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'Ideally, you see our 5 Super Rugby teams consistently beating NZ teams'

Waratahs captain Phil Waugh leads the team song in their changeroom after winning the round five Super 14 match between the Waratahs and the Lions the at Sydney Football Stadium on March 12, 2010 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Phil Waugh is challenging Australia’s under-performing Super Rugby sides to finally stand up to their New Zealand rivals for the sake of the Wallabies and the ailing code in general.

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The All Blacks have enjoyed a mortgage-like hold on the Bledisloe Cup since 2003, way back when Waugh was still playing.

Now the champion flanker turned Rugby Australia chief executive is offering advice on how the Wallabies can break the embarrassing 21-year series-winning drought.

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And it’s not exactly rocket science: start beating the Kiwis at Super Rugby and that might help when it comes to Test time.

Last year, the benchmark ACT Brumbies, NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds, Melbourne Rebels and Western Force managed just six wins from a combined 30 matches against their trans-Tasman foes in Super Rugby.

Even that 20 per cent winning strike rate was an improvement on two decades of NZ beat-downs that includes a humiliating combined low of none-from-31 return against the Crusaders, Chiefs, Blues, Hurricanes and Highlanders in 2017.

When it comes to play-off matches in New Zealand, it’s even worse.

Phil Waugh
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh speaks to the media. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
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The Kiwis have won all but one of 15 trans-Tasman finals encounters since the competition began in 1996 and Australian victories on NZ soil have become alarmingly rare.

But in 2015, when the Brumbies and Waratahs both made the Super Rugby semi-finals, the Wallabies reached the World Cup final in England.

“There’s a strong correlation between having a successful Wallaby team and how we perform at Super Rugby level and it’s important for our Super Rugby team to set up the season for the Wallabies,” Waugh said ahead of the competition start on Friday.

“There’s been challenges around our competitiveness in Super Rugby, and we’ve seen that go through into the late stage of the tournament.

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“Ideally, you see our five Super Rugby teams consistently winning and beating New Zealand teams.”

Waugh was reticent to offer a “pass mark” for the Australian teams against Kiwi opposition in 2024.

“All I know is that every game that you go into, we want to have our Australian sides a genuine chance to win,” he said.

“I don’t want to be too optimistic but, from early signs in the trials, it appears that we’re prepared.

“It’s going to be how we perform in the games this weekend and, ideally, we get off to a fast start for all our Super Rugby teams.”

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Comments

3 Comments
S
Shaylen 308 days ago

Really unfortunate that Australian rugby is where it is right now scraping the bottom of the barrel hoping for a miracle

M
MattJH 309 days ago

CEO of Rugby Australia, Phil Waugh, is urging Australian sides not to suck this year.
“It might make the wallabies better” said Waugh in a statement so obvious it could have been made by any human whether they watch rugby or not.

P
Pecos 309 days ago

Blah blah blah.

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JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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