Rugby: The joke's on the Wallabies

By Wynne Gray

in Sydney

Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen is in the middle of a rugby war going into tonight's Bledisloe Cup test against the All Blacks at Stadium Australia.

Already under intense public pressure to halt his team's two-game losing run in the Tri-Nations Championship, Macqueen became involved in a couple of skirmishes with Australian rugby officials and marketing spin doctors yesterday.

He said he was being hindered further by inappropriate comments from controversial ARU chief executive John O'Neill and some peurile Kiwi-bashing promotions.

And in each case Macqueen found an ally in his opposite number, All Black coach John Hart.

Both men said they were surprised by comments from O'Neill who revealed plans to chat with Bledisloe Cup referee Jim Fleming to give him a "gentle reminder on the importance of the advantage law."

O'Neill said: "The Tri-Nations have been very disappointing this year, and as tries have been few and far between, hardly great spectacles. So I just want to remind Jim Fleming of the significance of the occasion and the importance of the advantage law."

That sort of interference puzzled Macqueen and drew from Hart the comment that he would not expect any similar involvement from his NZRFU chief executive and former referee David Moffett.

Both coaches were also critical of the childish Channel 7 television promotions for the test and the latest prank yesterday when a local radio station parked a flat deck truck with a large papiermache sheep on board outside the All Blacks hotel and started playing a continuous tape of bad taste New Zealand jokes through their loudspeakers.

The gag lasted about three hours until the local police had enough and sent the pranksters packing.

The Channel 7 promotion depicting New Zealanders arriving in canoes, cashing dole cheques and cavorting on Bondi beach got a similar dropkick from Macqueen.

"To be very honest about it, it is not what the game is all about. We get very disappointed, particularly in South Africa, when a slur is made on Australian culture. It is certainly not something the Wallabies would encourage or what the Wallabies are all about," he said.

"We are raging enemies with each other but it stops at that."

Hart agreed. "I think we tend to disregard it, but it is disappointing. The cultural thing should be kept out of the game and we should move on."

It is understood O'Neill was unhappy the Wallabies stayed at their Queensland base until late in the week and were not available for any promotional push of this historic test before a sellout 110,000 crowd at Stadium Australia.

Now his personal intrusion seems to have backfired and the worry must be how the frequently officious Fleming will react to being told how to do his job.

O'Neill's interference comes after his recent outburst about rugby killing off rugby league inside 20 years and seems to have set him on a collision course with his national coach.

The chief executive's encroachments were not the sort of burden Macqueen needed yesterday as he worked on resurrecting the Wallabies' faltering progress towards the World Cup.

"I haven't been in touch with John O'Neill about it but from our point of view Jim Fleming was over there in South Africa on the sideline and he was part of the pre-game discussions.

"We have a lot of confidence in Jim Fleming and I think he will do a good job. We hope after the game everyone is talking about the game of rugby and not the referee. I haven't heard the full story. We are happy with where Jim Fleming sits."

Macqueen could afford to be more settled as he and Fleming had a lengthy discussion when their schedules crossed by chance as the Wallabies held their final run yesterday at Stadium Australia. Whether O'Neill's comments caused a stir with the referee was uncertain.

"I'm not sure whose role it is to talk to referees these days," Hart said. "What John O'Neill does is what John O'Neill does," he said in the comfort of knowing the issue had nothing to do with the All Blacks.

"I would think he is concerned from a publicity and marketing perspective that we have a huge crowd - a world record - and he wants to do everything he can to ensure the game works the way that everyone would want it to work. I don't think there is any ulterior motive."