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Wayne Smith | October 20, 2009
Article from: The Australian
IF there is one thing worse than England feeling superior to Australia, it's England feeling sorry for Australia but with the Cook Cup Test at Twickenham less than three weeks away, the Wallabies are stirring pity, not panic.
Australia might be listed third on the IRB world rankings, with England four rungs below, but the mood of the British press is that the Wallabies are there for the taking on November 7.
"If England don't beat the Aussies by a significant margin when the two sides clash at Twickenham in three weeks' time, then heaven help maestro Martin Johnson and his merry men," wrote former England second-rower Paul Ackford in the London Sunday Telegraph.
"Seriously. I can't remember a period in the last decade when Australia have looked so discombobulated. The on-pitch stuff is bad enough, just one win in six from their Tri-Nations encounters, and a big fat zero when it came to Australian sides participating in the knockout stages of the Super 14 competition. But it is the declining allure of the sport which is most alarming."
Quoting from a leaked report published in The Australian last week, Ackford noted with alarm the dramatic 37 per cent decline in crowds for Tests in Australia over the past three years, from 617,555 in 2006 to 386,287 this year.
Market research in the report also highlighted the fact that rugby union is the least entertaining, innovative, grassroots-oriented and social when compared to rugby league, Australian football, soccer and cricket, as well as being "exclusive and hard to follow".
As delighted as he was by Australia's on and off-field problems -- "there is nothing better than setting off a few rockets under Australian bottoms at Twickenham around fireworks day" -- Ackford also sounded a word of warning.
"If rugby in Australia is, as the research suggests, struggling to attract and maintain interest, it won't be too long before other major nations face similar issues."
His argument echoes that of former Australian Rugby Union boss Gary Flowers who maintained Australia was the bellwether state of international rugby. Because the sporting marketplace in this country is so competitive, any trends -- good or bad -- in the global game manifest themselves here first.
Ackford's bullish assessment of England's chances against Australia are all the more concerning because they come hard on the heels of the news that the Wallabies' long-time bogeyman, giant Sale loosehead prop Andrew Sheridan, will miss the Twickenham Test because of a dislocated shoulder.
Sheridan destroyed the Australian scrum at Twickenham in 2005 and repeated the feat in the World Cup quarter-final in Marseille, effectively ending the Test career of the Wallabies tighthead that day, Guy Shepherdson.
The Wallabies struck back hard in last year's London Test, with Al Baxter -- derided by Ackford as "one of the least effective tight five forwards in history" -- turning in the best performance of his 68-Test career to scrum Sheridan into the Twickenham turf.
Still, on the form he displayed on the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa this year, Sheridan would have posed a significant challenge to raw young Wallabies tighthead Ben Alexander, a starting prop in only five of his 13 Tests.
While the Wallabies still have to run the gauntlet of the Bledisloe Cup Test against the All Blacks in Tokyo on Saturday week, England looks like heading to Twickenham far more bruised and battered than the Australians.
No fewer than 11 England squad members, among them likely starting XV players Simon Shaw, Lee Mears, Tom Rees, Riki Flutey and Delon Armitage, have been ruled out of the Test.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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Originally Posted by James
