It is characteristic of rugby fans to pay more attention to the future than the present. Sure, losses sting in the moment but the trick is not to allow the pain to persist.
Change the topic. Who are the promising young players coming through? How good is the Lions tour going to be? How brilliant are the matches between the Australia and New Zealand women’s sevens?
South Africa is a notable exception. Like a demi-god global tech innovator, Rassie Erasmus works ahead of the chasing pack, probing for a new edge, figuring how to get around laws that haven’t even been devised yet.
This affords his countrymen the luxury of smelling the roses and living in the moment; and to be fair, they’ve had plenty of practice at it in recent years.
Australia and New Zealand, not blessed with bomb squads and time zones that allow players and fans easy access to more lucrative competitions, instead make do with grizzling about what ails the game, alternating with bursts of optimism about what the future might hold.
That’s why the events and non-events of 2024 will ultimately be better viewed through a 2025 lens. Seeds have been sown. It is the passage of time that will allow for proper evaluation.
The Blues dominated Super Rugby with a very un-Super Rugby style; in one match against the Rebels scoring the same try four times, irresistibly rumbling forward en-masse like a giant tunnel-boring machine.
Was this method an aberration, or a template for coach Vern Cotter to build from? To crank up the power game even more in 2025?
At the completion of the final, won 41-10 over the Chiefs, Cotter couldn’t hide his game face. The borderline cruel, steely stare of an interrogator just settling in for an extended mental and physical battle. There will be no easing up.
Let’s not forget that rugby is at its best as a sport when there are contrasts and clashes of styles. More power to the Blues, and to the other sides hoping to neuter that threat and catch them napping around the edges.
Over the years, teams, indeed whole countries, have come and gone from Super Rugby. In that context, with the national mood improved as a result of the Wallabies’ upswing, and many of their players redistributed, the Melbourne Rebels have quickly become just another footnote.
But don’t be surprised to find events that led to the shut-down of the Rebels in 2024, shaping Australian rugby in 2025. No matter brighter sentiment around the performance of the Wallabies, Rugby Australia’s financial standing remains so fragile, every patch of blue sky has a black cloud lurking nearby.
It remains incomprehensible that Rugby Australia would turn its back on Australia’s second-most populous state, where there are fast-growing catchment areas not naturally inclined towards AFL.
But, aside from a hit and run raid, filling the MCG with Lions fans next year, that’s exactly what has happened.
Whatever one thinks of the Rebels, there is at the heart of this matter, a deep and broad story of long-term strategic management failure and misalignment of rugby values from people charged with running the game. A road travelled before in Western Australia.
There are good people in Melbourne working independently to restore pathways, and a sense of optimism exists, but the reality that the only way to secure a future for rugby in Victoria is to function outside of Rugby Australia’s tent, seems preposterous.
It’s not all beer and skittles in New Zealand either, with NZ Rugby, the provincial unions, the players association and equity partner Silver Lake, all with different ideas on how to future-proof the sport.
What has also been missed is a chance to re-imagine Super Rugby, with both Australia and New Zealand now all-in on the use of the competition as a proving ground for their national sides.
An attempt by Super Rugby CEO Jack Mesley to pass off a new finals configuration (necessitated by the reduction in competing teams), as an innovation designed to provide “as much premium content for fans as possible” was one of the saddest events of the year.
If not for the statement itself, but for confirmation that rugby administration continues to be mired in corporate double-speak and an uncanny ability to treat stakeholders with contempt.
How about this doozy from the RFU’s ‘Performance Against our Strategic Plan Document’ which highlighted England’s 65 per cent win rate in 2024, but in the small print, stated that this did not include England’s two July Test losses against New Zealand? Seriously.
Other lowlights? The needless and hurtful loss of Carter Gordon to rugby league, ex-Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom auditioning for the new Fugitive movie, and England rushing back Tom Curry, fresh from another in a long line of heavy concussions, to play in a meaningless match against Japan.
On the positive side, the emergence of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was another event where the pay-off will come in 2025 and beyond. And what about the transition of Tom Wright from dangerous but flawed, to world-class fullback? Rob Valetini’s consistency? Fraser McReight’s confidence and authority?
Even if Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt does not extend through to the 2027 World Cup, the die has been cast for 2025, with the Wallabies able to begin next year light years advanced from where things were when Schmidt arrived.
Over the course of 2024, a fair swag of Australia’s professional players had exposure to the Wallabies environment – either as Test debutants or in the training camps – and evaluations have been made. There will be no such casting of the net next year.
The Wallabies might still lack the 25-30 top class players they need to assure victory against the Lions, but at least they now have the 15-18 that will ensure a red-hot series – one that if they continue to improve their discipline, they will be a chance of winning.
There are similar vibes around the All Blacks, albeit from a far higher starting position. For all of the excitement around Wallace Sititi’s emergence this year, I’m particularly excited to see what he can bring in 2025, already knowing he belongs at the highest level.
The tight-five is regenerating nicely – and in some depth. If France stays true to form in 2025 and brings a development side to New Zealand – in the same manner they treated their last Australian tour – Scott Robertson will have a gilt-edged opportunity to bring his backline up to the same speed.
Whether Robertson finds the bravery and inspiration at the selection table to help him do just that, will be one of the ‘big watches’ for 2025.
The election in November of Brett Robinson to the position of World Rugby chair is an important filip for the game in this region.
That said, people whose worldview is that there is an over-reliance and over-expectation around what governments can do for societies will recognise the limitations of the world governing body, and understand why there remains a chasm between what World Rugby believes it has achieved on the concussion issue, and the actual situation.
Other standout moments this year included a bizarre Twitter war over whether Antoine Dupont was the GOAT or not, Argentina and Scotland promising to establish themselves as genuinely consistent Tier One contenders, the debate over 20-minute red cards becoming so confused that those arguing against were actually making the point for the other side, and the looming spectre (or is that a rainbow?) of Saudi money washing into rugby.
Things to bet your house on in 2025? Good performances by ex-Rebels for new Super Rugby franchises being explained away by lazy, misinformed commentators as them finally being able to reach their true potential under Kiss/McKellar/Larkham/Cron.
Ditto the inevitable rumours that will surface of rifts in the Lions squad, between various national cliques. And listen out for the sound of back-slapping administrators – aglow in the financial success of the tour, yet unfortunately failing once again to leverage that into lasting media and public understanding and coverage of rugby.
So, with ‘Book of the Year’ already spoken for, to the annual Wrap music awards, from what was a strong year, the angst-ridden influences of COVID now well in the rear-view mirror.
My most memorable gig was Austin-based Uncle Lucius tearing up Melbourne’s Brunswick Ballroom; the booming, soulful baritone of lead-man Kevin Galloway filling every crevice of the venue, and then some.
It was a good year for Australian albums, including a long-awaited new release from Paul Kelly, ‘Fever Longing Still’ and the excellent ‘Tender Heart’ from Mia Dyson.
Best of the local bunch however was Emma Donovan’s ‘Til My Song is Done’. On the surface, straddling soul and country but in reality, seamlessly connected, this is a superb album rooted in family, and an authentic earthiness and heart which marks Donovan as an artist in the very top echelon of Australian musicians.
World music pick of the year is Senegal-𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 artist Lass, whose album ‘Passeport’ is brilliantly performed and sung, and totally infectious.
It was tough work narrowing things down to a ‘top three’ but Willie Watson’s self-titled album is a worthy bronze medal winner. I could have done without the long, rambling, spoken-word closing track, but Watson has the knack of delivering original and traditional folk songs in a style that all at once feels time-worn and respectful, yet fresh and interesting.
Kentucky native Sturgill Simpson, has forged an envious reputation for blistering live sets. Here, under the moniker Johnny Blue Skies, he dials the intensity back on ‘Passage Du Desir’ and the result is a terrific album that rewards repeated listens.
Another genre straddler, there is something for everyone here from Boz Scaggs’-style soul, Jimmy Buffet whimsy and even a revisiting of Elton John’s ‘Madman Across the Water’, in the powerful and moving ‘Jupiter’s Faerie’. Highly impressive.
Top of the 2024 class is Australian-𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 Canadian Ruth Moody, with her flawlessly presented album ‘The Wanderer’. Her duet with Joey Landreth on the track ‘The Spell of the Lilac Bloom’ is worth the price of admission alone, but it’s the consistent attention to detail that really hits home.
Not a lyric or note is wasted and the sparse, subtle arrangements always allow Moody’s remarkably pure voice to shine through.
In today’s streaming world, track listing has become a lost art, but for some of us crusty traditionalists, it still matters. To that end, after all that has come before it, ‘Comin’ Round The Bend’ is perhaps the best album closer I’ve heard since all the way back to the Stones finishing off ‘Sticky Fingers’ with ‘Moonlight Mile’.
Moody will be touring Australia in April and May. I couldn’t imagine a better way to fill in time before the Lions tour.
