Rugby World Cup 2023: Farcical policy that treats Wallabies like pampered poodles

It’s the ludicrous plan that hasn’t worked before and won’t work this time either. Treating players like pampered poodles in the most ludicrous plan you’ve ever heard.

Waratahs' Izaia Perese (2nd R) runs with the ball during the Super Rugby Pacific round 9 match between The Blues and New South Wales Waratahs at Eden Park in Auckland on April 22, 2023. (Photo by DAVID ROWLAND / AFP)

When will Australian rugby figure out that treating players like pampered poodles doesn’t ever work.

Every four years, the brains trust at the Wallabies fool themselves into thinking that the best way to end Australia’s long World Cup drought is to let the country’s top players just put their feet up on the sofa and have a breather right during the middle of the Super Rugby season.

That’s right – someone actually believes that if you give footballers a spell during a 12-team competition that already includes a bye – five months later, they’ll magically transform themselves into world champions at the hardest competition of all.

Mark Telea of the Blues is taken into touch. Picture: Getty Images

What a load of rot.

This ludicrous plan has never worked before and it won’t this time either because the last thing Australia’s best players need now is more time off.

Just take a look at the Super Rugby ladder and you’ll realise most of them are going to get an unwanted mid-year vacation when the playoffs roll around.

That’s mostly their own fault because – the Brumbies aside – the rest have been terrible in 2023 so it’s just sheer lunacy to think that giving them a break will make a difference when what they really should be doing is toughening themselves up for the biggest tournament of their lives.

The absurdity of the rotation policy was exposed for what it really is by the Waratahs’ embarrassing 55-21 thumping by the Blues in Auckland on Saturday.

Currently sitting near the bottom of the table, the Tahs should be doing everything in their power to make the finals but were kneecapped by the ridiculous rotation policy.

Already missing a stack of players through injury, the added problem of complying with the Wallaby resting protocols meant Waratahs coach Coach Darren Coleman was missing 12 of his frontline players.

Is it any wonder they got flogged?

Waratahs' Tolu Latu (2nd R) is tackled by Blues' Jordan Lay. Picture: AFP

The Waratahs captain Jake Gordon refused to blame his team’s heavy loss on all the changes.

Good on him for taking ownership of the loss but the truth is the depleted Waratahs were never given a fair crack at winning in Auckland.

“They were pretty clinical,” Gordon said. “We‘ve just struggled to gain possession and play at the right ends of the field.

“We spoke clearly about not giving them turnover and transition attack and we gave them a heap of that tonight, and they were pretty clinical.

“We had a really good training week, we prepared well, the coaches did a great job of putting us in a position to perform.

“We have a lot of quality players in that team, it‘s just disappointing that we didn’t perform.”

No-one should blame the players. Privately, they hate the policy. So do all the Super Rugby coaches and the fans.

This is a decision born from the infatuation of trying to copy the All Blacks but that’s not the Australian way.

It is a farcical policy that is not only killing Super Rugby, but it’s also not going to help Australia’s chances of winning the World Cup.

Originally published as Rugby World Cup 2023: Farcical policy that treats Wallabies like pampered poodles