‘It’s got to sting’: Horan not ready to move on from World Cup
Wallabies great Tim Horan believes the pain of the Rugby World Cup needs to linger a little longer to act as a motivator for the players, regardless of a first win under new coach Joe Schmidt against Wales.
Horan won two World Cups for the Wallabies as a player and, after watching the disastrous campaign unfold under Eddie Jones in France last year, the former centre is not quite ready to permanently consign it to the archives. Under Jones, the Wallabies missed the knockout stages for the first time after disastrous losses to Wales and Fiji.
“I think for fans and players as well, you can’t forget about the World Cup,” Horan said after the Wallabies’ 25-16 win over Wales at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
“Yes, you’ve got to move on, but it’s got to sting, it’s got to really hurt because that then drives you to be better.
“And as a commentator (for Stan Sport), it still stings, as a player, it should hurt more, as fans were paying a lot of money and saved up over four years to go and watch the Wallabies.
“But now this is all about the players and I think the players have to take more responsibility on and off the field, which they are.”
Winger Andrew Kellaway slices through the Wales defence.Credit: Getty Images
Schmidt has started the Wallabies coaching job with an open mind on selection and gave seven debutants their opportunity in Sydney.
Among the new faces, loosehead prop Isaac Kailea stood out with a dominant defensive performance in the absence of the injured Angus Bell and Blake Schoupp.
Horan believes the former Ireland coach is using the July series as an open audition for the first game of The Rugby Championship next month against South Africa, with the Georgia Test on July 20 likely to provide an opportunity for more extensive experimentation with selection.
“I think he’s (Schmidt) got an idea of his top 30 players, so that’s important,” Horan said. “And then he’s probably just going to tinker with a few little ideas that he’s got, some positional changes, leadership changes and that might not be next weekend (against Wales in Melbourne), but it might be against Georgia.
“They’re obviously going to respect Georgia, but you’ve got to start building some combinations and some networks within that group to make sure that when we run out against the Springboks in Brisbane on the 10th of August, this is the team, this is the combination and we’ve had a couple of games together.”
Schmidt’s gameplan against Wales placed Waratahs halfback Jake Gordon into a central role, focused on executing the basics of his position, namely swift service from the ruck and an ability to hit accurate box kicks that provide enough hang time for his chasers to challenge Wales in the air.
Gordon’s performance was almost identical in execution to Schmidt’s extensive use of Conor Murray – his No.9 for Ireland – and Horan thinks that the Wallabies will also benefit from other parts of the Irish gameplan, but it will take time.
“I think what he brought from his time in Ireland is ball retention, treasuring the ball and not giving the ball back to the opposition, but that takes time,” Horan said.
“It’s a work in progress, but let’s enjoy the Test match and enjoy the win that it was. Australia are probably ranking-wise realistically between eighth and fifth and that’s where they should be. To get to the top four in [the] world rankings, it might take a little while longer.”
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