Tim Horan: Former Wallaby ahead of the second Bledisloe Cup test in Wellington

The Wallabies might have slumped to 10th in the world rugby rankings but the All Blacks insist that memo has not passed their desks. 

The three point loss in the opening Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney saw Australia fall to the diabolical ranking. 

Former World Cup winning Wallaby Tim Horan joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to preview the test from Wellington.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldegrave from News Talk ZEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
We're jo are now on the All Sport Breakfast by
Tim Horan, formerly a two time World Cup winning Wallaby
center and of course is now working in the commentary
space as you would Timmy Horan, thanks very much for
joining us. A big event coming up for the Wallabies
after what happened last week.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the second Test match of
course over in New Zealand at the moment, and sort
of excited about how the Wallabies performed last week.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Sure, they gave the All Backs a pretty big start
in that first sixteen and it's been down twenty one
nilbert I think Joe smid what he's doing with his team.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
And I think all the supporters, the.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Rugbie supporters in Australia understand it's a longer term play
for this Wallaby team, some younger players, but they got.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Pretty close last week. But it's going to be a
lot tougher.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
What have you seen so far under the watchful eye
of Schmidt around where he's changed the team? Is it
too early to tell? What have you detected though?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Now it looks like he wants a team, he wants
a squad, so just doesn't want these are my twenty
three players.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
I'm going to stick with those guys.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
He's looking for probably forty players and they can interchange
those forty players within that twenty three week in week out,
like you see Jake Gordon's in this weekend. Last week
the scrum half was you know, Nick White, So he
moves it around a fair bit, but also just a
style of play.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
He's looking forward to.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Fitness he's looking for from the Wallaby team and that's
going to take a little bit of time.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
So I think he's done a really good job.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Hiss assistant coaches as well, Laurie Fisher, Jeff Parling, those
type of assistant coaches are doing a really good job
to try and get this team where they need to be,
probably by the end of season tour when they have
four test matches a Grand Slam tour in November, that's
really important to see how they perform there.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Jeez, Laurie's been around for a while and houray, what
a wonderful connection to the heart of Australian rugby term.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, I think what Lurie Fisher does in Australian rugby
has been enormous of course with the Brumbies for many
years and the foundation of whether it's defense or whether
it's rock and mall or whether it's line out work,
you know, wonderful assistant coach and that's what we need.
We need those type of coaches to stay in Australia.
We had a lot of coaches that go offshore, like
you look at Dan McCalla who went out and coached

(02:27):
at Leicester for a season through his Brumby stint and
now he's back at New South Wales. So we'd love
to have those coaches stay in Australia to bring these
younger players through. So for the British and Irish lines
next year, of course, it's going to be a big
challenge for the Wallabies to make sure we're up to
that level.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
One of the bitter things about last week was the
size of the crowd. There were so many people there
cheering the Wallabies on. So premature to say that Australian
rugby is on death's door. It's plainly he's still very
much loved by the populace.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, certainly when the alloy his play, when the gold
jersey runs out at any state and you look at
the last couple of test matches in Brisbane against the
spring Box sold out, in Perth against the spring Box
was just about sold out, and then of course in
seventy thousand people in Sydney, so that was fantastic and
to be able to have that and then people understand

(03:27):
when you're playing a gold jersey how important that is.
And there's a lot of corpus, just a lot of
boys and girls. There's a lot of obviously a lot
of Kiwis and South African supporters in Australia as well,
which means a lot to us. And that's important, whether
you're supporting the Wallabies or you're just supporting rugby is important.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Tim Horn joins us, just looking across Australia in brief terms,
where do you think the biggest area for improvement can be.
What do you think they can lift to maybe roll
the all Blakes? Where's that?

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Tiam Oh? I think certainly defense.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
I think that first sixteen to twenty minutes last weekend
in Sydney was was you know, the Wallabies would look
back at that and go that the defense was wasn't great.
They got sucked into certain areas and the All Backs
played some great forty like they're a wonderful team and
you know, still number one or two in the world,
even though the spring Box are world champions.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
The All Blacks are a wonderful team.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
I love the way they play the game and I
think having someone like Bowden Barrett Barrett in the team
this weekend at fly Halfley, it's a good option to
give Dame McKenzie a bit of a rest and see
how Boden goes. We know how what a player here
is and you know, one of my favorite players for
the All Blacks.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
For many years.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
And so it's going to be a challenge for the
Wallabies and we understand how tough it is. But you know,
we're in a rebuilding phase and after what happened in
the Rubbie World Cup and Eddie Jones, where we're building
to something in the next probably twelve to twenty four months,
to do something special.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
I wasn't going to mention Eddie Jones. I thought you
might hang up on me, so we'll just move away
from there. One last thing, Tim, and thanks so much
for joining us ahead of the Teaste match. Can you
work out what earth has gone on with the All
Blacks in the last twenty minutes, they.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
Can't score points. It is just surreal, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, I think it's the fifth game I reckon we're
in the Rugby Championship where the All Backs happens scored
a point after sixty one minutes in a game. So
whether it's the player to the coming off the bench,
whether it gets a bit disjointed, or whether it's just
that's what happened. So but you know, we were very
understanding of how the All Backs team play and what

(05:27):
they're looking for.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
And you know, for Sam Kaine to be able to play.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
His one hundred test match, what a what a wonderful
ambassador he is to not just the All Blacks brand,
but I think to world rugby and the why that
he wonderful player on the field but also off the field.
What a lovely guy he is and what he's given
to the game. So congratulations to Sam Kaine.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
And we thank you very much Tim Horan for joining
us on the program to time at World Cup winning Wallaby,
enjoy yourself. Wishing you all the best, but not too much,
because it's about time the All Black's actually won in
the capital.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
We are.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
Now looking forward to it. Lovely to be in the
country in New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
We always loved touring over here as a player, but
also as a broadcaster and commentator. It's a wonderful country
and very hospital also. Thanks very much for having us
and hopefully the Wallaby is buy one.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
For more from the All Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk set be on Saturday mornings

Speaker 4 (06:22):
Or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.