Connor, Melbourne Storm players – who often share facilities with the Rebels at AAMI Park – report he was a player on the outer. ”He seemed very much on the nose,” offers one.
O’Connor’s people will point to the fact that their guy has never faced a police charge, has his own charity and does shoots in glossy fashion magazines while the other two have led themselves astray.
But then one senior ARU official tells Fairfax Media this: ”Kurtley gets into trouble because of alcohol. Quade doesn’t know any better. O’Connor was the most cunning. He knew what he was doing. It was never an accident. He always escapes before the heat arrives. He’s usually the architect of the problem. The best result is not having the three in the one team at the one time.”
But the main finger is always pointed at Dingo Deans, and the amount of rein he handed his Three Amigos.
The coach rubbished reports in August 2011 about an incident in Paris the previous November when the three teammates were reportedly involved in an altercation with each other during a night out in the French capital.
Photos taken before kick-off for that match, on November 27, clearly show Beale sporting a black eye. The Amigos laughed it off, as did Deans.
”Some of the suggestions are nonsense,” the coach fumed. ”Yes, they had an argument, which people who are close do. Beyond that, there was nothing. There was no incident as such. There’s no police file. There’s no file of an internal fine. There’s nothing.”
That defence of his Gen-Y stars bewildered senior players, even today. ”Well, there was definitely an altercation,” a player who witnessed the incident said this week. ”And there was definitely law enforcement there. I guess the language barrier saved us. If it happened in Australia, there would’ve been lengthy bans. The senior players imposed player fines. Money was to be donated to charity through the ARU.”
The breathless defence from Deans had been too much for some senior players to stomach.
The early years of the Deans era had been stamped by his decision to move on the likes of Matt Giteau and George Smith. Challenging him did not help.
Some players had grown tired of seeing younger upstarts walk into team meetings with headphones plugged in, and the formation of a ”team within a team”.
When Deans dropped Nathan Sharpe for his 100th cap, for the World Cup semi-final in 2011, it rankled many within.
”The three of them got away with too much, too early,” says one player from that campaign. ”And they became bigger than the team. Robbie backed them when they got into strife. I don’t know whether it was pride or what the reason was, but he wouldn’t go back to calling on guys he’d left out.
”In my opinion, for too long, there was too much that was swept under the carpet. There was an understanding they could get away with more than most because of their value to the team. They would’ve learnt their lesson if they were dealt with earlier. But they were always picked the next week, always went on the next tour.”
Deans supporters say criticism of his defence of Cooper, O’Connor and Beale is unfair.
He invested many hours into Beale, who late last year looked like developing into the No.10 the coach had long craved since Cooper’s fall from grace at the World Cup.
Beale and O’Connor often strayed when they were in Melbourne, away from the Wallabies fold. How, then, to explain why Cooper only seemed rebellious whenever he was under Deans’ command?
Irrespective of how he treated them, what is not in dispute is the inescapable fact that the ones Deans valued the most were the ones who ultimately cost him his job.
He did not reply to Fairfax Media’s request to be interviewed.
At his first team meeting as Wallabies coach, McKenzie told his players they had a clean slate – but also what is expected of those wearing the gold jumper he once squeezed into himself.
That said, claims he is a ”disciplinarian” are off the mark. ”He’s not that at all,” insists one Reds powerbroker. ”He works around the grey.”
If Gen-Y has infected the Wallabies, McKenzie can at least rest easy knowing he has dependable men like David Pocock, James Horwill, Stephen Moore and Adam Ashley-Cooper maintaining the tradition.
Many see the decision to select Matt Toomua as the starting five-eighth for Saturday night’s Test as a signal that raw ability does not automatically ensure inclusion.
The Three Amigos have been accused of reading too much of their own press, but they are also making the right noises. Publicly at least.
”You learn from the past,” O’Connor said this week. ”If I could change a lot of things, not only what’s happened this year but in previous years, I would.”
”I had made mistakes and I got chances,” Cooper said last month. ”But when you do get your second chance, or you’re lucky enough to get a third chance, you’ve got to make sure you do all that you can to show the respect for those people that showed faith in you.”
If change is to happen, though, it will start and end with respect – and that starts and ends with the boss.
After a World Cup match in New Zealand in 2011, the Wallabies climbed on to the team bus.
O’Neill was among them, and jumped into a vacant seat. ”You can’t sit there,” Beale told him. ”That’s Quade’s seat.”
O’Neill’s response did not come with a hashtag, an emoticon or any other form of Twitterspeak – but it was loud and clear.
”Get stuffed!”
http://www.keo.co.za/2013/08/19/oconnor-at-heart-of-aus-rot/
