Wallabies are just like 1997 - Eales

John Eales sees prosperous times ahead for the Wallabies

IN so many areas of life, Australia’s Rugby World Cup winning skipper of 1999, John Eales has been there and done that.

So when he talks about where this current group of Wallabies are at as they prepare for the first Test of their Grand Slam tour of the Home Countries and what their new skipper Rocky Elsom should be concentrating on it’s time to bring it in tight and listen up.

In a wide-ranging conversation about all things Rugby and the Qantas Wallabies Eales made the forthright point that Robbie Deans’ Wallabies are a hell of a way down the track than where his own team of 1997 were at.

“People inevitably talk about World Cups and say we’re not a chance to win one but if you do look at World Cups and if you look at us 12 years ago in 1997, we were a worse team than this Australian team is,” Eales told Djuro Sen and I on the Ruggamatrix podcast.

“We didn’t beat New Zealand for three years, they’ve just gone two without beating them.

“I think we were more disorganised than they are but what we did have in common was we had a lot of good young players and very high potential players that were blooded through that period of time and we also started seeing a few others retire through that period of time as well.”

Eales of course was talking about the Wallabies side that he took away on an end of season tour at the back end of 1997 under the guidance of Rod Macqueen.

He was a reluctant leader at that time but after a few hiccups grew into one of the game’s great lock forwards and even greater leaders, culminating in what is still considered to be the golden era of the game in Australia.

Wins at the Rugby World Cup in Wales in 1999, Bledisloe Cups and Bundaberg Rum Tri Nations titles as well as series wins over the British and Irish Lions in 2001 are all testament to his effect on that group and the quality of the coaching and management.

Eales also believes that Deans’ Wallabies and the Australian Rugby watching public in general need to keep faith.

“They’re in a very challenging time at the moment and a time where they’re probably struggling to believe in themselves to the fullest,” Eales adds. “They’ve led the All Blacks many times at half-time but they haven’t been able to hold onto the game.

“A lot of that is self belief, a lot of that is the courage to keep doing what you’re doing and not to try to hold onto a lead but to just keep playing and going for it. We’ve probably missed out a bit in that regard but I think there’s a lot of promise in this team too.”

Eales also had some sage advice for new skipper Rocky Elsom as he comes to terms with the ins and outs and otherwise of leading his national team.

“Rocky has been a strong contributor to the Wallabies over a number of years and the greatest challenge anyone has when they become captain is that they think it’s about everyone else and not about themselves,” Eales said.

“The best advice that I think I can give it that first and foremost it’s got to be about him (Rocky) and his game and secondly about what he can do for the team.”

Eales has no doubt though that Elsom is the man for the long haul as far as the Wallabies are concerned.

“Rocky is a guy who thinks about things a lot and that’s important. You don’t want someone who is flippant and thinking about the next fad.

“Through periods of uncertainly you need to create certainty. You can develop a team around certainty and Rocky is one of those constants in this Australian team at the moment.”

Which brings us to the Wallabies encounter against England and the wide-ranging tweaking that Deans has done with his side for this weekend at Twickenham.

Quade Cooper has been brought into the side as No.12 after his great display against Gloucester earlier this week and Digby Ioane has been moved to outside centre.

That sees Adam Ashley-Cooper moved to fullback and Drew Mitchell come into the team on the wing and Ryan Cross and James O’Connor moving back to the bench.

George Smith has also been brought into the starting side at openside breakaway.

All those selections mean that this team is going to try and move this England team about and have a real crack. They are risky selections but at the same time very, very exciting.

On the England side of things there are some great stories not the least being the return to Test Rugby of two France based Englishmen – Jonny Wilkinson and the hooker Steve Thompson.

Wilkinson comeback has been well documented but Thompson’s is a cracker of a story.

He retired with a major neck injury and was paid more than $1 million in compensation. From there Brive got him on board as a recruitment and scrummaging coach and he got the playing bug again.

Thompson then got an all-clear from a different set of doctors and repaid his compensation payout and got back to playing. Six years on from his Rugby World Cup triumph in Sydney he is taking on the Wallabies.

So what can we expect from this game?

A clash of styles with England doing all the kicking and the Wallabies doing all the running. Let’s hope that there’s a lot more running than there is kicking and the Wallabies dream of a Grand Slam are alive come Sunday morning Australian time.