I thought I’d signed off for the year, being very disappointed by the Hamish McLennan and Eddie Jones fiasco.
I don’t think I could do another term of Michael Cheika as coach of the Wallabies. He has improved as a coach on the technical side, but his manner, histrionics, and lack of class is unbearable e.g. the way he waves his hands around in the coaches box together with the pusillanimous language he uses when his side are well and truly beaten by a better side is basically uncool and unAustralian.
Surely we are looking for humble, magnanimous, smart and willing to learn, we can do better from our mistakes type coach. That person is not Michael Cheika and Eddie Jones types. Enough!! No way!!

RA and the manner in how matters were run appear to be at best sloppy, under McLennan. A simple follow up email by one of Mclennan’s underlings, or by himself, would have confirmed the “handshake” deal. How hard is it to close a deal? What … another mess to be cleaned up. How many more deals will come out of the woodwork? How hard is it to be chairman?

McLennan: “Today the rooster tomorrow the feather duster”

Good riddance.

Geoff,

An excellent summary of events. McLennan’s public comments, narcissistic tendencies. lack of humility and adopting a poison pill approach by taking his financial contacts with him, is evidence enough that he was never the right person to lead rugby union in Australia. Good riddance and what a relief.

There needs to be a further clean out at RA of all the sycophants and hangers on at RA. No more jobs for the boys. If Justin Harrison is one of them then he should be dispatched. With regard to Phil Waugh, he is also tarnished with having worn the same school blazer as McLennan, he should be put on notice that he too could be next if his performance falters in any way.

The only way the other rugby states are going to agree to any changes like centralisation is if they have trust and proper representation at board and management level. They also need to retain the power of veto to initiatives by RA and NSW rugby.

With regard to the money from sponsors, if the current sponsors wish to walk because they are tied to McLennan, then let them walk. Rugby Union may be in the doldrums, but it still has history and prestige, that is bigger than one man or certain sponsors. The evidence is that is McLennan wanted to stay as chairman irrespective of his threats and posturing. He had to be levered off the hull of the ship called RA like some kind of barnacle.

Finally we can get some fresh air into RA, and set direction to build grassroots and club rugby, and start to reinvent methods and strategies so Australian rugby can rebuild its international reputation, currently in the ditch.

There are many lessons learnt, let’s not continue to make them.

Why is McLennan still at RA? His record being associated with running operations into the ground as outlined in the Australian Financial Review in the last week outlining his association with Magellan Funds is interesting reading. John Eales who is also associated with Magellan and McLennan, reads very poorly too for such a famous and well respected Australian rugby hero.

McLennan should not be chairman of Rugby Australia, and based on the AFR article and the significant wiping out of shareholder value in Magellan under his leadership, not fund’s management either.

We deserve better. It’s time for McLennan to go and for a clean out of the board of Rugby Australia. Any threats that rugby will be worse off without him, as he speculated, is odious at best and is narcissism at its core.

Brett, agree completely the EJ saga has spoilt the World Cup week. A fresh start for Australia ready for the BIL tour in 20 months. Not much time to reshuffle those deck chairs, but we must as the reputation and future of BIL tours returning to Australia hinge on it. So it’s going to be interesting times ahead and hopefully those in RA who need and should fall on their swords do so, putting their own egos and failures aside.

Thank you for all your excellent work, including the podcasts, which have been a highlight each week. We all look forward to having the many lively discussions next year. Cheers S.

Actually, you’re right, at the World Cup in 1991, towards the end of the final, legend goes, he yelled from the stands sitting near Queen Elizabeth something like “kick the s–t out of it””. That (another) uncouth Australian!!
Maybe not Bob Dwyer, I’ll go with McQueen and Link

I think Michael Cheika is a good coach, but his post match interview after the Puma”s loss to England at the World Cup was a reminder that he is more emotion than deep thinking. Yes the refereeing did have its faults, in fact the Pumas were allowed a try when the pass was a “tad” forward, as described by the commentators.
I think we’ve had enough of the snarky Aussie coach genre which seems to have generated from a certain era and place (Randwick) e.g. Eddie Jones and Michael Cheika.
As Wallaby supporters we deserve better coaches and more of the Bob Dwyer or McQueen types, deep and considered thinkers, who can keep their cool with clear objectives. No more hot heads, as empty vessels do tend to make the most sound.

ECA if you want you can be more specific about where he went school and the old boys club nest at RA. He went to Shore in North Sydney, as did the cohort before him and currently e.g. Pulver, Hawker, Waugh et al.

Hamish, drop the ego trip and please go. You’ve done enough damage and you’re smart enough to see that, right? The Jones stuff up is a sackable offence by anyone’s measure. You’re part of the chaos.

Time for a clean out of the board and management at RA. This whole episode is shameful and those responsible all need to go. No more jobs for the boys from that private boys school in North Sydney, they have been making an absolute mess of things over the last 20 years, especially when Bill Pulver was selected from an international search that ended up being the car park in Mosman. The joke is on us by going along with the BS telling us all they were the best man for the job at the time. McLennan also from that same school together with Phil Waugh should also resign. Enough’.

So it’s going to be heaven vs purgatory in the final.

I think the performances of both the ABs and Springboks has been amazing to watch, real edge of the seat stuff, that even includes the game against England by the Boks. Do the Boks have any more fuel in the tanks? I guess we’re about to find out.

The game plan by England was very cunning. Yes it was not how rugby is “supposed” to be played, but rugby is about the score board. If it wasn’t then one wouldn’t keep score. It just proves there are many pathways to victory. It further demonstrates rugby union is more like chess, and like chess there are many different ways to defeat your opponent.

England was horrible to watch, but very effective, and they almost won. I’m sure the French thought this when they were defeated by England at the battle of Agincourt. Horrible nasty archers, why don’t they get up close and fight like men!

It reminded me too of the Wallabies playing England when Eddie Jones produced the “rope a dope” game plan, letting the Michael Cheika coached team exhaust themselves in attack, wave after unsuccessful wave, to then to suddenly strike and win the game. One should never disparage a smart rugby plan.

Yes rugby is more like chess and the other rugby like sports are more like, well who cares, right?

Revok, don’t blame Skelton, blame the Wallaby training regime, who injured him and TT at training. That’s when the Wallaby wheels really came off. Unbelievable.

I trust that Mbonambi who described the England team as “wit kant” (Afrikaans for white side) and Curry the hooker took offence and heard an insult, doesn’t say “swart kant” (black side) about the All Blacks. They too may take offence as it sounds like an insult to a non Afrikaner.

There is no way Fiji are not going to get a bonus point against Portugal. If it were me I would be sending them all home, including all the hangers on, save the money on the accommodation and face the reality that we’re now a tier 2 rugby nation. Time to clean house at RA!

An interesting article providing insight to the politics within RA and the state rugby unions.

Why would QLD rugby hand over the control of their rugby program to RA? Why would they have any confidence in how RA is run?

RA has the specific look and feel of a school club reunion all from the Shore school in North Sydney. (Bill Pulver, Phil Waugh, Michael Hawker, Hamish McLennan and others). So when Anderson (from QLD not from Shore) produced his “unwelcome” presentation, his thesis, on recommendations how to fix Australian rugby union and critiquing how it was being run, with a “science edge” and being just more than a few bullet points on a single page, of course it fell on deaf ears and wasn’t even read. Didn’t Anderson get it, any new ideas would have been seen as a criticism of the current management.

The Australian rugby public should insist that the process of appointments should be more transparent. The blame of the lack of innovation and implementation of new ideas to keep pace with the rest of the rugby union world rests solely on the heads of RA, and the men from Shore. Problems are not negative thoughts, problems are to be discussed, solved and addressed head on, even if you’re not from a particular school, right?
 
David Campese (from Queanbeyan and now ostracized by RA) made a valid recommendation, he thinks that RA should sell memberships to interested fans for $100, making them a card holder with the right to vote on specific issues at RA, like who is to be the chairman and who is to be the CEO. The RA card holders at $100 per annum, if there are enough (of us), would be effectively paying the salaries of the management of RA. I like it!

So how do you get the 3 main state rugby unions to go along with rugby being centralised, because if I was in QLD’s shoes I would be very skeptical as to the management capability of RA, that they aren’t going to continue to stuff it all up. The evidence of that skepticism is look at the state of rugby union in Australia and how they have neglected grass roots rugby. Peter Fitzsimons’ (not from North Sydney, but now lives in Mosman) Brett McKay’s podcast said something like he admired the AFL as they keep expending the base of the pyramid, which then makes the top bigger and stronger.

What has RA been doing for 20 years, it’s been building at the top of the pyramid and ignoring the base, and what does one expect, collapse. This is basic management skill 101 failure. Remind me who has been running this stuff up again…..?

While we were all focused on the World Cup, RA has borrowed $60 million secured by the assets and cash flow of rugby union, effectively mortgaging the future of rugby union. Was it because they had to borrow the money due to the private equity boys didn’t want the 20% equity deal for $60 million, because it was effectively valuing RA at $300 million. One could argue they didn’t want 20% equity, they wanted a secured loan with interest payments, and in the event of default they could possibly pick up 100% of RA, right? Who is the smarter, RA or the lender?

What about RA looking for ways to expand the cash flows of rugby rather than borrowing money and mortgaging the future….. more crickets!

It’s time to clean house and that means everyone should be sacked and has to reapply for their jobs. Sell us those $100 memberships and we will all have a say on who and how things are managed at RA starting with who is the chairman.

Then just maybe QLD rugby will go along with the idea of centralisation as there will be true transparency with RA not being run like some kind of kingdom, with a king called Hamish.

Spiro

I’m not sure where rock bottom is for Australian rugby, but we must be getting close. Based on experience when you think you’re at the bottom there will be more to go and what that looks like it won’t be pretty. Can Australia really slip to 12th ranking in World Rugby? Is it possible that the BIL tour in 2025 will be cancelled as the Wallabies will not be considered strong enough? The cascading effects of the dreadful on field performance of the Wallabies is a devastating blow to the reputation and credibility of Australian rugby and it just goes to show the fall from the top can be quite fast when the business of rugby is poorly managed.

As an aside I think we have had enough of the Shore boys from the lower north shore of Sydney running rugby in Australia. No more “jobs for the Shore boys”! (McLennan, Hawker and others). I appreciate it is a broad swipe at the Shore boys, but there record of RA and the lack of fresh ideas and looking to transition men’s rugby to keep up with competition both domestically and internationally has created the situation where Australian rugby union has fallen into a ditch, on and off the field.

EJ has to go too, he has made too many mistakes for an experienced campaigner. Everyone reaches their level of incompetence at some point, and EJ has reached that point. Yes he could fix it, but unfortunately for him he had his chance and stuffed it, and stuffed us all. What we don’t know is how expensive will it be to pay out his contract, an amount that will blow a hole in the $60 million RA just borrowed as a loan against the assets of Rugby Union. The whole situation is a complete mess.

I listened to the podcast run by Brett McKay who had Ben Darwin the wizard of sports statistics as a guest. Interesting and if you’re a fan of “Moneyball” the movie then what he says made a lot of sense. My take on what he says it would appear Australia does need to run a centralised player contract system, and to create one of the Australian 5 SRP teams to effectively be the core of the Wallabies, just like the Drua (Fiji), Leinster (Ireland) and the Crusaders (NZ). With that one gets all the benefits of core players getting used to playing together week in week out. The problem one will have to deal with is the state rugby union politics and which team of the 5 is going to be the biggest beneficiary. All the other 4 franchises will just have to catch up, a good thing because as the tide rises it lifts all boats. The current system of everyone for themselves based on Ben Darwin’s analysis is the out of date and the cause of the systemic failure of Australian rugby, together with the lack of attention to club and grass roots rugby by RA financially.

Whoever the new RA chairman is they are going to have to be tough hard nosed no nonsense approach to get that change across the line. McLennan had his chance over the last 3 years, adding to the demise of rugby union, and now it’s someone else’s turn, and not from a particular school in North Sydney.

What a mess, but it’s been coming for a while.

The whole rugby structure in Australia is out of date and we have just had that confirmed by our performance at the 2023 world cup.

EJ went for a smash and grab campaign and came up worse than empty he fell flat on his face. He chose to run with a young and inexperienced team, without a mixture of experienced players apart from James Slipper, chose different captains, had key player pick up soft tissue injuries at training, and the list goes on. EJ was given the job at the expense of Dave Rennie as he was that “guy”.

Well he wasn’t that “guy” his plan failed at the expernse of Australian rugby being completely embarrassed and losing all rugby credibililty. Yes EJ did get the back end of a sysrtemic weakness, but he should have known better. He made representations that he was the man for job, and he had a lot of us believing he was going to deliver, at least get to the quarter finals, including me.
Based on the above this becomes a sackable offense, pure and simple. Who will replace him, who knows but no one is irreplaceable.

With regard to McLennan he has been in the job for about 3 years, that’s a long time to implement change, why is he now proposing the “necessary” changes, Oh that’s right he made another bad call and wanted to believe. He is the head guy with a finance background. It would be like him putting on a gun bond trader and that guy losing the bank a huge amount of money. What would happen in a commercial enterprise, the trader, EJ in this instance would be shown the door, and McLennan would probably be shown the door too.

Congratulations to Wales and Gatlan. They played perfect tournament rugby with the Wallabies unable to strike a blow. The injuries to Skelton and TT was in hindsight the end of any chance of getting out of the pool stages. Also leaving the more experienced players behind, especially QC at 10, the Wallabies had no variation in their attack. Game over!
Finally RA will get that wake up shock that structurally the domestic rugby competition is flawed, it needs to work out how to generate more income rather than mortgaging its future by taking loans to stop the ship from completely sinking. I guess the loans are better than selling of the equity or was it, as the new equity holders would have had seats on the board and had a say in changing things.
Australia is now officially a tier 2 rugby nation. We’re lucky to have the BIL tour in 2025, that’s if it’s not called off due to the possibility that the games are going to be a complete wipeout of the Wallabies.
What a shambles and those who run rugby have collectively over the last 15 to 20 years created the downfall of Australian rugby through lack of inspiration , looking down from a crumbling ivory tower and unwillingness to embrace change have crested a situation where rugby union in Australia to become an embarrassment. It is lucky rugby in Australia has any supporters. The other competing codes domestically have finally put rugby union to the sword. They are all giving each other high fives, that pesky sport called rugby union is effectively dead a buried or Is it?

The team to play Wales that EJ has selected is a pretty good side. We are really missing Skelton and particularly TT at 3, with Slipper once again being a band aid at tight head. Finally Pone Fa’amausili will be returning from the bench and the Welsh will find him a real handful with ball in hand. EJ is clearly looking for that go forward ball up front with a very big forward pack.
EJ is correct that the game is getting slower with the actual spurts with ball in play being on average 30 seconds, with actual ball in play game time of no more than 40 minutes of the 80 on the clock, and the actual ball in play can drop dramatically down to below 30 minutes if there are lots of scrums. Rugby is starting to have that NFL feel, with huge forwards.
EJ is leaning into this trend and we saw some of the benefits of a giant Wallaby 260 kg forward pack against a very good Georgia pack.
If the Wallabies can just get past Wales, with no more training injuries, and Skelton, TT and Fa”amausili on the bench to cover for TT at tight head, they could go deep into the competition.
I just hope Donaldson at 10 who is a “kicking” flyhalf, passes the ball regularly to Kerevi and the rest of the impressive and dangerous Wallaby backs. If.not bring on Gordon.
The Wallabies will have taken a few lessons from the Fiji game and will be desperate for a win.
They must hold onto the ball and use the referee, this week being the very good Wayne Barnes who likes to let games flow and keep a lower profile.
This is going to be an exciting game and I think Wales are going to be shocked at how good the Wallabies can be. EJ has been promising us that we would see that “moment” when it all comes together, and this could be that match.
Even if we don’t get out of the pool stages I would be staying with EJ as he is on the right track.

I don’t get it! How many more injuries to players at training? The loss of Skeleton and TT, two critical players and now Jorgensen with a fracture.
Great TT and Skelton won’t be available until the quarterfinals. What quarterfinals? Who says the Wallabies are going to make the quarterfinals? My question is who is the player welfare manager so key players are not injured during training? The player ranks are thin and to continue to lose critical players or other members of the playing squad like Jorgensen is a ridiculous situation. This is not how you run a tournament rugby program that runs back to back games week to week?

It was rash of McLennan to appoint EJ as the head coach, sacking Dave Rennie on the eve of the World Cup.

The EJ project is working, but the same old problem is cropping up as it did with Dave Rennie, injuries to key players.

Is it that the players like TT and Will Skelton are fragile or is the training regime during the week? If it were me I would be putting my best players in cotton wool during the week, have light training with the preference to have them slightly underdone for the weekend, rather than having them get injured during training and unable to play.

The Wallaby forward pack EJ has assembled with TT and Will Skelton as captain is pretty impressive. However when you are down to having James Slipper having to pay 3, then what do you expect? The forward power attacking weapon has gone, then the ripple effect turns a good team into the Woeful Wallabies.

Clearly the Wales game is a must win on the weekend and if they lose then heads will roll.

With regard to Georgia who are also in group C. They have the capacity to beat Wales and Fiji, so it is all not lost yet. The Wallaby performance against them was impressive, due to having the best 15 on the field to start the game i.e. TT at 3 and Skelton as captain.

I say its time to sit back, because as Wallaby supporters we are used to the roller coaster ride and all is not lost yet.

If the Wallabies can scrape out of this, I would be instructing the conditioning coaches to rest the big guys as they are clearly prone to soft tissue injuries. If they keep the forward pack together the rest should fall into place and we could go deep into the competition.

Come on Georgia!!
I

This was a smash and grab job. I think it’s becoming more smash than grab.

Nic White is your game plan.

The Wallabies really misses TT, Will Skelton today and the attacking weapon they provide up front.
The question i keep asking myself who in the coaching team is insisting the players who participated on the weekend should have 3 heavy testing sessions, or how ever many there actually are, that your key players are at risk of being injured at training? We all understand that you have to get players ready for the next test match, but isn’t about managing workload? How much stretching, resting the big boys, sticking in a yoga session or two to make them more supple and less prone to muscle injury at training?
The Wallabies needed to have their best 15 start each week to go very far into this World Cup. Injuries to the Wallabies line up under Dave Rennie and now EJ have been the performance curse of the Wallabies a having a big impact on our declining world ranking over the past few years.
I would prefer the best 15 be a little underdone than having to cobble together a team for the next test. One doesn’t lose that much match fitness during the week between games, especially when the ball is only in actual play for no more than 40 mins of actual clock time.
It’s time for a rethink about how players are managed and time to bring out lots of cotton wool.
The game against Wales is a must win. I say we pick our best 15, including TT and Will Skelton and Pone slightly injured or not, because the risk is if you don’t everyone is going home in disgrace and EJ is likely to get fired as well as some of the RA board. Pass the pain killers and quarter-zone injections. It’s all or nothing time!

I see Nic White being on the bench, because if EJ wants Gordon to get his hands on the ball, then Nic White is not that guy. He takes too much control and kicks away possession when under pressure, which there will plenty of playing against a really impressive Fiji, who won’t make the same mistakes against Wales by not taking easy 3 points from penalties, let alone being absolutely desperate. The Wallabies will be lucky to get away with a win.

We’ll know later today in any event about Nic White. Maybe EJ will have him under strict instructions about when he can kick and when to pass.