Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh enters debate regarding Wallabies’ captaincy delay
While the Lions bounded out of the blocks to announce their captain, Wallabies supporters have been kept in the dark about the man to lead their side. And the Rugby Australia CEO has commented on the situation.
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Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh has defended Joe Schmidt’s indecision in letting the Australian public know the identity of the Wallabies captain for the British & Irish Lions series.
While the Lions bounded out of the blocks and announced Maro Itoje as their tour captain way back in May, Wallabies supporters have been kept in the dark about who will lead the Wallabies, even though everything points to Harry Wilson getting the job.
That won’t be made official until Thursday – two days before this weekend’s first Test of the biggest rugby series in over a decade.
Renowned for giving little away, the former New Zealand schoolteacher’s hesitancy in identifying the Wallabies skipper has only added to the intrigue around the appointment and led to some wild conspiracy theories.
Pressed about the delay, Schmidt said his fence-sitting was the result of injuries within the team because he didn’t want to pick a leader who may not play.
That makes perfect sense but the ongoing delay has left rugby supporters’ wondering what’s going on because it’s highly unusual for a Test team to hold out this long.
A former Test captain himself, Waugh said there was nothing untoward about the hold-up and he was fine with Schmidt dragging the chain.
“We’re early in that journey,” Waugh said.
“I think Joe had 19 debutants last year, a number of different captains, and I guess he was, in a lot of ways, stabilising that environment and identifying who he wanted to lead it.”
Schmidt only took over as head coach of the Wallabies last year.
He chose Wilson as his skipper and reappointed him to lead the Wallabies in their warm-up match against Fiji two weeks ago, but threw a spanner in the works when he said the Queensland backrower was not guaranteed to stay on as captain for the Lions.
Waugh said the decision of the captaincy was up to Schmidt to decide.
“Clearly Harry stood up at the end there and he’s got a very strong core group of leaders,” Waugh said.
“I think you want to have consistency of leadership as we go forward, but I think that’s where we are in the cycle.
“Joe’s very early in that path to take ideally a leader more consistently through when you have your iconic figures that are successful like a John Eales, George Gregan where you have consistency of the leadership at a captaincy level.
“But that’s one for Joe and his management to work through.”
While stopping short of sending up white smoke from the chimney tops like the announcement of a new pope, Australians have typically regarded the appointment of a national sporting captain as a badge of honour.
And for those that ascend to the captaincy, it’s a lifetime achievement, but Schmidt has been unusually relaxed about the role.
Before the Wallabies’ clash with Fiji, he described the captaincy as a ‘label’ explaining that there were lots of natural leaders on the field.
Many others might beg to differ.
The Wallabies 74th skipper, Waugh captained his country three times and said it remains one of his proudest achievements.
“I always talk about putting on a jersey, it’s a responsibility to perform and clearly when you’re captain you take on additional responsibility because you’re ultimately leading that environment,” he said.
“You’ve got to lead that environment to win, so I thought it was a huge honour.
“It’s probably the largest and biggest responsibility you can have as a player in Australian rugby.
“So it’s a massive honour, it is a big deal and I think that everyone recognises it.”
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