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.
Nobody
Roar Rookie
I was all for giving Eddie a chance. However that was before we knew how bad his strategy actually was. I can’t see how having him stay on can be at all positive.
savant
Roar Rookie
The lesson we must learn from this debacle is that we need to have a governance structure in place that will not allow individuals to have so much power. Hamish’s captains call to appoint Jones has been a disaster. While I think Hamish has something to offer given his connections and fearless approach, the appointment of a coach is an area where he needed someone to save him from himself. Nothing of any significance is achieved alone. I imagine Hamish right now is having to dig deep within himself and if he can put his ego aside and understand that he is only passing through as a servant of the great game and act accordingly he might survive. Nick, I can’t agree to any future that entertains keeping Eddie. Any examination of his coaching decisions in selections of players and assistant coaches as well as game strategies ends with a fail. Nick Bishop recalled Eddie ringing him in his dying days as English coach and remarked that he seemed out of ideas. The extremism of his approach just amplifies that. Whatever Eddie had, he’s lost. McLennan must stop this farce now, assume the blame, and get on with the business of replacing him. Only no captains call this time but a selection panel of appropriately qualified people who are publicly known and accountable.
wigster
Roar Rookie
I could get my humber 80 sideways around corners often I think they call it sweeping or something now
Phil
Roar Rookie
Eddie’s blown it twice now. He never should have got a second chance. He’s terrible for our game and doesn’t align with its values. Must go.
acjj
Roar Rookie
It might be naive but I think this "review" RA is doing should actually mean something. The should identify the shortcomings in coaching and administration. Then the question is, are Eddie and Hamish capable of, and willing to, fix those shortcomings? If yes I don't see why they shouldn't stay on. My concern is if the review isn't rigorous enough to pick up the issues, or Eddie and Hamish aren't willing to change. For example, surely the two big coaching issues are assistant coach and player selections. But what are the chances Eddie will a) agree to RA picking his assistants b) change his style and temperament so the good assistants are willing to work with him c) agree to a selection panel like NZ? If he won't agree to those sorts of changes, I think his position is untenable. And he can't just agree through gritted teeth like cheika - he needs to be 100% on board, or he needs to go.
Wizz
Roar Rookie
88 ... Brothers crap box Cortina went quicker.
Wizz
Roar Rookie
Yes Eddie has proven to be inept as a coach in recent history... England cleverly dumped him and we proved there correct decision...Does he become good again for Future tests or is that just pie in the sky stuff.I know my theory.
HopelessOptimist
Roar Rookie
Fair, 3 coaches in 4 years. Sorry you’re right. The rest stands though.
Nick Wasiliev
Editor
You'd think so after the contract debacle with Israel Folau. If they do, they likely won't enact it until after the squad returns, hence why I think the fallout is going to be very, very bad.
Nick Wasiliev
Editor
When I meant that, it was meant as a scenario that faces us if Eddie steps down. Would be Dave in 22, Eddie in 23 and his replacement in 24. Regardless, everything else you're saying is completely correct. Rennie deserved to have a shot at the WC.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Its also very , very different to the one my Boks played previous 2 years in the Rugby Championship. ..Aus good enough to run a very good SA team close even beating them… Same Bok team pushed on to be a serious WC contender . Same Aus team instead of building on those performances got dismantled ..Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. If a coach did this to a South African team he would already be on the plane home.Or rather on a flight elsewhere .Would do well not to come back home .
Cec
Roar Rookie
Good point, Wallabies will be undercooked by the time Wales arrive
Cec
Roar Rookie
O’Driscoll summed it up perfectly in the Wales trouncing, “this team is very different to the one that played in Dublin just 10mos ago”.
Cec
Roar Rookie
3 coaches in 3yrs? DR was coach in 20, 21 and 22, really it should have been 1 coach in 4yrs if he was allowed to complete his contract for 2023. Thanks Hamish!
Cec
Roar Rookie
Just set in future contracts performance benchmarks that remove payouts if minimum number of wins are not met
4 of 6
Roar Rookie
If Eddie and Hamish truly accept they stuffed up, they should leave with some dignity and leave the cash on the table as a sign of goodwill , as they close the door and leave hand in hand knowing they have finally done the right thing…..as the saying goes “ the buck stop’s here “. Unlikely, you bet . Kicking and screaming, right on. There’s not a chance in hell of the above happening with these two…..however, there is no harm in asking…..dignity, goodwill….bs.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
The tetchiness that Jones displays to the media revealed so much more than I think even he realises . Sure the media can be an irritation but they are also a vital component of the Big Show called rugby. So much so that all boards globally employ or have a communications department to properly handle even use the media constructively .So how Eddie has been allowed to undermine this without being reigned in is baffling . Surely after 30 years he must know that journalists by nature are persistant .Insult someone publically better believe they are not going to go away quitely .
Jazz
Roar Rookie
I thought the worst has already happened. We've broken so many records this year for the wrong reason it's shameful. HM needs to go, i mean why is his there? he's in his suit and tie, never seen near the players, why do we need an abstract guy like this detached from the players and that goes for most of the RA board....while school and club suffers financially these guys still get their cocktails and free flights, there is major disparity gap that needs to closeup.
Khun Phil
Roar Rookie
Good comment,IFTS.My first reaction is to get rid of the imposters,but Nick makes some very good points. You are correct,though,Eddie and Hamish have to have a big change in attitude,especially as to how they front the media.Eddie has been an embarrassment with his response to reasonable questioning,especially that final press conference before getting on the plane to France.The media were only asking questions that all us fans wanted answers to. The other thing Hamish needs to do is to bin any ideas about spending big money on league recruits.I feel a bit sorry for Suaalii(which may seem strange,given his paycheck!),but he is on a hiding to nothing.The focus on him will be unfair and every rugby follower knows it is not outside backs who we need. However,if Eddie and Hamish return from France and don't apologise for the debacle they created and commit to some form of reformation,they should both go.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Its not that the World Cup for Aus is a failure thats such a big deal.. ..Out of all teams only one will win anyway ..For teams like France with such high expectations, Ireland too , not making the final will be failure . For South Africa and NZ the only measurement of success is winning it .Anything else a failure . For England not making the semis ...failure . For Wales , Fiji , Argentina , making the semis a big success...But......its the manner of The Wallabies blowout that is the most perplexing ..It was so obvious that not just bad but bizarrely crazy even totally illogical calls were made by the head coach in the build up that literally guaranteed tears even before the tournament began that is imo unforgivable ....I think behind closed doors England are breathing a collective sigh of relief that they took the bull by the horns and took action when they did....Both the CEO and head coach any country are neither guardians nor custodians of rugby ....They are paid employees ...They are not self employed and risk none of their own capital either...in fact they are extremely well paid ...and like any of us in any occupation we either produce or are out ...Sure its a nice notion to make them face up to what they created...But these aren't children being taught a valuable life lesson by their parents ....too much at stake for romanticism here .