It’s not quite a cast of thousands, but a huge Australian contingent will be heading to the northern hemisphere over the next two months for six matches – and the intended impact extends well beyond Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies win-loss record.
Rugby Australia’s chief of high performance, Peter Horne has overseen a wide-ranging HP workshop in Brisbane over the past few days, running concurrently with a Wallaby player camp.
Early next week, Schmidt will name two touring parties – a Wallabies squad for their grand slam tour of matches against England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and a slightly smaller outfit – the Australia XV – to play matches against Bristol Bears and England A.
“What we’re trying to do is expose 64 players over that window to high-level competition,” Horne told reporters on Friday.
“We need to get ready for next year. It’s a big year, 15 Tests, with the British and Irish Lions, TRC, November window, so it’s a huge load.
“The more players that we can get collectively together, playing at a higher level of footy against good opposition, not only gives Joe and the coaching team a lot but also inadvertently helps us prepare players to go to Super Rugby and be in a better position.
Joe Schmidt. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
“It’s a great opportunity to improve our staffing structures, an opportunity for our emerging coaches, coaches from Super Rugby, bringing in together physiotherapists from different clubs.
“We’ve now got a workforce that’s aligned, working the Wallabies philosophy, and the head coach from Australia XV [ Rod Seib] is aligned to the Wallabies.
“We’ve moved the old A-team program out of pathways centrally, and it’s now part of the Wallabies department. So now we’ve got full integration between our A-program or Australia XV, the new moniker, and our Wallabies program.”
Horne said the workshop brought together all the streams of Australian rugby as they attempt to find alignment for common goals in Australian elite rugby.
Rugby Australia’s Director of High-Performance Peter Horne (Photo by Rugby Australia)
Clubs have been sharing information at camps in Canberra and Brisbane and as well as trying to turn around the Wallabies fortunes. The remit is also looking at Super Rugby performance.
“We’re trying to connect with our Super Rugby clubs and build out the capability and development of all our staff across the system and keep the system connections,” said Horne.
“How do we continue to grow, how do we connect in between national and state level, and how do we actually move, not only getting the Wallabies going forward, but hopefully start winning some Super Rugby titles into the future?”
He said there have been some “green shoots” in recent seasons.
“I think it was 2017 we didn’t win a game against the Kiwis and this year we won 10,” Horne said.
“How do we actually compete against New Zealand [is] the benchmark and then the more that we can continue to improve and build off the back of that it’s, important that we can continue to grow the competitiveness of our franchises and that connection between Super clubs and national teams.
“If we’ve got Super clubs that are in the top six, top eight on a consistent basis and continue to push for finals it helps us at Wallabies level.”
Australia will head into Super Rugby with one fewer team next season following the demise of the Rebels. In theory, this should concentrate talent and raise the level of the remaining sides.
Another consequence, according to Horne, will be to jettison some foreign players from the Super Rugby system and make it more Australian.
“Having four clubs, we’ve had traditionally 27 foreigners within our system,” said Horne.
“We want to invest in Australians, effectively. Potentially there’ll always be a need to have foreign talents to pick up where we have some gaps but the idea is over time, those franchises become more and more Australian-eligible.
“It gives us an ability to project forward. I think that we can see some nice progression between our pathway programs from our 18s and 19s, 20s progressing into the back of Super squads.
“Over time, we’ll see sort of the demographic change. We’ll lose a few of the older players and they may choose to go to Europe or choose a different direction.
“But I think what we’ve got now is a pretty robust pathway connected to Super. And those available spots will start to be filled by not foreigners, but Aussies.”
Rugby Australia’s Director of High-Performance Peter Horne (Photo by Rugby Australia)
Horne also discussed thoughts around a tier of rugby between Super and club level, and ways to extend the season for players and supporters.
He praised the Super clubs for their work in organising overseas tours and competitions but acknowledged a theme of the workshops that came through from general managers was “how do we get more footy in the year?”
“What we want to do is be able to fill the void with a meaningful competition that provides opportunity for those players that don’t get enough minutes out of Super Rugby but also those that are connecting from our academy and Shute Shield, Hospital Cup, and domestic club land to get a step up and play a better comp,” said Horne.
Asked about issues around player retention in the face of a hostile rival in rugby league, Horne was relaxed.
“It’s an interesting one, isn’t it? A lot of people are talking about, ‘is he a league kid or is he a rugby kid?’
“We want to invest in those players that are committed to rugby and give them an opportunity. We [believe] if we’ve got good quality programs that are connected to a potential career in a professional environment that, and then the ones that we want to keep, we do.
“Our value proposition is around quality of program, opportunity of international touring. We tour at under 18 level, we’ve got competition Super Rugby under 16s, under 19s. The whole package that’s available to a player to choose rugby is quite good.
“And we’re active in terms of securing and retaining those players. We’ve made a big push and around now pivoting into under 14s and having a connection at U14s and 15s
“Those players are in our system from 14 through to just over 20. We’ve been able to retain a significant proportion of those.
“There’s always players that leave. And yes, there are players that will go to the opposite code, but there’s also those that are in the opposite code that want to come to us.
“I don’t see that as an issue. There’s always been movement. The key thing is for us to continue to develop and provide high-quality programs at the state delivery level so that those kids know that they’ve got an opportunity to go into Super and hopefully on to higher honours.”