Galloping Greens’ legacy a blueprint for philosophy driving Wallabies

A LITTLE club by the sea has had a profound influence on the course of Australian rugby.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is a graduate of the famous Randwick club in Sydney.

A LITTLE club by the sea has had a profound influence on the course of Australian rugby.

Michael Cheika became the fourth Randwick club man to coach the Wallabies in the past 32 years when he was appointed last week.

Cheika follows Bob Dwyer (1982-83, 1988-95), Eddie Jones (2001-05) and his immediate predecessor Ewen McKenzie (2013-14) from Randwick to the Wallabies.

It is incredible to think that four of the nine Wallabies coaches in this extraordinary period, which would be five out of nine of you counted Dwyer as two separate stints, came from the one club.

Randwick, a drop-kick from Coogee Beach in Sydney, has been around since 1882 and has produced a host of Wallabies, including Ken Catchpole, Russell Fairfax, the Ellas and Simon Poidevin.

Known as the Galloping Greens, Randwick created a tradition of running rugby that has influenced the way the game is played in Australia.

Dwyer, Jones, McKenzie and Cheika are very different coaches with their own ideas, but they are all committed to attacking rugby in one way or another.

The common denominator between the four is the concept of flatline attack, which has been passed down through the generations at the famous, old club.

The basic philosophy of the flatline attack is to take the ball to the line and play it under extreme defensive pressure, which creates space and opportunities if executed correctly.

The idea stretches back to the 1920s when Cyril Towers starred in the centres for Randwick. Fifty years later, the elderly Towers would walk a couple of kilometres from his home in the eastern suburbs to provide coaching tips to a ragtag team at Matraville High, which included three skinny Aboriginal brothers.

When the Ellas arrived at Randwick in 1978 after starring on the Invincible Australian Schoolboys tour of Europe, they delighted Dwyer with their instinctive understanding of the flatline attack.

Dwyer attempted to translate Randwick’s successful running game to the Wallabies when he was appointed coach in 1982, but did not achieve immediate results and was replaced by Alan Jones.

Ironically, Jones allowed five-eighth Mark Ella to run the Wallabies’ attack even though he had been deposed as captain, and the Randwick influence was evident on the historic Grand Slam tour of 1984.

Dwyer toppled Jones in 1988 and while he was an older, wiser coach, he never lost faith in the running game or the flatline attack, which he reintroduced to the Wallabies, who went on to win the 1991 World Cup.

Jones succeeded Rod Macqueen as Wallabies coach in 2001 and maintained the emphasis on attacking rugby, although he also borrowed ideas from rugby league, introducing decoy runners and second man plays, which used to drive former England coach Clive Woodward around the bend.

Jones’s brilliant ball-in-hand strategy upset the All Blacks in the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup and his Wallabies went within a Jonny Wilkinson field goal of winning the tournament.

At Randwick, Jones packed down in the front-row with McKenzie, who moved up to Sydney from Victoria and joined the Galloping Greens.

Unlike Dwyer and Jones, McKenzie had a reputation as a conservative coach until he guided the attack-minded Queensland Reds to the Super Rugby title in 2011. Significantly, the Reds’ attack coach Jim McKay was a Randwick man.

McKenzie brought McKay with him when he was appointed Wallabies coach last year and he introduced an expansive style of game to the national team.

Of course, McKenzie’s term ended abruptly because of off-field dramas and he was replaced by Cheika, who had guided the NSW Waratahs to their maiden Super Rugby title.

The Waratahs played a ball-in-hand style of game with minimal kicking under Cheika, but he also brought an undervalued characteristic of traditional Randwick forward play to NSW — uncompromising physicality.

Cheika will introduce the twin Randwick traits of flair and physicality to the Wallabies as he creates a style of play that will no doubt look familiar to the vintage rugby played at that little club by the sea.