The impending return of Siya Kolisi to the Sharks has added fuel to the rumours about his future in Durban.

Kolisi is locked in negotiations with Racing 92 over an early release from his contract as he plans to return to South Africa after failing to settle in Paris.

He initially signed until the end of June 2026 with the Top 14 club and Racing 92 could demand a hefty fee to release him from the final two seasons of his contract.

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Why Rassie’s Springboks should serve as a friendly reminder for the Wallabies of the possibilities ahead

After what was a successful (albeit not totally convincing) July International series, the Wallabies have crashed back to earth with back-to-back losses against the Springboks, seeing the world champions break a hoodoo and pull convincing wins in two of the Wallabies’ strongest arenas.

Fan reaction has been, predictably, bleak; lamenting the losses, with some going as far as to proclaim how far Australian rugby has fallen from the glory days, scolding some of the players and the coaching staff days for not being able to return Australia to the winner’s circle. The cries of ‘woeful Wallabies’ seem ever louder.

Now, with a bit of time separate from the emotion of the result, it is time for fans to take a collective breath.

Yep, the results hurt. The reality is we were beaten by a side that is playing better rugby than us, and the scorelines are a reflection of how far we have to go, but also how much last year hurt us.

It is not the nineties anymore, the world has changed. Shouting at this side, recalling echoes of former glories and viewing that era as the measuring stick will do nothing positive to resolve the current challenges Australian rugby faces. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore history.

Australia has been in a hole this deep before, and if history tells us anything, the one thing Joe Schmidt and his team need is time. Simple, honest time.

That may seem like something frustrated and impatient fans have heard a million times before, but if there is any time this cliche is applicable, it is now.

Recent results will tell us that we are in a hole as deep as the woeful Wallabies of the early 1970s: the sides that lost to Tonga, endured a decade without victory against the All Blacks, awful tours on the road to the United Kingdom, and in 1971, being swept for three losses at home by the Springboks – a feat that the Saffas took 53 years to repeat.

It’s unavoidable. The stats suggest this is the ‘woeful Wallabies’ of the professional era. However, that does not make this team a bad team. Those who watch the Wallabies know that a scoreline tells only one story – and in truth, there is a good side underneath.

This coaching staff and team have only been together for several weeks. For some players, this is their third head coach in as many years, and if you have played at any level, you know how important consistency under a coach is.

They’ve come off the worst World Cup in Australian history, which is absolute rock bottom. The players would never admit it candidly, but last year would weigh heavily on their minds. They were part of that moment in Australian rugby history.

This is not to say we should excuse any bad performances, nor accept the mediocre results, should they eventuate. You should still look at a result like the 40-6 loss to Wales last year and call it how it is. Rugby fans are not afraid to call out bullshit when we see it. But, it adds context that is needed.

The Wallabies are on a long, hard, brutal journey, and the sooner we recognise that, the sooner we can call performances as they are, free of comparing them through the lens of 1991 and 1999.

Despite the 30-12 loss to the Boks, there were clear improvements in Joe Schmidt’s side. Against the World Champions – ignore the ‘B’ team rhetoric, they had 14 World Cup winners in that team – we matched their scrum for most of the game until injuries forced us to go uncontested. It is what it is, you can’t control injuries.

The lineout was competitive, even with the Wallabies missing some of our best forwards. We were one kick away from leading them at half-time and were less than a converted try away for three-quarters of the match. Schmidt even found several players who matched them physically for a lot of the game.

The Boks are a side that are playing at the height of their powers right now, and got the result they did because of an excellent bench who knew their roles and knew how to finish well, and could draw on a mountain of successful, postive experience to close out the game.

Remember though, that well-oiled machine that Rassie has transformed this side into didn’t come overnight. It took the best part of seven years. 2016/17 was a long time ago, but any Springbok fan would likely not forget the dark days of a first loss to Italy, record losses to Wales, and producing one of the worst performances in Springbok history against Ireland – all culminating in the biggest defeat in their history, the infamous 57-0 loss to the All Blacks in Albany.

To top it all off, they had teams cut from Super Rugby, multiple in fact. Rassie Erasmus recalled the days of fans burning Bok jerseys in the streets – and post-match on Saturday, was quick to remind everyone that Schmidt has turned many sides around before, if given the time.

Simple, honest time.

Following the woeful results of 1973, former Wallaby Dick Marks was appointed as the inaugural National Director of Coaching, commencing a period of systematic improvement across both rugby coaching and player development in Australia.

The turnaround in the Wallabies soon followed, and this period set the stage for successes over the next three decades, including breaking a 40-year Bledisloe Cup drought in 1979.

Sound familiar?

Of course, we can’t predict the future, but we can see the past, and Australia has been in this position before. What do we have in front of us?

Right now, we have one of the smartest coaches in the world who has turned around multiple national sides, surrounded by some of the best rugby brains in the world in his coaching staff.

Despite the veritable swinging pendulum of results, we have a team that this decade has beaten World Cup and Six Nations champions at home, and pushed the likes of Ireland and France in hostile territory. It suggests that consistent success against the best can come under the right stewardship, if given the chance.

Regardless of whether we win them or not, the 2025 British & Irish Lions tour and the 2027 and 2029 Rugby World Cups should be a major financial windfall for the game – hopefully more than the 2003 iteration.

Lastly, we have Peter Horne as a Director of High Performance, an administrator with 15 years of experience at the highest level of World Rugby, being joined this month by David Nucifora in an advisory role, who played a major part in transforming Irish rugby to the powerhouse it is now.

There are few rugby brains more qualified in the world than these individuals to address the challenges we face – and there are many, which cannot be overstated.

This is not rose-tinted glasses, it’s not ignoring the many problems in Australian rugby and how deeply embedded and gargantuan they are.

If you are an Aussie fan, how does one react to these two Springbok losses?

Honestly, make peace with it. Sometimes you come up against a side who just played better than you. This was always going to be a tough ask against back-to-back World Cup champions. That is not excusing what needs to be improved, nor does it give the team a pass. If anything, with the resources now at their disposal, we need to make sure they take their opportunities more than ever.

This is not just about wins, it’s about where rugby’s identity sits in Australia today, 30 years into the era of professionalism. Other teams, like the Sevens and the Wallaroos and our Super Rugby sides, are becoming part of that conversation too.

When it is something that big, then they need time to get it right. Simple, honest time.

The best comparison would be with the Matildas. Sometimes it’s about not just what is on the field, but what the team comes to represent. Our women’s national football side, over a long period of building, has become a rallying call for female sport in Australia, they’ve set the standard for what could be and what inspires – which is something more valuable than any trophy.

For Wallabies fans, pick yourselves up, dust yourselves off. It’s time for the Pumas.