{"id":238933,"date":"2025-07-05T02:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T02:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238933\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T02:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T02:04:16","slug":"without-success-australians-will-find-it-hard-to-follow-rugby-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238933\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Without success, Australians will find it hard to follow rugby union\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting in Daceyville, looking at the big blue skies and a watery winter sun, a little down the way from the achingly beautiful Sydney Cricket Ground and the newly rebuilt Allianz Stadium next to it in Moore Park, you cannot imagine anything ever being wrong with this country or its sport.<\/p>\n

We are at the New South Wales Waratahs\u2019 training base the day before they face the British & Irish Lions \u2014 the shimmering Pacific Ocean at Coogee Beach is a way to the east and the drop-dead gorgeous harbours are to the north. Here, though, it is rather more low-key. <\/p>\n

Despite the Wallabies tight-head Taniela Tupou limbering up in plain sight, and the Waratahs going through their kick-off receipts and final tactical plans, there is no throng \u2014 just a tour group pottering around, being shown the new training facility. Let\u2019s not kid ourselves \u2014 rugby union is not big-time or big business here. <\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

The wing will be on Waratahs duty when the Lions roll into Sydney\u2019s Allianz Stadium on Saturday<\/p>\n

PHIL WALTER\/GETTY<\/p>\n

Having been released from the Wallabies squad, Andrew Kellaway will be in the Waratahs team to face the Lions on Saturday. The former Northampton Saints wing cannot wait for the chance of a lifetime, but what becomes clearer as we speak is how much Australian rugby union really needs the next few weeks to go well. <\/p>\n

As fascinated outside observers, we have seen the stories of misfortune and mismanagement by Rugby Australia and how they have bombed as a national team in the past 20 years. But, on the ground, what is the state of Australian rugby?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s certainly a rollercoaster,\u201d Kellaway says, before taking a long pause and an intake of breath. \u201cWhat\u2019s my take on it? Oh, geez, I probably should wait until I retire to do this. You\u2019ve got to be careful how you answer these questions in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now 29, Kellaway has seen plenty. He was cut by the NSW programme, which led to his move to Saints, had been at the Melbourne Rebels when they went bust, won 39 caps for the Wallabies \u2014 including at the 2023 World Cup, when they exited at the pool stage \u2014 earned an economics degree, and was about to start a master\u2019s degree at the University of Oxford before the Rebels recruited him.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Kellaway\u2018s late try helped Australia pull off a shock 42-37 victory at Twickenham last autumn<\/p>\n

ACTION IMAGES\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in no way qualified to make any comments about the financials but I think the game\u2019s been poorly managed for a long time, well before my time,\u201d Kellaway says. \u201cThe things that we have suffered through the last five to seven years are not a consequence of the people in those five to seven years. The seed was planted well before that. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven in England where, as far as we\u2019re concerned, the game is rusted on, there are teams going bust. It\u2019s not unique to Australia. But what I see now is a desperation to set things up so that it can\u2019t happen again. I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s proud of where the game\u2019s been or how the game\u2019s handled things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issues here are obvious. Two dominant winter sports sit above rugby union \u2014 rugby league and Aussie rules. State of Origin, the epic three-match league series between New South Wales and Queensland, concludes in Sydney on Wednesday, the night the Lions face the ACT Brumbies in Canberra. Guess what Australia will be watching. <\/p>\n

Rugby union used to be Australia\u2019s \u201cwinter code\u201d, out of cricket\u2019s shadow, when the Wallabies were good in the 1990s and 2000s \u2014 winning the World Cup in 1991 and 1999. But pathways have been trashed, money badly invested, coaching quality has dwindled, and the teams keep losing. There is nothing worse than being a losing Australian. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout success, that\u2019s been a really hard thing to follow for a lot of people,\u201d Kellaway says.<\/p>\n

The Rebels, one of five Australian Super Rugby franchises, went bust in 2024 with about \u00a312million owed in debt. <\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Kellaway and the Australia prop Angus Bell alongside the Rugby Australia chief executive, Phil Waugh<\/p>\n

MATT KING\/GETTY\/RUGBY AUSTRALIA<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was scary,\u201d Kellaway says. \u201cThe Rebels were always running on the smell of an oily rag \u2014 well, that was the perception at least. I remember coming in one day, and it was like a movie with people carrying boxes out, crying. We had to go, \u2018Guys, turn the music off. If you\u2019re not sad, just pretend to be sad because people are losing their jobs.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

That taught Kellaway the second big lesson of his career. \u201cThe first is how fickle the business is. You\u2019re loved until you\u2019re not and then you\u2019re gone,\u201d he says. He learnt that when he did not earn a contract for the Waratahs as an academy kid from Coogee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second was how that sort of stuff affects people. I thought, \u2018Shit, people are going to suffer here.\u2019 And sure as shit they did. There are a couple of guys who aren\u2019t playing, they\u2019re retired, who are easily good enough to still be playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

So now Kellaway speaks from the heart as a salesman for rugby in Australia. This is his pitch for his countrymen who are not yet interested in the Lions series.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

The NRL attracts a much broader audience than rugby union down under<\/p>\n

CAMERON SPENCER\/GETTY<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, the AFL [Aussie rules] is a behemoth,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are the gold standard on how to run your business. The NRL [rugby league] is not far behind. We just will not be able to compete with 16 NRL teams, all domestic, so there is a \u2018local\u2019 winner every year. The same with the AFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what we can offer is this unique, global behemoth of a game with concepts like the British & Irish Lions and World Cups. The Lions is a special event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRL are already trying to jump on the back of the hype and get their little piece. The challenge for us is how do you sell that to people, particularly kids playing the game, when you almost have to actively bypass the other part of the product, which would be Super Rugby? The place that rugby [union] has in our landscape is definitely under the Wallabies umbrella.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important thing for us as a game to remember is we are what we are. We will never be rugby league. Our rules are not going to change every year to keep the broadcasters happy. It\u2019s important to celebrate what we are.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake the scrum and the lineout. They are as unique as it can get in any game. This super-structured, highly skill-based thing that can\u2019t be done by everyone, but for some reason in Australia, all we do is bag the shit out of the scrum and lineout because it slows the game down, rather than celebrating that the blokes in the scrum are like two rhinos pushing against each other. Compare to what people can understand.<\/p>\n

\"England<\/p>\n

Aukuso-Suaalii, who has recovered from a fractured jaw, has superstar potential<\/p>\n

DAVID ROGERS\/GETTY<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of talk here about what rugby doesn\u2019t have, but what we do have is this amazing, unique, longstanding tradition of a game that has a massive global audience. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure that\u2019s lost on Australians, which is fine, but at some point it will bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would sell the game around three players: Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii, the \u201cfreak\u201d cross-code convert (\u201cthe kid\u2019s special\u201d), the prop Allan Alaalatoa (\u201cAl is no-nonsense\u201d), and the scrum half Jake \u201cThe Jester\u201d Gordon (\u201che\u2019s got heaps of jokes \u2014 none of which are appropriate\u201d). But none of this is Kellaway\u2019s job. He has a game to play.<\/p>\n

Saturday will bring a reunion with Alex Mitchell, with whom he spent hours watching Game of Thrones and playing cards at Northampton. He says those Saints academy boys \u2014 from Mitchell to Tommy Freeman, now supplemented by Fin Smith and Henry Pollock \u2014 have something he has rarely seen in rugby: genuine friendship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is certainly a special club,\u201d he says of Northampton, before laughing at the time James Haskell let off a military-grade smoke bomb in the gym and then had to pay an invoice from the club when he forced the cancellation of a corporate event in the room next door at Franklin\u2019s Gardens. \u201cYou can write that because it is true, although I am sure Hask will find a way to correct it!\u201d he says, chuckling.<\/p>\n

Dan Biggar, working for Sky on this tour, popped in before we started chatting to catch up. \u201cThe richest man in Swansea, he would make the young blokes buy him coffee at Saints!\u201d Kellaway says.<\/p>\n

All these touchstones to his past have reminded Kellaway of rugby\u2019s elixir, its importance, why it should be protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of great things in place to build the game sustainably,\u201d Kellaway says. \u201cI hope it will set the game up to survive long past all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time, then, for Kellaway and his Wallabies to put on a show during this Lions tour, to reconnect with a lost public and prove all that glisters in Australia can be gold.<\/p>\n

NSW Waratahs v British & Irish Lions<\/p>\n

Saturday, 11am
Allianz Stadium, Sydney
TV<\/b> Sky Sports Main Event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sitting in Daceyville, looking at the big blue skies and a watery winter sun, a little down the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-238933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114798176959948922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}