Team leader turned insurance chief executive Stephen Moore says tough decisions are required to make the sport competitive again in this country.
It’s hard to miss former Wallabies captain Stephen Moore waiting inside Rothwell’s Bar and Grill in Brisbane’s CBD. Despite being retired for five years, the veteran of 129 rugby union Tests still looks like he’s chiselled from a piece of granite; his crooked nose an enduring mark from his days as a hooker in the middle of the scrum.
He says he tries to steer clear of alcohol during the week unless he is entertaining clients. After a brief, longing look at the wine list, I reluctantly decide to abstain from alcohol, too. We both opt for seafood starters.and his “crazy brave” approach to the World Cup. “I look back then and it was very settled. He had a real plan that he worked on for the Brumbies and the Wallabies [and then the Reds],” Moore says.
However, Moore believes Jones’ decision to dump Hooper – another former Wallabies captain and a friend whom he played most of his career with – could come back to bite Australia at the business end of the World Cup, when experienced heads are needed to close out big games. Moore believes rugby administrators have to accept Australia may not be able to financially support five professional rugby teams . He says the Rebels and Force might have to be sacrificed to ensure a brighter future.“I think rugby needs to shrink to grow, because it has spread itself too thin,” says Moore as he tucks into his entrée of kingfish. “We need to do something a bit different.”
For Moore, it is all about creating development pathways for the next generation of stars, not the short-term fix of poaching rugby league players, such as Sydney Roosters star Joseph Suaalii, who has been lured to the 15-man game on a $5.5 million deal from 2025.Moore’s own pathway to professional rugby started in the small Central Queensland town of Mount Morgan, 32 kilometres south-west of Rockhampton, where he arrived with his Irish family when he was only five-years-old.
He may have started in the Under 15Cs rugby union team, but Moore slowly worked his way up the ranks at BGS and after school joined the University of Queensland club side.It was at UQ, where he started studying a biomedical degree with the aim of becoming a doctor, that he was convinced he could have a shot at playing rugby at the elite level.
Because kids are flocking to soccer, basketball and volleyball, which are more socially acceptable for parents, some schools are struggling to fill one rugby team per age group, especially in the junior grades. It clearly irks Moore.“Rugby has never been safer. It’s all about good technique,” says Moore, whose eldest son, Theo, 10, plays rugby, soccer and cricket.
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