Fears that rugby union is in decline in Australia have gathered pace in this World Cup year amid wretched Super 14 performances, an indecisive rugby administration and public agitation over a lack of running rugby.
Generally there is a heightened anticipation as teams prepare for the World Cup. Not so in Australia, where there is a forboding of an early Wallaby Cup exit in France in September-October.
Australia have twice lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy, in 1991 and 1999, more than any other rugby nation, and lost in extra time to England in the last World Cup final in Sydney four years ago.
PHOTO: AP
But the signs of a competitive Wallaby team are not apparent six months out from France with the national team winning just six of the last 20 internationals they have played overseas.
John Connolly, who replaced Eddie Jones as coach after eight defeats in nine internationals in 2005, has his critics over his strait-jacket game plan and the Wallabies have won seven of the 13 matches in his charge.
Blame game
Wallaby winger Wendell Sailor, currently serving a drugs ban, blames Connolly's "old school" tactics of grinding the opposition into submission as leaving star winger Lote Tuqiri and his fellow outside-backs on the outer.
"Blokes like Drew Mitchell, Clyde Rathbone and Lote Tuqiri are suffering," Sailor said recently. "They're not getting the opportunities they have had over the last few years."
Rugby Union is under attack at home with dominant football codes Australian Rules and rugby league garnering larger crowds and media interest, while football has been resurgent since last year's World Cup in Germany.
If rugby administrators were hoping for a turnaround in fortunes this year they have been disappointed with only the newest rugby franchise Western Force making an impression in the Super 14 provincial series, while the more established ACT Brumbies, New South Wales Waratahs and Queensland Reds have languished.
Not one Australian side has earned a four-try bonus point approaching halfway in the tournament, which has unleashed a torrent of discontent from the media and frustrated fans.
Barry Want, who was a Wallabies Test selector during the successful 1991 World Cup campaign, is one of many who is frustrated with what he is seeing in Super 14 matches.
`Not entertainment'
"Watching unlimited collapsing scrums, rucks, mauls and tiny little contests all over the paddock without sighting of the ball, plus referees trying to prove to their superiors that they know the laws back and front so they stand a chance of getting a gig at the World Cup is not entertainment," he wrote to a newspaper.
A leading rugby writer opined recently: "Another week of Super 14 has passed and yet again the word popping up in rugby conversations is `crisis.' And it seems to apply across the entire spectrum of the game in Australia."
"Australia's four teams are not only struggling on the scoreboard but are conceding valuable points in the battle to keep an increasingly cynical rugby fraternity from switching off altogether," he added.
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