Laurie, we love you … but you’re not the man to coach the Blues

I’ll say it again:

Origin III was a game of three halves.

First half, second half, and Tom Dearden, the Queensland half – who just about single-handedly tore the Blues apart, setting up one try, scoring two, being involved in another and bringing off at least three try-saving tackles.

Beyond Dearden’s brilliance, however, there was another key factor. That was the sheer ineptitude of the NSW performance, so bad that my friend and yours Andrew Denton nominates it for this year’s Hall of Lame entry.

“NSW,” he texted me, “were all firepower, no fire. I’m still shaking my head about how poor the Blues were last night. They had, as Joey Johns pointed out, no Plan B, and an entirely defendable Plan A of shovelling the ball sideways, hoping to create space. We know it was entirely defendable because it was exactly the same plan that failed in the 2023 series. There was no guile, and zero surprise, about our attack. Just a hope that someone like Latrell [Mitchell] may pull something off.”

The explanation for how a team that boasted such firepower, and brain power, could play so appallingly? I simply have no clue. But, much as I hate to say it, the starting point for accountability surely has to start with the coach, Laurie Daley. As a footballer, they just about never came better.

As a bloke, none better, and he is not only hugely liked by the league community, but well beyond. But as a coach? Can’t we just say the truth of it? All evidence points to the fact that it is just not his go. That performance was so bad, sooooooo bad, I’ll tell a man it was, that if his cards are not already marked, they should be. When the time does come, can’t we also just state who the obvious replacement is?

Andrew Johns. The bloke bleeds Blue, has a football brain the size of Uluru, and just like Billy Slater could get the job done while keeping to his media commitments. It’s time, Andrew. Put your hand up. And make Laurie team manager or somesuch. But get on with it!

Wilson walks the walk ...

You’re right, that opening Wallaby Test of the season against Fiji really was a cross between a thriller and a horror show. After Australia led 14-0, Fiji simply exploded in the second half, playing such fabulously expansive and skilled rugby that they led 18-14 with 30 seconds to go. The day was saved by the 25-year-old Wallaby skipper Harry Wilson, who hit the try-line with great force before twisting his body in such a manner that he was able to reach back over his head and score one for the goodies, just when his team most needed it.

Harry Wilson breathes a sigh of relief after the Wallabies’ last-gasp win over Fiji.Credit: Getty Images

Who is that guy?

Exactly. The past three Wallaby skippers against the Lions – James Horwill, John Eales and Nick Farr-Jones – were 28, 31 and 27 respectively, and established captains. Wilson was one of five co-captains last year, but is now obviously the man most likely to be formally named next week to lead them in this series. With a view to helping us fans get to know him better, I interviewed him on Thursday for publication in the Sun-Herald on Sunday, and you can read it there. But here’s a quick burst I kept aside, on what it was like to be picked to play for the Wallabies at the age of just 20.

Harry Wilson: “Yeah, it was. It was amazing for me. Since I was a little boy, I’ve just loved watching the Wallabies play, and I just always wanted to be one. And I still remember over in Wellington, finding out I was going to become a Wallaby was one of the most special days of my life. And it was just everything I’d ever dreamt of.

“I remember facing the haka, looking at this massive team, with this amazing aura, it was just wonderful. And I remember just wanting to charge at everything and everyone, and just the physicality, the fast pace of Test rugby was just the best. After watching it for so many years on TV, to finally get out there and live it, was the best ever.”

And yet, despite his success, being regularly selected for the next four years, Eddie Jones left him out of the 2023 World Cup squad.

Fitz: Harry, it is time to let out the pain. How much did that hurt?

HW: Oh, it hurt. Yeah, it hurt so much. I guess the only people who truly know how much it hurt me was my close, close family. I’d worked so very, very hard for four years to be a part of a World Cup – which is such a pinnacle event – and to miss out was heartbreaking, but I guess it taught me a few lessons about resilience and how you can either sit there and sob, or just try and get better.

Fitz: Did Eddie Jones call you and explain why you were left out? Or was he busy shifting his furniture to Tokyo?

HW: “I had a missed call, I reckon about 10 o’clock that night, and tried to call him back a few times, but no luck and I have never spoken to him again.”

Good luck to him. His form this year, and his selection as captain, really does show up how completely mad Eddie’s selections were in 2023, and what a great job Joe Schmidt has done since. I don’t say the Wallabies will win the first Test next Saturday in Brissie, but Wilson has the look about him of one who is going to be in the role for years to come, a good man for the rugby community to get behind.

… and tonks the tonk

And something else that interested me about Wilson, while I think of it, which ideally gives some insight into his psychological make-up. See, he was also a great cricketer while at St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace, puting together any number of tidy innings by playing with a straight bat, and resisting hook shots and the like. Until . . .

“Until I was in Year 12, I used to try and bat like a batsman, before I realised I was going to go down the rugby route. So then I stopped caring much about trying to please people, and just went and tried to smack it.”

One day in his final year, for the First XI, he scored a century from 35 balls.

“I then I realised I probably should have been doing that for a few years earlier.”

Thank goodness he didn’t. Cricket’s loss was rugby’s gain.

Corporate carry-on does game a grave disservice

What’s a Lions tour without at least a little bit of nark? You’ve come to the right place.

By and large, TFF is reliably informed by my media colleagues, the Lions players come across as an affable bunch, without too many tickets on themselves.

It was, nevertheless, ordinary that last weekend – despite all being invited – not a single one of them made the trek to Maitland to lay a wreath on the grave of Robert Seddon, the captain of the first British touring side in 1888 who tragically drowned in a boating accident on the Hunter River during the tour.

Most went to the beach, or the Roosters-Tigers NRL match at Allianz Stadium instead. Get it?

The grave – in the corner of a foreign field, That is forever England ... In that rich earth a richer dust concealed –has been, wonderfully, tended to by the Maitland Rugby Club for the last 140 years. But when the Lions themselves are on our shores once more, they are no-shows, apart from manager Ieuan Evans and a few other officials? They did, however, find time to promote a commemorative 1888 whisky on their socials. I repeat: Ordinary!

It goes on. After training at the Hale School in Perth in their first week in Australia, no time was made to meet the students apart from a very brief audience with the 1st XV. On Thursday, in Adelaide, when the school captain of St Peter’s College tried to ask a question after the team announcement, he was shut down by the Lions’ media manager.

Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh (left) and Lions manager Ieuan Evans (front row, third from right) attended a service at Maitlaind to pay tribute to first captain Robert Seddon. However, Lions players were nowhere to be seen.Credit: Getty Images

(Compare and contrast with the Wallabies, who spent hours with the public, particularly kids, signing autographs in the lead-up to last week’s Test against Fiji in Newcastle.)

Meantime, all Australian journos have been booted from a Whatsapp group of travelling scribes by order of Lions management. And so far, there hasn’t been a single fan event organised – at least not a visible one – for their tens of thousands of fans who have spent insane amounts of money to support their team. The attitude appears to be: everyone needs us more than we need them.

Friends? This is corporate carry-on, not rugby as we know it, not rugby as it should be.

Lift your game, you Lions.

Pole the other one

Meantime, TFF is thrilled to be attending Wimbledon on Saturday and Sunday for the men’s and women’s single finals. I was there for the 2012 Olympics, and can’t wait to get back. I’ll be doing a couple of match reports from centre court – thank you, thank you all! – but one quote that caught my attention in the lead-up was from Polish player Iga Swiatek, who will be playing the American, Amanda Anisimova, in the women’s final. At her press conference on Wednesday Swiatek said, and I am not making this up, “I have my favourite dish, I ate it as a kid. It’s pasta with strawberries.”

Iga Swiatek of Poland celebrates after winning her match against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.Credit: AP

I know! But she’s dinkum.

The Polish dish is called Makaron z truskawkami. Mostly served during the summer strawberry season in Poland, kids love it so much it is a staple in school cafeterias. It’s normal pasta, but the sauce is made from fresh strawberries mashed or blended with cream, sour cream, or yoghurt, and you can serve it warm or cold, sweetened with sugar or honey if you must. Can someone make it, and report back?

So now you know. At Wimbledon – did I mention I am going? – I intend to cover the big stories!

What They Said

Phil Gould on NSW: “They got ‘out-Origined’. They really did.” Origin as a verb? That’ll do me – but he’s still right.

Andrew Johns: “There is no Plan B with NSW. And when you are out on the field at this level, there has to be a Plan B and even a Plan C. We were too structured in stages, especially going to our left, we just had no Plan B.” It wasn’t clear to me what Plan A was. But, sooner or later – and I would say sooner – it is time to give Andrew Johns himself the job of coaching the side.

Cameron Munster on Billy Slater telling him to go back to Rockhampton to be with his family, on the death of his father: “I’m so grateful that he made me go home. I’ll be sitting there when I’m 80 years of age remembering 2025.”

Blues coach Laurie Daley after Wile E. Coyote realised the Road Runner had eluded him yet again: “We got off to a bad start again and in Origin, you give away those type of starts it’s always hard to come back from. But again proud very proud of the way the boys fought.” In the first half, there appeared to be very little fight at all? They had nothing remotely approaching the level of Origin III last year.

Billy Slater and Cameron Munster after Wednesday night’s win.Credit: Getty Images

Matt Giteau on Twitter about David Campese: “I respect Campo as a player and a person but he needs to stop coming out making these silly comments. Doing nothing for his reputation and respect in our game. The more he talks about the game the way he does, the less ppl will remember him for the genius he was.“ Correct, in every particular, and his remaining mates need to tell him so.

Ricky Stuart unhappy about media focus on Dragons coach Shane Flanagan, and his son Kyle: “I think it is a disgrace how you guys in the media are just absolutely bashing the kid publicly. And that question there about the booing, like honestly, I have got a son playing and that’s my biggest fear, you people. Not him, but the media.”

Cruz Hewitt, 16, after winning his first round boy’s singles match at Wimbledon, on having Lleyton Hewitt for a dad: “There is nothing you can do about [who your dad is]. It’s a little tough, but there are pros and cons, and you’ve just got to focus on the positives that come with it, so that’s what I try and do.”

AFL player Matt Rowell when asked if he was going to do anything different to prevent umpire contact: “I’m just going to keep doing me.”

When he breaks the all-time NRL try scoring record, South Sydney’s Alex Johnston wants the fans to emulate how they celebrated Buddy’s 1000th goal: “For me, it would be pretty awesome. Imagine people running on and people lifting me up. “I’ve seen the Buddy Franklin celebrations and apparently it took ages to get the game back on. I know it would be a crazy one for the NRL, but it would be pretty cool for me.” Mmmmmm.

Taniela Tupou on whether Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt will give him a chance: “I hope so. I know what Taniela can do, the challenge is can I get out there and do it for Australia.”

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon hopes his side’s present struggles will translate to success down the track: “There’s a bigger picture and there’s a bigger aim. You’ve got to keep working to it. If you get stuck … it’s like the recession we had to have, like Paul Keating said.”

French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus has been cleared of a doping allegation because judges accepted she was contaminated by kissing her American partner over a period of nine days. The Court of Arbitration for Sport: “It is scientifically established that the intake of an ostarine dose similar to the dose ingested by Ms Thibus’s then partner would have left sufficient amounts of ostarine in the saliva to contaminate a person through kissing.”

Team of the Week

Queensland. Adrian Proszenko beat me to it: “Queensland. Beautiful one day, perfect the next.” NSW, by contrast, were ordinary in Origin II and simply dreadful in Origin III.

Oscar Piastri. Shows how far he’s come when second at the British Grand Prix is disappointing.

Mitchell Starc. Playing his 100th Test match this weekend! Not quite an ornament to the game – more a monument.

West Coast Fever. Crowned Super Netball minor premiers as the playoffs loom.

Anzac XV. Playing the Lions in Adelaide tonight.