Rugby: Wallabies rue decade of lost chances

Nathan Sharpe. Photo / Getty Images

Another Tri-Nations campaign bites the dust but the Wallabies insist the gap between rugby's top three teams remains narrow with each beginning to eye next year's World Cup.

2011 will also mark an inauspicious landmark for the Wallabies - a decade since they last won the prestigious southern hemisphere title.

Their latest chance fell by the wayside when the All Blacks pipped South Africa 29-22 last weekend in Soweto, leaving the Australians again battling the perception they have become the poor cousins of their Tri-Nations rivals.

"It's been a long time and we had opportunities to (win it)," says Nathan Sharpe, a veteran of every series since the drought began in 2002.

"There's been games we've just lost. Losing to New Zealand in Brisbane (in 2008) when we were leading with not much to go.

"Then we lost to South Africa after fulltime in 2004.

"Both were for the Tri-Nations."

Close but no cigar but a barren decade doesn't mean it's any less close, says the 32-year-old - especially with champion lock Dan Vickerman and injured big names James Horwill, Digby Ioane, Ben Alexander, Wycliff Palu, Peter Hynes and Tatafu Polota-Nau all set for returns in 2011.

"New Zealand are playing well at the moment but on any given day any of these sides can beat each other and that's a really healthy thing for all the countries," Sharpe says.

"Australia in particular at the moment is doing well in terms of the depth that's being introduced, there's been a lot of injuries.

"(South Africa) probably should have beaten New Zealand on the weekend, they didn't win but they certainly had the opportunity to.

"Teams can be playing very well but it can only take one game to swing the ledger.

"Next year's going to be really interesting."

No one will be more interested than Wallabies coach Robbie Deans, who will be desperately hoping his four-year project of injecting Australian rugby with the youth and energy of players like Quade Cooper, Will Genia, David Pocock and Kurtley Beale finally pays off.

Deans, like Sharpe, is adamant the Wallabies can bridge the gap, despite his one from 10 winning record against the All Blacks since 2008 and Australia last holding the Bledisloe Cup in 2002.

"(New Zealand are) clearly not that far ahead, but they are ahead," he says.

"The Springboks showed last weekend that they were capable of winning that game.

"The margins are tight, the margins are fine but clearly both South Africa and us are chasing."

Deans says trying to predict the rugby booms and busts of each country is a perilous exercise.

"You've only got to go back a year and the All Blacks didn't win a single encounter against South Africa," he says.

"You'd have to say that, off the back of last year, there wouldn't have been too many that would have picked the 3-0 response by the All Blacks over the Springboks, turning the tables so completely.

"That's how tight the margins are so I wouldn't be reading too much into the future other than possibly the response."

The Wallabies' response will be seen clearly in next year's Tri-Nations, which Sharpe says will be the ideal preparation for the World Cup in New Zealand.

"Without a doubt," he says. "You'd assume South Africa and New Zealand and Australia will be the top three teams in the world going into the World Cup so what better way to prepare for that."

But Sharpe says the Tri-Nations champions won't be able to count on doing the lap of honour after the World Cup final.

"Tri-Nations is a bloody hard tournament to win but I don't think it's going to have a big impact on the World Cup," he says.

"The World Cup's about winning three games basically, provided you win your pool games."

Australia might only get one more chance to end the Tri-Nations famine - the competition is due to expand into a Four Nations, with Argentina scheduled to finally join the southern hemisphere battle in 2012.

- AAP