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Artist who left as a young man is back with a world view

The Interview - Mark Ella: Magician who launched two decades of Australian dominance says the game is in need of another revolution. Mark MacKenzie met him near Sydney

Sunday 29 June 2003 00:00 BST
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The Sydney suburb of La Perouse is famous for two reasons, the first of which arrived in 1788. The French explorer, the Compte de la Perouse, having sailed around the world to claim Australia for France, disembarked there, only to find he was four days too late and the English had beaten him.

Nearly two hundred years later the second reason, a young Aboriginal boy, is playing in a backyard less than a stone's throw from the Pacific Ocean and experimenting with a style of rugby that will eventually make him a legend.

Last Saturday, England landed the Cook Cup for the first time on Wallaby soil, prompting some anxious soul-searching within the Australian rugby establishment. This is a recent phenomenon, of course; during the past 20 years, Australian rugby has been more accustomed to victory. There was Campo's goosestep, Farr-Jones and Lynagh and then Horan and Little. All part of a revolution kick-started by that young Aborigine boy who grew into a brilliant fly-half and set about turning rugby into poetry. His name was Mark Ella.

However parlous the economic climate, the nostalgia industry is one stock that never loses value. Nowhere is this truer than in sport. Older is somehow always better, more pure. In Mark Ella's case this is an uncomplicated fact. Blessed with no real pace, Ella's genius, founded on a shutter-speed reading of the game, made him lethal on the break as he combined refined passing with peerless vision, elevating the running half-back game to an art form.

Today, he is relaxing in the resort of Terrigal, an hour north of Sydney. He is currently feeling his way in a new role as technical adviser to the Japanese national side. Midway through a week-long training camp, he confesses that imparting his rugby gospel through an interpreter is causing problems, but is thankful for the familiarity the proximity of the ocean brings.

"La Perouse was a beach community and growing up was pretty carefree, swimming or fishing all day," says Ella. "Sport was everything and there was a cast of thousands." Among them, Mark's brothers, Glen (his twin) and Gary, the youngest. The three would become "The Invincibles", playing for Australia at the dawn of a rampant era.

School was the local Matraville High, opposite Long Bay jail, Australia's most notorious prison. "We didn't have too many choices in terms of sport," Ella recalls, "it's not like you had to try out for the first team." This limited curriculum was about to do world rugby a huge favour. "Our sports master was so keen on union, he kicked rugby league out altogether." Given the strength of the league code in Australia, one of the union game's rarest talents was saved by a change of syllabus.

Schoolboy rugby led on to his local club, Randwick, where in tandem with a young David Campese - the one Wallaby to come close to his artistry - Ella's game flourished under the legendary Cyril Towers. A pioneer of the flat-backs alignment popular today, Towers' philosophy earned Randwick the sobriquet of "galloping greens" as far back as the 1930s. Recalling "Randwick football", Ella drifts off momentarily. "At 70, Cyril would walk five or six miles from the suburb of Clovelly to coach us."

Ella's panache inevitably caught the eye and he made his Test debut against New Zealand in the Bledisloe Cup series of 1980. In the Third Test, Ella's round-the-body pass set up a try and a star was born. Two years later, again facing the All Blacks, he captained his country for the first time, opposing his hero, Graham Mourie.

In 1984, he mesmerised the British rugby public as the touring Wallabies whitewashed the home nations. Ella delivered a footballing masterclass, bagging a try in every Test. "In those days, we didn't mind playing the Brits because we could always out-muscle them. 'Let's go out and belt the poms', we'd say. Those days are gone as we've seen. English rugby has come on in leaps and bounds, they're tough. I wouldn't say they're world-beaters just yet, but they do the job."

Ella's was a star that shone brightly but briefly. Aged 25, after just 26 Tests and six tries, the sublimely talented fly-half announced his retirement. "Rugby's a great game but it wasn't earning me money. I wasn't bored, I just wanted other challenges. I wanted some control, not somebody telling me to be at training three times a week. I thought, 'It's been great, we've both had a good time, now it's time I took over'." Turning down big money offers to switch codes, that, it seemed, was that.

Ella now runs his own sports management company, but the pull of the game binds more tightly than a front-row forward. Last year, he took the coach's job at New South Wales Premiership side Warringah, becoming the last of the Invincibles to earn his coaching stripes - Glen is assistant coach to the Wallabies, Gary fills the equivalent post for the Waratahs Super 12 oufit.

Great players rarely make great coaches, yet Glen and Gary's successes so far suggest that Mark, ever the improviser, has a valuable contribution to make to the modern game. "The role of the backs has changed so much, carrying the ball into contact. The more physical game comes at the expense of creative flair. The game is faster, ideal for television but the multi-phase game means skill levels are not the same. Guys today go through 15 phases; in our day, we'd try and score from one, there was more self-expression."

But does the sport still entertain this consummate showman? "Oh yeah, certain parts of it, five or 10 minutes a match. In Australia, our game has become predictable. It's fine identifying young players but you can overcoach them and they lose their flair."

Yet it was long before England's 40-yard rolling maul last weekend that Ella spotted problems with future Wallaby rolling stock. "Players like Steve Larkham have been exciting, but as they get older, we're not producing players of the Campese mould. We poach our excitement from rugby league, like Wendell Sailor. But quick thinking will always beat brawn, it's the way you control the game. If players are in doubt these days, they set up quick ruck ball and hope to Christ somebody else comes along. Coaches have to be more creative, but it's not easy at this level to reinvent the game."

So what does he think of the playmaker currently acclaimed best fly-half in the world, England's Jonny Wilkinson? "Mate, I rate him very highly, he's a talented footballer. Very creative with the ball, he looks for gaps and plays it close to the advantage line, like I did. He likes playing under pressure and I admire that. He's an aggressive little bastard, likes getting dirty."

Ella emphasises that great players bloom when bedded down in great teams, his own time in the sun coinciding with a generous harvest of Wallaby talent. "Through the middle 1980s Australian rugby surged; I genuinely believe it was a golden age. Playing with my brothers gave me enormous pleasure, as did playing outside Nick Farr-Jones for his first four Tests. Then there was Noddy, Michael Lynagh, at centre.

"For the previous hundred years we'd never won a series against New Zealand and we were consistently beating them. They had been dominant - but there were more dimensions to international rugby then, differing styles. The French, for example, were always hard and dirty. The way the game has progressed there's just one style now, regurgitated around the world. If all the games were broadcast in black and white you wouldn't know who the teams were because their games are basically the same."

If Ella is preaching diversity in the world game, in taking the Japan job, he is at least prepared to put his money where his mouth is. "Japanese rugby culture is very different from what I'm used to. They're not as strong at the breakdown and the physical nature of the scrum will take work." In this regard, he is grateful for the imported talent, the three New Zealanders and one Tongan who are turning Japanese in time for October's showcase.

"It doesn't surprise me the World Cup has established itself in a short space of time. We needed something of this scale to tell the doubters rugby's a great sport. I retired after the 1984 season and the first World Cup was three years later. If I'd have known, I may have carried on."

With Ella on board, word is Japan are aiming as high as a quarter-final place. "Look mate, it's going to be hard. In the last four World Cups, they've won one game. I hope it happens but there's no guarantee. They're exciting when they're on fire, but against stronger sides that won't happen often. All I've got to do now is to get them to listen." A few videos of the master in his pomp should do the trick.

Biography: Mark Ella

Born: 5 June 1959 in Sydney.

In the genes: he and his two brothers Gary and Glen all represented Australia at full international level.

As a player: fly-half. Eight grand finals for Randwick. 23 games for New South Wales. International career: 26 Tests for Australia, nine as captain. Retired from the game aged 25.

Wallaby debut: 21 June 1980 v All Blacks (Australia won 13-9). Final Test - 8 December 1984 v Scotland (Australia won 37-12).

Also: voted Young Australian of the Year in 1983, awarded Order of Australia medal in 1984, awarded the Australian Sport Medal, January 2001.

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