George Gregan on Winning and Losing
It may be one of the strangest possible confessions from a captain of one of Australia’s world champion sporting teams and an Australian representative in almost 90 games at the highest level. Says George Gregan, captain of Australia’s Rugby Union team, the Wallabies: “As a youngster I had no particular aspiration to play sport for Australia,”
“What did appeal to me, though,” Gregan is quick to add, “was the idea of playing sport for a living. Getting paid to do something you absolutely love is something I often thought about.”
And with the Rugby Union World Cup just around the corner and staged in Australia and New Zealand, Gregan has the opportunity to do what he loves as a part of the biggest sporting event in the world this year. But it is an opportunity not without its pressures and challenges.
Zambia, Canberra, Sydney
George Gregan was born in Zambia but moved with his parents to Australia when he was just two years old. The Gregan family settled in Canberra, where through his school years, Gregan played as much sport as he could. He attended St Edmund’s College, where he became a regular in cricket and rugby teams. He represented the ACT in cricket, playing against a number of current members of the Australian cricket team.
“Probably my greatest claim to fame on the cricket field was being run out by [current Australian one-day cricket captain Ricky] Ponting,” Gregan recalls.
But after school, he had to choose between his two sporting loves when he was offered a rugby scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport. At that time, he had only ever watched international rugby on television—but just two years later he would be a part of it.
Now 30, Gregan is married with two young children. He has a degree in physical education teaching, but lists his occupation as “professional rugby player.” Yet he also leads a successful business life away from the field with a select group of corporate sponsors and four coffee shops in Sydney, which he owns and manages with his wife, Erica.
With no indication as to his playing future beyond this year, there is speculation Gregan may pursue interests other than rugby, and it seems he has many options.
the rugby
After working up through Australian Under-19 and Under-21 teams, Gregan made his Australian representative debut in 1994 against Italy. But it was a less than glorious game. “It’s still a bit of a blur,” says Gregan. “I received a nasty head wound and was forced off the field. That wasn’t the way the script was meant to go.”
However, later that year, George Gregan became a household name with “that tackle”—a try-saving tackle in the dying minutes on New Zealand All-Black Jeff Wilson, clinching an Australian victory and the trans-Tasman trophy, the Bledisloe Cup.
From that moment, Gregan’s rugby career continues to be packed with highlights. He has been recognised as Super 12 Player of the Year, voted the International Players Association Player of the Year, is regarded as the world’s leading scrum-half and in 2001 was appointed Australian captain. On the team level, Gregan has been an integral part of a highly successful era in Australian rugby. He has led the ACT Brumbies to a Super 12 title and was an important member of Australia’s last World Cup victory in 1999.
And as an established member of the Australian team, Gregan has history in his sights. Assuming he plays in all Australia’s international matches for the remainder of this year, he will be just five games short of David Campese’s record for the most games played for Australia.
“It would be quite an honour to be the most capped Wallaby but I wouldn’t play on for that reason,” says Gregan. “It wouldn’t be a motivating factor for me. I’ve never really played for that reason.”
However, commenting upon the prospect of passing the record of former Wallaby captain John Eales to second place on the all-time list, he is not oblivious to the significance of such milestones: “We all know about Ealesy . . . to play as many as him and hopefully to go past him will be a big achievement for me.”
Captain George . . .
The leadership role as Australian team captain and the profile and responsibilities that go with that is something Gregan has grown into. As well as captaining the ACT team for a number of years, he was Wallaby vice-captain for four years prior to the retirement of former captain John Eales.
Gregan credits this experience for much of his confidence as captain. “My initial impressions of the role of captain were much as I had expected,” says Gregan. “It’s quite challenging and puts more demands on my time. I’m in a situation where people ask my opinion of things more than they have in the past.
“[But] I’m probably more experienced leading the team and more accustomed to the day-to-day process,” he comments. “I’m happy with the team . . . from that point of view I can just go about doing my job and have total confidence that everyone else is also doing their job.”
This is partly the result of the high standards Gregan sets both on and off the field. According to fellow Wallaby but relative newcomer, Wendell Sailor, “There is no-one more professional than George Gregan.
“Last year I remember he dropped me and Ben Tune back at the hotel after Wallaby training,” Sailor explains, “and then headed off to do an hour of [additional training]. I know when I finish training all I want to do is go home and relax, but that’s the standard he sets. I’ve got no problem following George anywhere into battle.”
toward the World Cup
And so the sporting world, Gregan and the Wallabies turn their attention to the 2003 World Cup. “It’s a big year, we’re getting closer and closer to the beginning of the World Cup,” says Gregan. “There are some big goals and a lot of hard work in front of us.
“The best defensive team will go a long way to winning the World Cup so it is an important aspect of the game and it’s probably an area which Australia hasn’t been as good as it could have been this year,” he reflects. “But you can turn around your defence pretty quickly with hard, intense work and I’m sure we will endeavour to do it.”
According to Gregan, “It’s a very tough tournament to win. With that kind of match schedule, you do need a bit of luck but, more importantly, everyone has to be performing well at the business end.
“It’s safe to say this one will be the hardest to win. It’s the nature of football at the moment that teams are getting better and better. The research and homework that everyone does on each other has intensified to the point where it becomes a very small margin between success and failure.
“It will be simply a matter of believing that when we are in a situation under pressure we can still execute our game well,” says Gregan.
But with some unexpected losses so far this year, Gregan and the Wallabies are feeling the pressure as defending champions and the weight of their own—and the sporting public’s—expectations.
“As defending Cup champions, the team’s expected to be successful. People believe we can win all the time, which is an unreal expectation. Losing is part of the true nature of sport. That said, it’s also an expectation the team puts on itself that we should be able to win each time we step out.
“Even in our most successful periods we’ve dropped games. It’s just how you bounce back and make sure that if you are put in similar situations you don’t repeat the same errors. I think that is the most important part of a good team.
“Someone once said that experience is recognising the same mistake second time around,” Gregan continues. “We will continue to grow as a team and learn from our setbacks. That’s why I believe this current Wallaby team will always rebound strongly.”
Sources: www.georgegregan.com; The Australian Rugby Companion (edited by Gordon Bray); www.brumbies.com.au; The Bulletin; The Age; news.bbc.co.uk; Sydney Morning Herald; The Mercury.
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