Connolly: Stop bagging us/Burgs: Stop deserving it...
To be perfectly honest, I can't recall any serious comment on the state of the Welsh team all week?
To me they have arrived, behaved and promise to perform as all Welsh teams have.
They are certainly no slouches and an "upset" isn't out of the question (and then where does that leave you?).
The bagging hasn't really been about the state of the game in Australia.
Knuckles, the target has been you and your dodgy selection team, you seemed to have convieniently missed that point.
I am actually pretty up-beat about Rugby in Australia, Australia's chance's in the next four years to NZ '11 and even about France...IF you select our BEST players in their BEST positions and stop trying to reinvent the bloody WHEEL!!!
Connolly: Stop bagging us
Friday, May 25, 2007
Concerned coach John Connolly has pleaded for an end to the Wallabies bashing and says negativity surrounding rugby in Australia is hurting the code.
Connolly aired his grievances on the eve of Australia's opening Test of the year against Wales tomorrow night, a fixture that is expected to draw just 40,000 fans to Telstra Stadium.
Officials are bracing themselves for Sydney's Olympic Stadium to be at "about half capacity" after a fortnight of flak following Wales' decision to leave several frontline players at home.
The Welsh camp has been angered at the poisonous publicity, arguing their squad includes six British Lions and pointing out that the visitors' starting team will boast a total of 445 Test caps tomorrow compared to Australia's 418.
Connolly urged Australians to start supporting the game, and the Wallabies in general as the countdown continued to the World Cup in September-October.
"We know this Welsh team is okay and the negative stuff just kills the game," he said.
"You don't see it in any other code, where people come out and continually criticise the game.
"The Welsh have played 450 Test caps. There's no doubt some of their key players are missing.
"But, in saying that, you're never going to have your top 15 on the field all the time.
"We haven't got Tuqiri out there. We haven't got Larkham out there now (either).
"But that doesn't change the way we contest.
"What this negativity does do is it hurts the game. It stops people coming to it and the lost revenue from that hurts development.
"Instead of saying 'hey this Welsh side is weak', people need to recognise that Australia have a good record at home in June, just as northern hemisphere sides have a good record up there in November.
"But the Welsh won't be easy. They've got a lot of experience in their side."
Connolly felt it was impossible to please the fanatics, who refuse to recognise that the Wallabies had played mostly exciting rugby last year.
"The Australian public definitely demand high standards and we understand that," he said.
"But last year we scored late 30s against England, late 30s against England again, 38 (points) or something against Ireland, 49 against the Springboks.
"So most games we've played we've score 30 or 40 points, so that makes it an entertaining game.
"What hit me was after the Australia-South Africa game last year (in Brisbane).
"We won 49-0. Australia may never do that again and it was probably one of the greatest ever wins and yet the criticism continues.
"It hurts the game considerably, the criticism."
The Wallabies are ranked third in the world behind just New Zealand and France and their only defeats in 13 Tests in 2006 came against the All Blacks, South Africa and Ireland in Dublin.
Two-time World Cup winner John Eales, who captained the triumphant 1999 team, backed the Wallabies to do everything in their power to once again live up to expectations again at the 2007 tournament in France.
"It's one of those things you can't control - the expectations of the public and what they expect," Eales said.
"And it's positive that they have very high expectations.
"But I could absolutely say that as high as the public's expectations are, the expectations of the team and the coaching staff will be higher."
AAP
