Super Rugby return won’t matter if Wallabies test matches don’t resume
Super Rugby is back but it won’t matter if Wallabies test matches don’t return soon, writes Tim Horan. While a World Cup halfback is poised to make his long awaited return for the Brumbies.
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There’s nothing worse for an international rugby player than the uncertainty about when the next Test match is going to be played.
That’s the problem every team in the Rugby Championship is facing right now because of coronavirus but we’ve been down this road before and come out the other end.
In 1992, I was in the Wallaby team that travelled to South Africa to play the Springboks for the first time since 1971 after the end of apartheid.
The match was due to take place in Cape Town but we went to Johannesburg the week before to watch South Africa play the All Blacks.
Although New Zealand won the game, we got escorted from Ellis Park by more than a dozen security guards and driven back to our hotel in a van that had bars on the windows, all because the crowd had sung the South African national anthem Die Stem after there had been an agreement that it would not be sung.
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The Wallabies were told not to bother flying to Cape Town because the Test was sure to be cancelled so we should head straight back to Australia but it did eventually go ahead – winning a tough match in the wet.
It was a strange week and I really feel for all the players at the moment who are wondering whether this year’s Tests will go ahead.
I know Rugby Australia are confident they will and are working on different scenarios whether it’s the Rugby Championship or the Bledisloe Cup but with everything that’s been happening with the coronavirus in Australia and New Zealand, you just can’t be sure.
It’s a fluid situation, so I hope there’s a fallback plan if the Tests are called off? Should we play three state of the union matches to keep the positivity going because everyone’s buzzing about local footy again?
I’ve been amazed at how quickly the whole vibe about rugby in Australia has turned around since the start of Super Rugby AU.
There’s obviously still a lot more work to be done to re-engage all the fans and the standard’s still not as good as New Zealand - but it’s getting closer - and I’ve seen things in the last six weeks that haven’t happened for years.
When I’m at the bakery or just filling up the car with petrol, complete strangers have just walked straight up to me wanting to chat about rugby. At the butchers on Monday – a man who looked like he’d played 250 games at tight head prop for the local fifth grade side said “how good is rugby again”.
And the conversation is always the same: they are loving the domestic competition and the feeling that winning brings because that’s what’s been missing in Australia for so long.
One of the problems with the old Super Rugby competition was that there were weekends when no Australian teams won so all the usual naysayers who reckon the game is buggered would come out in droves.
The beauty of the domestic comp is that there’s two sets of fans that are guaranteed to be feeling happy when they turn up to the water cooler on a Monday morning.
Winning helps re-engage people with the game and there’s definitely a real buzz on the streets again so the challenge for everyone is to keep it going.
NIC WHITE POISED FOR SHOCK RETURN
— Julian Linden
World Cup halfback Nic White is poised to make his long awaited return to Super Rugby for the Brumbies on Saturday.
Kept in cotton wool since returning to Australia, White is set to make a surprise return off the bench against the Waratahs.
It will mark his first Super Rugby appearance since 2015 and will give new Wallaby coach Dave Rennie plenty to think about as he considers who to play at the base of the scrum this year.
White is the incumbent after sharing the halfback role with Will Genia at last year’s World Cup in Japan but the 30-year-old is being challenged for the spot by Queensland’s Tate McDermott, NSW’s Jake Gordon and Joe Powell, who has been the Brumbies’ first-choice most of this season.
Powell will drop out of the matchday 23 against the Waratahs with Ryan Lonergan starting the game and Cadeyrn Neville coming in as lock after the competition leaders had the bye last weekend.
The Waratahs are expected to stick with the same backline combination that has chalked up two successive wins but will make two changes to the forward pack.
Ned Hanigan will earn his 50th NSW cap when he starts at lock for Tom Staniforth while Harry Johnson-Holmes - who scored a try off the bench in last weekend’s win over the Force - will switch places with Tetera Faulkner and start at tighthead prop.
The Reds will make just one change to their starting line-up for Friday’s clash with the Western Force with Josh Flook replacing injured centre Hunter Paisamifrom the side that beat the Rebels last week on the back of a titanic defensive effort.
The Force have added two fresh faces and made another positional change to their pack.
Former Red Andrew Ready replaces Feleti Kaitu’u at hooker while Ollie Atkins starts at lock with Fergus Lee Warner moving to blindside flanker at the expense of Henry Stowers.
Originally published as Super Rugby return won’t matter if Wallabies test matches don’t resume