Nick Farr-Jones says Wallabies need to stay calm to have chance of winning World Cup
Former Wallabies skipper Nick Farr-Jones knows better than most what it takes to win on the big stage and has urged Australia’s World Cup team to ‘stay calm’ in Japan.
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The ability to think clearly under pressure will be the key to Australia’s chances of winning the Rugby World Cup.
That’s the view of Nick Farr-Jones and he should know because that was exactly how he brought the Wallabies back from the brink of disaster to win the 1991 World Cup.
Despite having the best side in the tournament, the Wallabies found themselves just moments away from being knocked out in the quarterfinals by Ireland in Dublin when Gordon Hamilton scored a late try against the run of play.
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Lansdowne Road erupted in pandemonium when the Irish went 18-15 ahead with just minutes to go but Farr-Jones, off the field with a knee injury, saw an unflustered counter-punch unfold.
Fill-in captain Michael Lynagh assembled his players behind the line and calmly explained exactly what they needed to do.
Everything went according to plan and with less than three minutes to go, the Wallabies regained the lead when Lynagh scored in the corner and two weeks later they won the World Cup.
“It’s just being calm, it’s just not being overawed,” Farr-Jones told News Corp Australia.
“I think if you looked at all the eight World Cup-winning teams, they’ve had an ability, just in the difficult moments, to refocus and at the end of the day prevail.
“You’ve also got to have confidence, you’ve got to have consistency, you’ve got to know that you can do the job.
“We certainly went into ’91 knowing we were the best team in the world and that if we had a little bit of luck we’d get there.”
Farr-Jones said the Wallabies can take a lot of confidence out of their record 47-26 thumping of New Zealand in Perth last month but warned that relying on one-off performances won’t be enough because there are so many potential pitfalls over the course of the tournament.
The same can be said for the state of the game in Australia right now.
The days when the Wallabies were box-office gold and crowds flocked to all their matches and have long gone and while winning the World Cup will provide a massive short-term boost, Farr-Jones says what the sport really needs is better long-term strategies.
“I reckon a lot of rusted on rugby players have gone away,” he said.
“We love World Cups and we love Australia competing in a truly international competition but there’s a lot of people out there that aren’t as passionate as they used to be, a lot of people.
“Don’t underestimate what the national team doing well and prevailing can do for the game right across the country, but at the same time you need the national body and the Super Rugby bodies investing in grassroots, which sadly we haven’t seen for a long time.”