The Wallabies: have we built a team of stars rather than a star team?

No one can doubt the talent of the Australian Wallabies. To highlight just a few…

The emerging talent…
James O’Connor: 21 years of age. Armed with strength, aggression and superior kicking skills, he is effective in defence, willing to make big plays and is our go-to choice for kicking at goal.
Kurtley Beale: 22 years of age. Our second most prolific try-scorer. 
Quade Cooper: 23 years of age. A showman with significant talent. When he is on his game, he makes all the difference. 
Digby Ioane: 26 years of age. Consistent and impressive. A try-maker with speed few can catch.

The ‘elder’ statesmen… (& I use the term ‘elder’ very loosely when describing players whose age still starts with a three)
Nathan Sharpe: 33 years of age. The most capped Lock in Australian Test history. A powerhouse in the scrum and line-outs. Despite his track record, he only just made the Rugby World Cup squad and starts from the bench. 
Radike Samo: 35 years of age. Considered retired from the national team, a recall to the injury-hit Queensland Reds Super Rugby team this year has now also heralded Samo’s return to the green and gold. A superb try in the Tri-Nations Series confirmed power, strength and determination to get to the line means Samo is invaluable.

It is a star line up. With a powerhouse team like this, we should be winning most, if not all, of the time. So what happened on Saturday night when we played Ireland at Eden Park? In our four previous Rugby World Cup matches against Ireland, the Wallabies have come out on top and we were certainly strongly favoured this time.

Could it be that teamwork is our weak spot? Do we have spades of individual talent but not team talent?

If we look a little more closely many (but not all) of the younger player group has seem some off-field antics – an incident outside a Brisbane nightclub and a hotel food fight in France in 2009 and, more recently, a no show for the Rugby World Cup squad announcement after an apparently heavy night-before presumably to celebrate the squad inclusions. Each of these incidents has had much media scrutiny and has resulted in reprimands of varying descriptions. These incidents could be interpreted as a thinly veiled display of the egos at play. Building confidence in these young players is critical but it is also difficult to manage the balance when there is outright adulation from the public for these youth. Keeping individual egos at bay appears to be proving a challenge.

We all know in a corporate environment that working as a team is paramount. It is an often espoused value or key tenet of our corporate organisations… to work as ‘one team’; to value teamwork; to break down silos; to work together with colleagues.

The constant flow of tweets between Wallabies’ team members depicts a team that genuinely enjoys their time together. It wouldn’t seem a step too far to say they like each other. Further, a recent change in captaincy didn’t seem to cause angst within the playing group. Sure, it was a surprise to many but James Horwill captained the Queensland Reds to victory in the 2011 Super Rugby Series so his leadership skills are developed and proven. Even Horwill looked and sounded surprised about his ascendency to Wallabies Captaincy but he has subsequently taken it in his stride.

Robbie Deans, the New Zealand born Head Coach of the Wallabies (and, somewhat controversially, the first non-Australian to coach the team) is said to have been focusing on team consistency. It appears that this works when we have our First XV on the field (ie, our first choice for the team) but any change to this delicate balance seems to instill uncertainty and unfamiliar on-field partnering which leads to …… a lack of consistency.

In respect of Saturday night’s game against Ireland, to address some of the post match banter, can we blame the referee? Well, we all have to deal with things we don’t think are fair sometime. That’s life, and a star team should be able to work together to make it work. So, no, we can’t blame the ref. He may have made it harder but he didn’t make it impossible.

Perhaps the Wallabies needs to look to the corporate world for the answers. Teamwork is key and with that comes the need to show humility, be respectful and not under-estimate the competition. Was that our biggest mistake on Saturday night? Wallabies Captain, James Horwill, described the efforts as “dumb rugby”. Is this a simplistic confirmation of the same?

The competition may not always be just and fair but we have to play by the rules and learn to work within them and not protest technicalities and interpretations of the rules. (For clarification, this is a specific reference to the scrummaging on Saturday night). Politics pervades any team environment – you may prefer to ignore it or stay away from it but you will invariably find yourself on the wrong side of it of you don’t make sure you are aware of it. Ireland played the politics well and managed the referee equally well. A wise play indeed and one that seemed to frustrate the Wallabies and they couldn’t find a way to tackle this challenge.

Can a team of stars really hope to win or do they need to be a star team? Be it in the corporate arena or on the sporting field, is there a singular response for this query? What’s your view? Post your comments on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.