The Wallabies discard who turned ‘boring’ Brumbies into rugby’s entertainers

In time, the legacy of Eddie Jones’ return to Australian rugby in 2023 will be studied by head-scratching historians. Some people fell, some people rose, some people joined rugby league.

As a club, the Brumbies are hoping the impact of Jones will go down as a factor in the club returning to the same title-winning heights they scaled when, er, Jones was coaching in Canberra.

Or more specifically, the impact of Jones on fullback Tom Wright, who will be an instrumental figure for the Brumbies when they meet the Blues in the Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals in Auckland.

Put simply, Wright is in the form of his life. The 26-year-old custodian is sitting in the top five of every attacking statistic kept by the competition, and has been a major factor in the Brumbies putting their best season together in 24 seasons.

The Brumbies only lost two games of 14; their fewest in a season since 2000, when the Jones-coached side went 9-2 and lost in the grand final, and one better than the 8-3 record when they won in 2001.

Too few bonus points denied them a top two finish, and has set them up with a brutal semi-final assignment on the road against the Blues. The Brumbies have fallen short in the semis six times in the last 10 years, but a considerable style shift this season has them heading to Eden Park with an all-round, almost Kiwi-esque game that could finally break the drought.

Tom Wright on the attack for the Wallabies.Credit: Getty

“We have the ability to do more than we did a few years ago,” Wright said. “We have changed the way we look how we want to use the ball. Not to say its better or worse I guess, but we just have the ability and confidence to do things in different parts of the field. In 2020, we were a very structured team and that worked well for us in 2020. But the game evolves - and so we did we.”

For much of the past decade, the Brumbies’ success was based on set-piece strength, defence and the rolling maul as a weapon of choice. The maul was so prolific, hooker Folau Faingaa was the Brumbies’ top try-scorer in 2019 and 2020, and he sits fourth on the club’s all-time try-scorers list.

It was also criticised as boring and one-dimensional, and teams who shut it down, shut the Brumbies down.

The Brumbies began moving away from the lineout as a primary attack platform last year, and have only scored four maul tries all year in 2024. Instead, the ACT side has embraced unstructured attack, scoring a third of all their points from turnovers, kick returns and taps. The Brumbies have scored the most tries in the whole comp from their own half (18), and the most from inside their own 22 (5)

“We can play a fair few ways and that just adds another tool to our attacking kit,” five-eighth Noah Lolesio said. “In previous years we were probably forbidden to run out of our 22, but now when we see an opportunity, Bernie (Larkham) and ‘Seiby’ (attack coach Rod Seib), have been pushing us to back ourselves. Especially with Wrighty, if he sees something he is going to go for it.”

In a majority of those long-range tries, Wright was either scoring them or sparking them, and it’s here where the Jones impact comes in. When dropped cold by Jones last year for making costly mistakes for the Wallabies, Wright could have easily responded by auditing his game, and dialling down his trademark high-risk, high-reward mentality.

But Wright decided to respond to Jones’ dumping by doubling-down instead. He wouldn’t stop playing with audacity, he would just get better at it.

“I probably didn’t want to change a whole lot, other than just to make sure the 50-50s are turned into 70-30s,” Wright said. “That sort of mindset, of just trying to minimise the impact I have had on the team previously, in those little negatives, with turnovers or errors and stuff.

“I just make sure I minimise those. I certainly don’t go out there and think too much about it, but the way I review and preview, I am just more mindful. As you get older as a player you understand your strengths and weaknesses a bit more, and you are aware of them when you’re out there. Then you just play your game.”

Wright and Corey Toole, along fellow Jones’ discard Len Ikitau, have given the Brumbies the sort of attacking firepower not seen in years. And up against a Blues team that scored a competition-high 72 tries, and dusted the Aussie side 46-7 in April, the Brumbies will need to throw punches.

“We understand the threat they pose, we got towelled up there – that’s the elephant in the room – so for us, we have a gameplan on the things we need to focus on and get right. But we also have to be confident,” Wright said. “It’s the old saying, we didn’t come this far just to come this far.”

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