MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 15: Nic White of the Wallabies talks to referee Mathieu Raynal during The Rugby Championship & Bledisloe Cup match between the Australia Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks at Marvel Stadium on September 15, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 15: Nic White of the Wallabies talks to referee Mathieu Raynal during The Rugby Championship & Bledisloe Cup match between the Australia Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks at Marvel Stadium on September 15, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
OPINION:
Newstalk ZB rugby commentator Elliott Smith analyses the latest from the world of rugby.
An observation....
A combined Australia/New Zealand team to play the British and Irish Lions in 2025 - reported as being discussed by NZ Rugby and Rugby Australia - would be a gimmick.
A pretty fungimmick, admittedly, but a gimmick nonetheless.
The Lions are bound by their natural geographical ties and were initially under one sovereign state until 100 years ago. Australia and New Zealand don’t share that same level of history – we don’t have a major geo-political commonality outside of war that ties us together, so any combined team would be little more than a cash-making exercise.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that necessarily - it’s a Lions tour, so make hay while the sun shines.
A question...
Was there any point during the two Bledisloe Cup matches this year where you wished those two sides could be formed into one team?
There’s three years until the proposed team would come to fruition so a fair bit could change, but on current depth in the Wallabies squad there’s not many that would make a combined 2022 side.
Michael Hooper up front, maybe a spot for Taniela Tupou late in the game, and Andrew Kellaway always has good games against the All Blacks, but there wouldn’t be many more. And that’s up against an underperforming crop of All Blacks this year too.
TOKYO, JAPAN - OCTOBER 29: New Zealand players huddle during the international test match between Japan and New Zealand All Blacks at National Stadium on October 29, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Koki Nagahama/Getty Images)
An explanation...
I’ve got a soft spot for Michael Cheika and the way he coached Australia and now Argentina. Not everything he did was perfect, but he did the job with a heck of a lot of passion - case in point was the win over the All Blacks in Christchurch earlier this year.
I’m fascinated to see how his double act goes this weekend as Lebanese rugby league coach in the World Cup against the Kangaroos, before facing England with Argentina 48 hours later at Twickenham.
Coaching two different teams, nations at that, in two different sports over one weekend has surely not been done before. It’s hard to see Cheika enjoying success in either game given the Kangaroos go in as unbackable favourites and England should dispatch Los Pumas, but to even attempt to do both jobs at once is a pretty impressive feat.
Argentina's coach Michael Cheika watches his players warm up ahead of the Rugby Championship test match between the All Blacks and Argentina in Hamilton, New Zealand, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (Jeremy Ward/Photosport via AP)
A suggestion...
The close loss last week to the All Blacks served as another reminder Japan have yet to be included in the Rugby Championship. The ideal scenario would be to expand to a southern Six Nations, adding in the top Pacific Nations qualifier each year.
Japan have the record to warrant inclusion.
A prediction...
This weekend’s test in Cardiff may not be full to the brim. The uniquely home union way of selling tickets via rugby clubs, combined with the cost-of-living crisis and also a national rail strike on gameday, is expected to leave some seats empty at the Principality Stadium, which would be a shame.
