The ‘success disease’ Wallabies must avoid

How the seasoned performers in the Wallabies can steer the team through tricky times and avoid the ‘success disease”.

Wallabies Rob Valetini and Jordan Petaia celebrate after defeating Argentina, the team’s fourth win in succession Picture: Getty Images

When the Wallabies are winning, our rugby heartland, the clubs, schools and rusted on supporters beam with pride.

No doubt we are all looking forward to next weekend’s Test match against Japan so we can further witness the awakening of what is becoming an impressive Wallaby side.

Pat Riley was the first person in American sport to have won titles as a professional player, coach and club president.

In fact, he’s won ten NBA titles wearing all three hats, so he knows a bit about world-class sport and winning.

In his book, The Winner Within, he wrote, “Complacency is the last hurdle any winning team must overcome before retaining potential greatness. Complacency is the ‘Success Disease’. It takes root when you’re feeling good about who you are and what you have achieved”.

As the Wallabies prepare for the forthcoming tour of Japan and the United Kingdom, they will be aiming to keep their winning streak intact.

With the injection of humility and the experience of the Wallabies’ version of the “bomb squad”, they are capable of beating Japan, Scotland, England and Wales over the coming month.

You will recall the Springboks won the 2019 World Cup largely due to their experienced campaigners, labelled by coach Rassie Erasmus as the “bomb squad”.

Quade Cooper, Samu Kerevi, Sean McMahon, Rory Arnold, Will Skelton and Tolu Latu are all overseas-based players.

The Wallabies now have their very own “bomb squad” whose role it will be to lead the team through tricky times at the back end of Test matches.

Thankfully, Rugby Australia have supported coach Rennie and allowed him to pick the best players wherever they are.

I have been arguing for that for years.

It must be remembered that it took the humiliation of the Bledisloe Cup series loss to make this happen; yet the reality check of the three Tests against New Zealand has been a blessing.

To keep the current winning streak going, coach Rennie will need his team to overcome that dreaded curse called “complacency”, which Pat Riley called the “Success Disease”.

All great teams have had to overcome overconfidence and complacency to keep on winning.

Only the great teams manage to do it and we all want this Wallaby group to be one of the great Australian teams.

No doubt there is enough experience in the camp to understand the pitfalls of becoming too receptive to all the recent media accolades.

Players like Cooper and James O’Connor will remind the group that the media is equally adept at pouring it on in the good times and using the players as cannon fodder in the bad times.

Japan will not be easy, but there is now an expectation from supporters that this Wallaby group need to understand.

As they say in sport, “pressure is a privilege” and being favourites requires capability to hold your collective nerve.

The point will no doubt be emphasised by the experienced coaches and players in the lead-up to the Japan Test match; but the difference between a pat on the back and a knife in the back can come down to stepping up in key moments.

As previously mentioned, Japan will not be easy and nor will the other British teams; but to shake up the rugby world, this Wallaby team must keep finding ways to win.

I know how difficult it is to take teams to Britain and win. But the prize is history.

If the Wallabies can get the job done over the next few weeks, they will put the rugby world on notice.

One person currently putting World Rugby on notice is the former World Cup winning Springbok coach, Rassie Erasmus.

I don’t know Erasmus, but he’s clearly a talented leader who is not afraid to shake things up.

Erasmus has been charged with bringing the game into disrepute under Regulation 18 of World Rugby’s longwinded and overly officious set of rules.

There are 24 such regulations and Regulation 18 deals with “misconduct and the code of conduct”. It’s 20 pages long.

Surely Erasmus must be forgiven for not knowing all these regulations verbatim.

My maths tells me that if there are 24 regulations, each being 20 pages long, the World Rugby Regulations Handbook must be 480 pages long.

The campaign to get Erasmus is a complete waste of time and a joke.

The incident happened three months ago and the rest of the world has moved on.

How can this hearing at the end of this month be of any benefit?

Erasmus will appear before a so-called Independent Panel, chosen by World Rugby, who no doubt plan to bury him for having a whinge about the refereeing performance of the Australian, Nic Berry, in the first Lions Test earlier this season.

Let’s be honest.

Even Australians have had a whinge about Nic Berry’s refereeing.

You might recall the former Queensland player refereed the Super Rugby final where the Reds controversially beat the Brumbies in extra time.

The witch hunt of Erasmus is a classic response from Bill Beaumont and the old farts who run our game.

The home Unions control World Rugby and they are determined to get their pound of flesh out of Erasmus because World Rugby don’t want any transparency around the performance of referees.

The coaches and players can get ripped apart for their performances, but the match officials and their decisions are not to be commented upon.

For a game with so many complex laws, that is stupid.

I’m not saying that coaches should have the right to attack referees personally, but surely they have the right to comment on referees’ decisions.

Erasmus has no say in who handles this disciplinary hearing.

The message to the world will be, “We run the game and we can run you out of the game if you don’t play the game”.

But the case against Erasmus could blow up in World Rugby’s face; he has some clever legal minds who are prepared to take on the establishment and I, for one, wish him well.

I like the idea of one strong leader, standing up for what he is passionate about and taking on the establishment.

After all, the grassroots of the game continue to believe that, at the world level, we are ruled by self-interest, if not by fools.

Remember, not to long ago, World Rugby were happy to have Francis Kean, who was convicted of manslaughter in 20177, sitting among them as a Council member – the very Council chaired by World Rugby President, Bill Beaumont.

However, due to the incompetence and heavy handedness of World Rugby, and the home Unions, its little wonder that groups such as the World 12s are breaking away from the establishment.

The World 12s is a brilliant concept.

More of that and the folly of World Rugby later; but I can’t wait for the Wallabies to play Japan next weekend so we can focus on the rugby and not the old farts still running the game from Britain.