Wright plays down 'grand slam of tries' talk
Tom Wright is still on course to emulate one of the great individual feats in Australian rugby annals, once conjured up by the magician he hails as a “true great”.
Just don’t try to get the Wallabies’ flying fullback to talk up his chances of repeating Mark Ella’s unique achievement of scoring a try in each of the four Test wins carved out by the 1984 Wallabies on their historic grand slam march.
For any talk of individual glory and the ‘S’ word gets the door slammed on you, politely but firmly, by these focused Wallabies, who feel it’s just so much outside noise with two fiendishly difficult wins in Edinburgh and Dublin still required.
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“Externally, that can be chatted about all you like, but, mate, Scotland next week is as far as we’re looking unfortunately,” smiles Wright.
And Ella’s tour achievement of 40 years ago? “Yeah, it’s still external too – we’ve got two games to go.
“But you’ve just mentioned one of the great Wallabies there. I’ve had a little bit to do with Mark in classic Wallaby conversations in passing, sort of floating around in the eastern suburbs.
“Obviously he was playing for Randwick, and I was a Randwick junior as well, so we’ve crossed paths a number of times. Oh, he’s a very, very lovely fella, one of the true greats of the Wallaby jersey.”
Indeed, there are those, like that amazingly gifted conjuror David Campese, who still swear flyhalf Ella was the best rugby player they ever saw in his space-shifting, perpetual-motion pomp back on that ’84 tour.
The Indigenous star started off by darting over at Twickenham in the 19-3 win over England, before his visionary support running saw him loop round and finish off a fantastic team try in the 16-9 win over Ireland.
Then a misplaced reverse pass from Wales star-turned-broadcaster Eddie Butler gifted him an intercept try in the 28-9 win at Cardiff, before he made it four-from-four when Roger Gould chose to put Ella, rather than Campese, away for a score in the 37-12 triumph over Scotland.
Well, now it’s Wright’s turn at Murrayfield, having lit up the opening two matches of the 2024 tour, first, with the opening score at Twickenham from Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s deft pop pass, and then his Sunday best with the superb hat-trick against Wales.
Just like Ella all those years ago, Wright, so scintillating with his 243 metres made against the frazzled Welsh, has so far looked the tour’s backline poster boy, reminding everyone why Eddie Jones once predicted the Brumbies’ speedster could become the world’s best fullback.
Certainly, in terms of adventurous, attacking 15s, the 27-year-old is up there, having discovered increasing swagger under the Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt.
“I feel like when he was appointed, Joe got across to all of the Super Rugby clubs, got to meet us in person, built a small rapport before the July series, and since then, we’ve been able to grow in confidence,” said Wright.
“I’m definitely still building my own game, but understanding the fundamentals of my game has been really important, and allowed me to do the attacking stuff.”
The enthusiasm among British rugby audiences about the throwback attacking flair they’ve seen from Schmidt’s team enthuses Wright, but he reckons, “We’re definitely keeping a level head on where we’re at.
“By no means are we believing we’re the next big thing.
“But we’re having a lot of fun that’s part and parcel with playing some good football.
“We’re definitely enjoying each other’s company. Being away from home is very difficult, especially for guys with families, etc, but the tightness of this group, definitely keeps the happiness outweighing the homesickness for some guys.
“We’re creeping into three-and-a-half weeks away from home now, but we’ve got a job to do over here.”
And like Ella before him, he has history to pursue.
