Michael Cheika may or may not go as Australia coach any time soon, but it will take a cultural revolution to bridge the yawning chasm between the Wallabies and the All Blacks.
The All Blacks’ 40-12 win against the Wallabies in the second Bledisloe Cup Test at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday night kept the second most coveted piece of silverware (behind the World Cup) in New Zealand for the 16th consecutive year.
Record-breaker Beauden Barrett scores four as All Blacks thump Wallabies again
It is a national disgrace. Can you imagine the reaction across the Tasman if the Wallabies had held onto the cup for that long? The New Zealand government would be overthrown, there would be riots in the streets and the economy would collapse.
What is the secret to the All Blacks’ success against the Wallabies for the last 16 years? Strangely, the answer may well be found in another sport, basketball.
Former All Blacks coach John Mitchell was a talented basketball player, representing New Zealand against Australia in under-21 competition and matching up with Andrew Gaze.
As a basketballer Mitchell understood the importance of transition, when the ball changes hands from one team to the other, which has become the foundation of the modern All Blacks’ style of play.
Mitchell placed a strong emphasis on counter-attacking from turnover ball and kick receipt as All Blacks coach between 2001 and 2003, while his coaching co-ordinator Robbie Deans was about to turn counter-attack into an art form at the Crusaders in Super Rugby.
That is not to say there were not great counter-attacking New Zealand teams and players previously, but the idea became more formalised as a strategy around this period.
When the All Blacks’ coaching triumvirate of Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith replaced the Mitchell-Deans duumvirate in 2004 they worked on improving the team’s set-pieces, but they retained counter-attack.
The concept of counter-attack has now infused every team in New Zealand from the National Provincial Championship to the All Blacks.
At first, Australians were contemptuous of the Kiwis’ focus on counter-attack. They did not create anything, and were seen as parasites, feeding off mistakes. They are slow learners, the current generation of Australian coaches, and are finally acknowledging the value of attacking off turnover ball.
But for the Kiwis it is instinctive, second nature, while Australians do not really feel it in their bones. When the All Blacks win a turnover they strike immediately, shifting the ball away from the contact point, while the Wallabies invariably hesitate, trying to decide whether to kick or run.
The Greek word for knowledge is gnosis, but there is another word, epignosis, which denotes “a greater participation by the knower in the object known”. It is more powerful than knowledge alone.
This is the fundamental difference between Australia and New Zealand in relation to counter-attack. The Wallabies can try and learn it, but they do not have an instinctive knowledge of it like the All Blacks do.
You could see this clearly in the Wallabies’ 38-13 loss to the All Blacks in Sydney a week ago and again in their defeat in Auckland on Saturday night. The Wallabies improved their set-pieces in Auckland, but they did not learn how to defend against attack from turnover ball.
The All Blacks scored the majority of their 12 tries in the two Tests from turnover ball, many of which originated in their own half. The Wallabies, on the contrary, missed 41 tackles in Sydney and 42 in Auckland.
There are a lot more things wrong with the Wallabies than just counter-attack, such as selection and tactics, but this is a clear delineation between Australian and New Zealand rugby.
The Wallabies will not be competitive against the All Blacks until every team in Australia from club rugby to the national side is imbued with the concept of counter-attack – in attack and defence – so that when players are selected for national duty they instinctively understand what they are trying to do.
If they cannot achieve that, the Wallabies will need to find a way to suffocate the All Blacks, which is easier said than done, but possible.
They did it when Eddie Jones’ Wallabies upset the All Blacks in the semi-final of the 2003 World Cup in Sydney, playing a highly-disciplined game which minimised handling errors and avoided kicking to the All Blacks’ lethal back three.
Maybe Cheika should find a copy of that 2003 game-plan before the Wallabies play the All Blacks again in yet another dead rubber in Brisbane in October.
That is assuming Cheika is still coaching the Wallabies. There have been calls for Cheika, who now has a 50% winning record, to be sacked, but Rugby Australia appears to be waiting to see how Australia fares against South Africa and Argentina before making a decision.
Whether Cheika remains as coach or not, Australian rugby must master the art of counter-attack or the Bledisloe Cup will become an ancient relic before the Wallabies ever hold it again.