Is this a surprise? An article by Gordon Bray, praising the Warriors' style of play and saying the Wallabies should try to emulate it:
Time for Eddie to be flair dinkum
By Gordon Bray
September 18, 2003
HERE'S hoping Eddie Jones and his World Cup Wallabies took time out from their steamy, heavy-duty training sessions in the Territory last weekend to catch the rugby league action at the Sydney Showground.
How good were those New Zealand Warriors in their 48-22 demolition of the Bulldogs? Don't bother dispatching our coaches to England on study tours - the real football fireworks are happening on our doorstep.
Watching the high-risk skills of that Polynesian and Maori-dominated NRL side rekindled images from the beaches of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa where kids play dazzling, ball-in-hand rugby for sheer fun.
You'd swear the Warriors grew up playing that same style: joyful, improvised and free of coaching restraints. The artistry of Francis Meli & Co. set an entertaining benchmark for all football codes.
The Wallabies can't, and won't, assimilate the Warriors' boldness overnight but they could take inspiration from such an adventurous approach.
Essentially, the Warriors play to their strengths of catch-pass-run with pace, power and flair.
In contrast to some of the current Wallabies, these players were clearly enjoying the game. Remember this was a cut-throat final, yet the Warriors backed their spirit of adventure - and had a damn good time in the process.
Their Aussie coach Daniel Anderson claims these virtuoso displays will soon give him a heart attack, but he's also the man who's had the courage to give his charges a licence to thrill.
Could this be the spark missing from Australian rugby at the moment? Are we unknowingly suffocating natural talent and inventiveness through so-called "scientific" coaching?
I dusted off the ABC's historic video of the 1984 Wallaby Grand Slam tour and was transfixed by the attacking skills of three youngsters in particular.
Sure, Nick Farr-Jones, Mark Ella and David Campese enjoyed a dream platform from a mighty forward pack but there was no denying the individual artistry on display. The swift clearance and short running bursts of a rookie Farr-Jones; the ball-to-the-line running and lightning hands of Ella; the explosive timing and bewildering stepping at full speed by Campo.
There's little doubt this year's World Cup champions will need to have the capacity to play open, attacking rugby - with strength and pace.
How revealing that it's taken a Kiwi league team to remind us
