GOLD DIGGER: The search for Australian rugby

2023 can probably get in the bin. Okay, it wasn’t all bad. Some of us had a great trip to France and it’s great if you follow 7s rugby, but otherwise, it’s been tough. Joining Matt to have a quick review of the year and where to next for Australian rugby is Blake from the Rugby Report Card with a slice of umbrage but plenty of strong, honest views. We talk about the Eddie show, Hamish McLennan vs the Rebel Alliance but also look at the positives, our women’s 7s, the opportunities for building rugby amongst the youth and who could be angling for the Wallaby head coach role. 

This episode will be the final in the current series of the Gold Digger podcast and will close with some announcements about the film and the opportunity of a new book that is perfect for some off season reading. Dig in!

It was an interview that was months in the making. Then he was sacked but still the opportunity was there. At the time of recording in early January 2023 he was a former Wallaby coach and at the time of publishing he is now the current Wallaby coach. Eddie Jones, a man who needs no introduction to Australian rugby fans.

We dig into his origins at Matraville High playing with the Ellas, his coaching journey, the rise of Japan and how he changed their mindset, the evolving professional players and then cut to the core of the issues that need to be addressed in Australia and how important cohesion is. A frank chat with a battle hardened former school teacher and now journeyed coach that is all the more salient given he has been given the mantle of Wallaby coach for "one more job". Dig in!

Since when do we lose to Italy? Another historical Wallaby loss surely requires a response and with a little wine in hand, Matt decides to give it a go. Not much here except a good old fashioned cathartic whine about the bleeding obvious. We dwell on the Italian game, touch on some points around the business of rugby and also raise a glass to the Black Ferns victory and why that could matter for Australian rugby. Pour yourself a strong drink and dig in!

We made the call and many of you answered! A short but sharp Q and A session with writer/director Matt Durrant and Director of Photography Majdi Slaibi on the newly released feature documentary Gold Digger: The search for Australian Rugby. Some background on how the film came together, technical aspects of making it, more anecdotes from the production and the questions from the many and many listeners out there!

If you're in Australia, you can now watch the film On Demand via Fox Docos which is available via Foxtel GO and Binge. More announcements on further releases around the world coming soon. Dig in! 

Finally, the documentary we've been waiting to share with Australian audiences will get a local release this Thursday the 15th September 2022 on the day of the Bledisloe Test Match in Melbourne. The film will be screened on Fox Docos via Foxtel and Binge.

Director Matt Durrant and cinematographer and co-producer Majdi Slaibi from Thiqa Media share a few stories of how the film started almost 3 years ago and the journey of getting it from concept to broadcast. A battler story of two guys with an idea and plenty of enthusiasm who jumped in and navigated the Australian rugby sphere to chase the story despite the limits of being self funded, having a skeleton crew and managing to overcome the challenges of a pandemic that momentarily shut down production .

A few anecdotes,  some favourite interview moments and a call out for listeners to tell us what they want to hear after the film is out. Dig in!

The Ella brothers are synonymous with Australian rugby and especially the era in which the Wallabies and the "running rugby" style took over the rugby world. Glen Ella, the twin of Mark and older brother of Gary, lived and played through it all from that Invincible Schoolboy Tour of 1977/78 to the dominant Galloping Greens of Randwick in the 80s and then the highest honour of  playing for the Wallabies with his brothers.

We talk to Glen about his thoughts on the state of rugby now in Australia, dissect that recent series loss to England and touch upon his friendship with current head coach and former Matraville High alumni Eddie Jones. Can attacking styles be dominant again in world rugby despite ever imposing defences? Is rugby at a critical juncture in Australia where the style of the game isn't as attractive a brand as it used to be? And did rugby in Australia miss a trick by not engaging more Indigenous athletes who now populate the AFL and NRL? An honest and engaging conversation with a former Wallaby who remains just as committed to the game as the day he was first introduced to it with his brothers at high school. Dig in!

Eddie Jones talks about it, Scott Robertson swears by it and cohesion has certainly been a frequently mentioned topic across all sports lately, but GAINLINE Analytics is a company that has devoted itself to using cohesion to search for that elusive answer of what makes teams successful. With the success of our previous episodes "The C Word", we talk to the other half of GAINLINE Analytics founding partnership, Simon Strachan. Simon is also a former Wallabies performance video analyst and schoolboy rugby coach and now spends considerable time working with some of the world's leading sporting organisations on how they can use cohesion analytics to create solid governance structures that will influence on field performance.

We talk about his rugby journey from the Barossa Valley to Philadelphia and then Melbourne, how a chance opportunity to film Wallabies training sessions took him to the inner sanctum of a British and Irish Lions series, review the recent Super Rugby Pacific teams and competitions from around the world and of course look at what this week's Wallabies v England match up could mean for both teams with a World Cup less than 20 games away! Dig in!

We're back after a bit of a break to pull out our calculators and dig into the financial inner workings of the business of rugby. Following Rugby Australia's announcement of a $4.5M loss in the last financial year, the prospect looks more positive with the news that Australia will host the Rugby World Cups in 2027 and 2029, along with a lucrative British and Irish Lions tour down under in 2025. To help us make sense of it all, we speak to Dr David Bond, a qualified accountant and professor from UTS who spends his spare time analysing the annual reports of Rugby Australia as well as serving as a board member of the Sydney Rugby Union.

Join us as we dig into the hidden budget items, talk about how Wallaby and Super Rugby broadcast revenue has fluctuated, the importance of gate receipts and just how significant the bail outs from World Rugby and the banking system have been to keep the administration from going under. Dig in!

Not strictly an episode but an update on the latest exciting news that our documentary feature film Gold Digger: The search for Australian rugby is going to be released this coming week in South Africa on Saturday the 16th April 2022 on SABC2! 

The reason for the release in South Africa and not Australia is explained by Matt and rest assured the pending release in Australia and other countries later this year will be made shortly. More podcast episodes to come so stay tuned and keep on digging!

We've talked cohesion in the past and you just can't mention the word without mentioning the most cohesive professional rugby club in the world right now, Leinster Rugby. So who better than Leinster's current senior coach and former England head coach Stuart Lancaster to come on to the pod and talk to us about the success of the Leinster system, how Ireland is benefitting right now from it, his career pathway through the English RFU coaching system, the trials and tribulations of being England head coach, the 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign and of course, his perspective on Australian rugby right now.

This is a fascinating episode full of honest insights and experiences from one of rugby's most knowledgable coaches that could well give Australian rugby fans, players, coaches and perhaps even the administrators plenty to think about! Dig it in!