It would be easy for Joe Schmidt and his mysterious cabal of sinister “assistants” to panic right now.
After all, the Wallabies have just played three tests against Wales and Georgia, in all of which, according to my quick skim of online reaction, they were humiliatingly defeated. They now have just three weeks to prepare to play a South African team made up exclusively of genetically engineered monsters a la the Planet Express basketball team in the episode “Time Keeps On Slipping”, and if you don’t understand that reference I question whether you’re even really a rugby fan.
Classic animation aside, the point is that Australian rugby, as has been the case for the last three hundred years, is in desperate trouble, and it’s only natural for a drowning man to reach for a life preserver. In this case, the life preserver would be the many Australian players plying their trade overseas, such as Will Skelton, Marika Koroibete, Samu Kerevi, and I think there are some others too probably.
The logic is simple and seductive: these players are good enough for foreign clubs to be willing to pay large amounts of money to recruit them, while players contracted to Super Rugby franchises clearly are not. If you want the best possible Wallaby team obviously you must pick the best possible players, so the foreign legion must be recalled.
Will Skelton holds the Australian crest during the Wallabies win over Georgia at Stade de France on September 09, 2023 in Paris. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Now, I have no wish to be intemperate. I am not about to engage in emotive personal criticisms. Others may call these players turncoats, traitors, un-Australian scum and greedy bottom-feeders who should be stripped of their citizenship if not jailed – I never will.
However, there are many reasons why picking overseas-based Wallabies could be a mistake, and Schmidt should think carefully about the risks before he opts for the rapid sugar hit of recalling prodigal sons over the less glamorous but more lasting satisfaction of being sacked halfway through his contract for underperformance.
The first thing to consider is the question of character. They have, after all, already signalled that they put financial security ahead of their desire to don the gold jersey, and a man who’ll do that will do anything. In any other profession we would not find it morally acceptable to accept a higher-paying job: why should we tolerate it in rugby? A rugby team needs to be a tight-knit unit based on unshakeable trust between its members. Isn’t it safer to place that trust in men sufficiently dedicated to the cause to ensure that he spends his entire career attracting no interest from foreign clubs?
The Wallabies react following their World Cup loss to Wales. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
The second consideration is the cultural aspect. These interlopers have been playing in France and Japan, strange alien nations with ways very different to our own. It’s all very well to salivate over the prospect of Wallaby team bonding sessions being enriched by sashimi and snails, but when it comes time to build combinations, to get the side to gel as a successful team must, how will the traditional Australian values of mateship and hypermasculine ego death mix with men who have been saturated in the ways of the bushido code and open marriages?
When push comes to shove – which happens quite regularly in rugby matches – it is almost impossible to build reliable combinations between people whose wavelengths diverge so widely. Look at the brilliant connection displayed on the weekend between Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson. Could they have done so well if McReight had spent the last three years on tea ceremonies while Wilson was learning the can-can? I wonder.
Harry Wilson links up with Fraser McReight ahead of a try to Rob Valetini in the Wallabies’ 40-29 win over Georgia at Allianz Stadium on July 20, 2024. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
The third factor is the issue of moral hazard. It is extremely dangerous to be seen to be rewarding poor behaviour, as it simply encourages further wrongdoing. Picking the overseas contingent would send a signal to all Australians that it is acceptable to live in a foreign country. That would be a horrible lesson for our children to learn.
The fourth matter to ponder is the health of the domestic game. Making Wallaby selection easy to gain while playing for an overseas club would remove one of the major incentives for staying at home. If Schmidt goes down that road there is a risk that in a few years Super Rugby could become a laughable mockery of a professional competition, in which Australian teams are so weak they stand no chance of success at all. Hard to imagine, but possible if we don’t collectively stand strong against the lure of foreign-based stars.
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt at Rugby Australia headquarters. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
And finally, there is, simply, patriotism. To be a Wallaby is to love Australia. To support the Wallabies is to love Australia. Frankly, to leave Australia is not to love Australia. How can you claim to be dedicated to restoring Australia to its rightful place as the brutal overlord of all other rugby nations when you’re not even dedicated to hanging around the joint?
Nobody who loves Australia would play for a foreign club, and nobody who doesn’t love Australia should ever be allowed the singular honour of being bashed to a bloody pulp by enormous Afrikaaners.
And if Joe Schmidt doesn’t understand that, I don’t know how he can even call himself an Australian.
Ben Pobjiehttps://https://ift.tt/ZzCqt8W place for interlopers in Wallabies – and if Schmidt doesn’t understand that, he can’t call himself Australian
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