Phew, that was close. For a moment there it looked like the Wallabies were a settled team singing from the same hymn book with an inspiring coach, an impressive string of victories and a fawning public becoming comfortable with the concept of a potential World Cup victory.
Fortunately it took all of about a week and a half for those illusions to be shattered, and now we can look forward to some good old fashioned desperation.
The Wallabies have never been good front runners. Indeed it's something about the ingrained culture of a team full of too much self-belief and that is bombarded with the best psychobabble that money can buy that they tend to fall apart just when everything is looking its rosiest.
It's the classic two-sided coin scenario. Take the series against the British Lions as an example - near loss, good win, shocking loss. Or the European tour last year - bad loss (to England) then 4 good wins punctuated by 15 players suspended or disciplined for a night on the town.
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| A graph of the Wallaby's form under Ewen McKenzie |
So the good news is the bad news. A rousing defeat to the All Blacks has them perfectly placed to rebound just in time for the 2014 European tour. A win and the usual complacency would have taken over and the roller coaster would continue.
Sure Ewen McKenzie was going to quit anyway but now he's done Australian Rugby a favour by taking the Wallabies to the bottom and showing them the way out. Fortunately he didn't lead them out, because that would only have led to disaster!
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