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Australian rugby is at a crossroads right now, and it’s a dangerous crossroads.
Fans are in an uproar, administrators have either gone MIA or are ducking for cover after fans serve them milk, and we’ve been hit with empty apology after empty apology, or an apology from the players who, (and I think I speak for many here), the majority of us think are not responsible for the circumstances we find ourselves in.
Rugby fans are an interesting bunch. We are prepared to trust and see the forest through the trees when a coach says, ‘trust me, mate. We’re on the right track.’ It’s why the anger to this World Cup campaign is so palpable: because Eddie was blowing smoke, saying ‘we can win the World Cup’, and made selection and tactical decisions that were so blatantly questionable, we all started to wonder if this journey was destined for disaster.
Turns out, that rugby brain knack of seeing the long game of a coach came in handy – this journey was destined for disaster, and now Eddie has questions to answer.
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Following this campaign, I’ve found myself in a crisis of faith around this sport. Is this rugby’s destiny, to fall further and further? It seems such a far cry from the grade rugby player world I still inhabit.
I have a personal expression relating to clubland: “your club is only doing well if your lowest grade’s coach is sleeping well at night.”
Anyone who understands the machinations of grade rugby knows exactly what I’m talking about: your lowest grade coach often has to manage the demands of the coaches above, pulling up and dropping players down at will. Forget coaches in higher levels trying to win a premier grade trophy, we are happy to just have a full team! If you can fill a reserves bench, that’s a win.
But there is more to it than just that: you rely on the honesty and integrity of more casual players, and you hold them to their word that they will turn up to play. It’s a world of consequences for those who don’t turn up, or who disappear on critical game days. The more I’ve thought about the predicament we find ourselves in, the more I’ve found myself going back to my own playing experience: probably, like many fans have, to rekindle their enjoyment of the game.
I don’t envy those in Rugby Australia who have to make the calls on who stays and who goes. As mentioned last week, they face the most important decision of Australian rugby this decade, maybe ever.
The consequences of either decision seem enormous. If we choose for them to stay, could they trash the house further? Could they, somehow, make the Wallabies worse?
On the flip side, if they go, will it be another case of clearing house, yet again? Shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic? What happens if the replacement comes in and it goes even WORSE than it has under Eddie? How will players trust in an organisation that would have had three head coaches in three years?
It’s a s–t sandwich, whatever way you look at it. The opinions of Roar commenters are widespread, the majority seemingly in agreement that both Eddie Jones and Hamish McLennan should go.
So, for a brief moment, I’m going to step away from this impartial stance and play devil’s advocate for a moment: Jones and McLennan MUST stay.
However, it’s not because they’re the shining messiahs, playing a 4D game of chess destined to save Australian rugby, or because of their ability to get rugby back in the papers.
They must stay because, in the mind of my rugby player brain, if they were to walk away from this mess they created, unscathed, with a big fat payout, it would make me angry. So angry.
There comes a point where you, like the rugby player sitting under the posts after a fifty-point flogging because you had no subs, say that you’re going to stick this out and all the pain that’s coming your way and pull your team out of the mud. You build it slowly, and it takes time, with more pain. But it turns around if you put the effort into it.
Eddie has talked a big game. Show it. It’s time for integrity and honesty. We’re going to hold you to your word now. All of Australian rugby is watching you, and despite what trolls might say around the game being dead, I know there are a lot of folks watching.
You keep saying you’ve been coaching for 30 years? Time to show it.
You don’t get to quit. We shouldn’t sack you, because after this year, you don’t deserve a payout. You attempt to walk out, surely that’s a breach of contract, right? Eddie talked a lot about employing the Randwick way, is it the Randwick way to head off to Japan when the going gets tough? I know it isn’t, I watched the Galloping Greens go all the way to a Shute Shield title this year.
The same applies to Hamish. He’s enjoyed a lot of successes for Australian Rugby during his tenure, some of his own making, some off the back of his predecessors. However, a lot of the issues we face this year are of his making, and it’s important he sees through what he started. This is more than just being on the board of a business. This is something that matters to a lot of people.
Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan with Wallabies coach Eddie Jones. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
It’s important that these two work out how to fix this mess: not just because it’s their mess, but because, for the first time in over 20 years, the accountability and leadership we need cannot be ignored: both from the man who leads the men on the field and from the man who leads the game off it. The game cannot afford to coast any longer and have a revolving door of management.
Both love the limelight, and to that I say, what happens for Australian rugby now is going to have their names written all over it, good, bad or otherwise. It’s in their interest to want to make things better, because if they leave, 2023 will be their lasting legacy, and it will be an ugly one.
I know a lot of commenters will immediately say, what are you thinking? After what they’ve done this year, we need to get them out to stop them doing any MORE damage to our game! I understand that impulse, to clear up shop yet again, but at some point, the chicken comes home to roost, and we can’t kick the can further down the road anymore.
Despite that, if they remain and trash the game further when Wales comes to tour Australia in June 2024, the only positive I can give you is that, should it continue to worsen (though I don’t see how it could) their tenure will serve as an shining example to every single person who steps into their shoes afterwards, that you don’t get to treat our game in such a way and you don’t get to walk out early with another payout.
Devil’s advocacy over. Eviscerate me in the comments, burn me on the proverbial rugby pyre! I genuinely don’t know the way out of the hole Australian rugby finds itself in.
However, if we are going to tackle this gargantuan challenge, I don’t want us to do it on a whim. We must entertain all possibilities and consider as much as we can before we make a decision, even more so if we seemingly disagree with them.
I anticipate that things are going to get far, far uglier once Eddie and the squad return to Australia. Rugby fans better batten down the hatches, because I think we’re going to have our game dragged through the proverbial mud a lot more. The 2024 season cannot come soon enough.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.