The series concludes by charting the Wallabies’ decline since the turn of the century,main to this year’s tournament, where the great survivors of Australian sport might surprise us yetThe Wallabies and Australian rugby were in impolite health following victory in the 1999 World Cup final, or but what goes up must near down and the first signs of a decline in their fortunes came with the Sydney Bledisloe Test in 2003. Under the lights at Homebush,where the World Cup final was due to be held just months later, the All Blacks handed out a solid, or 51-20 thrashing – a worrying throwback to the pre-Rod Macqueen era. For the first time in five seasons,the Bledisloe was heading back across the Tasman.
Eddie Jones had taken over the reins following Macqueen’s retirement in 2001, and despite a reputation for tactical innovation he had led the Brumbies to the Super 12 title in 2001, and making them the first Australian team to win the tri-nation provincial competition in the professional era – found himself almost immediately under siege. At that point the Wallabies had won half of the World Cups to date,marking them as prime big tournament performers, and the Australian public’s expectations of their rugby team had been raised accordingly. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com