David Campese: Joe Schmidt must follow lead of Springboks ‘coaching genius’ Rassie Erasmus as ‘banana skin’ awaits Wallabies
David Campese urges Joe Schmidt to get the Wallabies playing the 'Aussie Way'.
Wallabies legend David Campese believes that Joe Schmidt should follow Rassie Erasmus’ lead and get his team playing the ‘Aussie Way’.
As a beleaguered Australia travel to face Los Pumas in Buenos Aries on Saturday, the great winger believes that the national side has lost a little of the national identity that’s characterised Wallaby Rugby for so long.
Understanding Your DNA
“Love or hate Rassie Erasmus, the guy is a coaching genius. I well recall former Aussie fast bowler Rodney Hogg commenting on England cricket captain Mike Brearley and saying ‘That bloke has a degree in people!’ Erasmus is similar- he has an ability to reach deep into the soul of players and supporters and to hit their emotional sweet spots like few others can,” Campese exclusively told Planet Rugby.
“Erasmus understands how rugby unites the Republic. Crucially, he also recognises and weaponises the key qualities of Bok rugby – power, dominant set-pieces, intelligence and, above all, relentless passion for each other, the badge and the team.
“From the moment he took over an underperforming Springbok team in 2018 he has transformed them into one of the sharpest and complete teams around. The improvement was built upon the basics – set-piece and gain-line physicality – but as the game has evolved, so has his thinking and so has the ambition and intellect of his team.
“At the core of his planning is his players understanding the traditions and heritage of Springbok rugby; recognising what went before, the greatness of their history and taking that essence into the modern arena,” he observed.
“And it’s not just Erasmus who does this; Warren Gatland, and Ian McGeechan before him, consistently uses the same approach to energise the British and Irish Lions, using history to blend together the styles of four unions. On Saturday, the Wallabies will come up against Los Pumas, a side who feast on their traditional physicality and kicking game inspired and captured by Felipe Contempomi, and who, right now, know their game better than many others around, another example of knowing your own rugby identity.”
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Wallaby Way
“When you look back on the 80’s and 90’s, the Wallabies enjoyed some 20 or so years of excellence and I’m proud to say I was very much part of that. From the Grand Slam tour of 1984 up until we became the first side to win two Rugby World Cups in 1999 there was consistency and identity in the way Australia played,” noted Campese.
“Alan Jones and Bob Dwyer knew what differentiated Aussie rugby; clever handling, a peerless aerial game, innovation in attack and a willingness to fight to the death on the gain-line. They took the Randwick revolution and they honed it into a test-ready game, based upon playing international footie with the same heads-up intelligence we saw at Club and then State level. It was consistent, understandable and, most of all, everyone subscribed to the vision as we believed it was the Wallaby way.
“Do the players of today know the history of their national rugby in the same way that the Springboks do? I would argue not. There’s a wealth of achievement, talent and knowledge in the Aussie game that simply isn’t recognised by our modern game. There’s no understanding of taking the heritage and DNA of the way we played back then into the current test environment.
“From the brilliant running and ambition with handling that we saw in the 90s we are now faced with a side that plays one-out runners off nine to build continuity – classic Joe Schmidt tactics. But that’s not what the public expects or wants to see from an Aussie side. We are and were entertainers, skilled under pressure, players that had high ability with ball in hand and wanted to play the game at pace.
“Australia has huge competition for eyeballs for winter sports and the public wants to see a team that entertains, wins and plays with freedom that characterises our DNA. We need coaches that understand what differentiates us from the rest and I’m not sure Joe Schmidt really gets this.
“It’s an often overlooked nuance, but no overseas coach has ever won a World Cup. A lot of that is down to an inability to press the emotional buttons in a manner that only someone, like Rassie or Dwyer, that’s been brought up in the culture understands.”
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Banana Skin
“Australia’s visit to Argentina is a real banana skin. Los Pumas have a world-class back five in their pack that demonstrated in Wellington that they can go toe to toe with the big guns of world rugby, just as they did in the World Cup last year. The breakdown battle will be absolutely huge, and the difference in experience in the relative backlines is absolutely vast,” cautioned Campese.
“Joe Schmidt will argue this is part of the Wallaby journey, but should Australia lose, despite the challenge of playing away in South America, the wooden spoon of the 2024 Rugby Championship beckons, and that’s almost unheard of.
“My message is simple; get back to playing the Aussie Way – remember the heritage of the jersey you wear and the qualities of the players that won it before you. Rugby is a game of fine margins, but if you’re not invested in the pride and passion of the history of your own team you are doomed to fail and that’s precisely what’s happening right now.”
