FEATURE Reds are carrying the Australian flag on and off the pitch

The Ballymore rugby ground blossomed out of nowhere when I visited as part of the British and Irish Lions tour in 2001. The orderly Jacaranda-lined streets of Herston in the outskirts of Brisbane, with the Enoggera brook jogging easily alongside them gave way suddenly to a magnificent sporting amphitheatre, a naturally open bowl built around the famous Hill.

One resident who had led the opposition to its redevelopment, Tony Edwards, described the essence of Ballymore perfectly: “The problem with Ballymore was it sort of happened rather than being planned. When I look at it, I see an asset that has another life that needs to be considered as well.”

And that is exactly how Ballymore feels to the outsider. It was like Pontypool Park in East Wales, so open and accommodating many a spectator would conveniently ‘forget’ to pay the entrance fee. They inhabited the Bank instead, sometimes as many as 20,000 fans, heaving and jostling for room; some hanging from the surrounding trees in their eagerness to find an ‘eagle’s nest’ from which to spy Wallaby invaders in the halcyon days of 1981 and 1984.

Climb up the bank at the northern end of Ballymore, and you found yourself looking down at the training pitch, a hive of activity for players and coaches in vivid maroon. Play-calls barked out as forwards and backs criss-crossed weaving complex, seamless patterns on command.

Make no mistake, the Queensland Reds are at the epicentre of the new growth in Australian rugby. Ballymore has been redeveloped sympathetically as a high-performance hub incorporating a national rugby training centre, but the hill remains, and the ground is still open at both ends. The open handshake of a traditional Ballymore welcome still lingers, but the improvements point the way to a sustainable financial model for the future.

As QRU chief executive officer David Hanham explained: “The redevelopment of Ballymore, through the opening of the BMS National Rugby Training Centre and renovation of Rugby House, has enabled the QRU to achieve sustainable financial success and stability independent of the Reds’ on-field performance.

“The QRU has turned Ballymore around, from costing the organisation in excess of $1 million AUD p/a to close to break-even, [and] before our predicted event and function revenue.

“Despite a reduction in funding from Rugby Australia, and an increase in expenses to enable the re-opening and operation of Ballymore, the QRU has maintained its fiscal discipline and remains profitable.”

Queensland rugby has been on the right side of the financial ledger for the past four years, and it is moving in the right direction on and off the field. On 19^th July, the Reds will become the only provincial side to take on Wales, on the very same weekend Brisbane hosts matches between the Wallaroos and the Black Ferns in rugby, State of Origin three in league, and Brisbane Lions vs Sydney Swans in the AFL.

And herein lies the crux of the problem for Australia’s five-team format in Super Rugby Pacific. Queensland’s opponents at the weekend, the Melbourne Rebels, are currently $22m AUD in debt and have recently launched a lawsuit against the directors of RA to reclaim $8m in lost funding. Their assets have been valued at only $17K AUD and their coaches have all been bumped to short-term four-month contracts. There are no guarantees of the franchise’s survival thereafter.

If you were to select a combined team based on individual merit, there would probably be eight Queenslanders and seven Melburnians in it. All of Taniela Tupou, Matt Gibbon, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Rob Leota up front; Carter Gordon, Andrew Kellaway and either Filipo Daugunu or Darby Lancaster would be welcomed to the playing ranks of the Maroons.

But only one of the two franchises is operating from a stable, sustainable foundation. As it stands, the Melbourne coaches and players have no concrete incentive to perform at peak level – and arguably they never have done since their inception 13 years ago. Their highest placement remains ninth in the table between 2011 and 2023, with no play-off appearances at all in Super Rugby’s multi-national format.

Eddie Jones recently highlighted the schism in thinking which has always been there.

“Some of the young talent is starting to come through and just being a bit more consistent,” he said. “Even watching a guy like Harry Wilson now, he’s always been on the cusp of being a really good player. But now he’s playing with a bit more consistency.

“I think at some stage, the financial reality of the supporting five teams is going to be difficult for Australia to sustain. There’s an inevitability about that. They had one go with the Force and they didn’t get it right at all. Next time, they’ve got to get it right: running the business of rugby – that’s a skill in itself.”

That is why, despite a roughly even spread of playing talent, the Reds beat the Rebels 53-26 away from home, and barely needed to get out of third gear to do it.

The Rebels conceded eight tries in the process. The progress of young Wallabies such as Carter Gordon will continue to flatline, at least for as long as they are exposed to a culture which lacks stability, and in which the prospect of a true winning mentality has gone absent without leave.

Under the stewardship of Les Kiss and his support coaches, the Reds have already established they are a tight-knit, cohesive unit after four rounds of competition. They established a winning lead by half-time, and the unfolding of the first period showed they knew exactly where the Rebels would be at their weakest oin defence

The opening lineout sequence told most of the story. It lasted for eight phases and almost one minute before ending in a penalty to the Reds, and it laid out Queensland’s plan to attack the extraordinary looseness of the Rebels’ forwards in defence around the ruck.

No fewer than four Melbourne forwards gallop around the corner of the first ruck in midfield, oblivious to the fact the next carrying pod has set up on the opposite side of the breakdown. That is not the kind of easy opportunity you want to present on a platter to Tate McDermott, who is one of the sharpest of snipers in world rugby from the number nine spot.

The Reds simply zig-zagged their way effortlessly down one side of the field without having to take any risks at all, as the Queensland scrum-half picked his moments to probe.

On this occasion, it only cost the home side three points. On the next, it should have cost them seven, but for Zane Nongorr being held up in-goal.

Once again, the Rebels forwards evacuate the short-side hole McDermott has been eyeing ever since the opening whistle. Obliging seems too kind a word for it.

Even when McDermott was out of the play at the base, there was a pair of willing hands able to identify and exploit the same gap in his place. In the following clip, they belong to Queensland second rower Seru Uru.

The incumbent Wallaby nine was back in his rightful spot for the scoring play that followed.

That was 19-0 after just the first quarter, and the game was effectively over as a contest. The formula which worked so well from attacking lineouts in the above examples, applied equally from turnovers.

On this occasion, Queensland fly-half Harry McLaughlin-Phillips had the luxury of ignoring a large overlap on his right, booting the ball deep into the Melbourne in-goal area instead. Suddenly the Rebels were starting from scratch again. That has been true for just too many seasons for comfort in the lifetime of Victoria’s one and only Super Rugby franchise.

Any professional coach will tell you sound defence begins with stopping the easy yards up the middle, and a watertight deal around the breakdown. At the very least, force your opponents to make a few passes to bust you.

The tragedy of Australian rugby over the past 15 years is expansion from three to five franchises has diluted rather then reinforced professional standards of behaviour, both on and off the field. Too much talent has been washed away by moderate coaching and inferior infrastructure; and just like the Force in 2017, it is now the Rebels’ turn to fight for their lives.

At least Queensland have picked up the flag and are now carrying it bravely into battle, on both fronts. The Ballymore overhaul has helped make the QRU solvent, and the on-trend coaching of Kiss and his cohorts is bringing the playing squad up to date. Ballymore is as beautifully organic as I remember, but now it is also sustainable. The statue of that giant koala will be welcoming a host of other sports in the near future, and the Reds have become a harmonious part of city life once more.