As published in the Australian Financial review 29/9/2023. Reproduced here by permission of the author.

Regrettably Australia’s final pool game against Portugal at Saint-Etienne will be a sideshow to the global debate rolling on regarding Eddie Jones’s future as Wallabies coach and the tenure of Hamish McLennan as chairman of Rugby Australia. The board of Rugby Australia is also not immune to widespread calls for change.

“Burn RA to the ground and rebuild,” one grieving fan wrote on Monday. Australian rugby supporters are passionate and hurting big time – we all are.

But cool heads must prevail. I’ll deal with the Jones situation below, but first let’s look at how we got to this and what we can do to turn Australian rugby around.

You could sack McLennan, chief executive Phil Waugh and the entire board and we’d still be in basically the same situation. As James Curran wrote in the Financial Review this week , there have been many reviews of Australian rugby over the last 15 years, and they’ve all recommended some version of a “major reorientation” to stave off “certain failure”.

On Monday morning in Lyon Wales delivered the “certain failure” as unambiguously as it gets with a 40-6 thrashing that effectively knocked Australia out of the Rugby World Cup in the pool stage for the first time.

So what is the solution that everyone can see, the one that looks like the way New Zealand, France and Ireland run their rugby? And why have years gone by without anyone doing it?

For the federated system of Australian rugby, where each state administration essentially runs its own race, the solution is seismic. The proposal McLennan and Waugh are pushing at Rugby Australia is to adopt a version of the NZ and Irish models, where decision-making is centralised.

Let’s not beat around the bush, that means decisions about pretty much everything are on the table. At a commercial level, it means driving efficiencies – any duplicated service, such as marketing, ticketing systems and some administrative overlaps can be centralised.

At a personnel level, it means Rugby Australia would be responsible for appointing and contracting coaches, assistants, strength and conditioning teams – all the way down to the physios and video analysts. The player budgets across the Super Rugby teams would be directly contracted to Rugby Australia, who would take on that fiscal responsibility in addition to the current Wallabies contracts. Every dollar spent in Australian Rugby must be money well spent.

State unions would retain their vital role as custodians of their powerful brands with the oldest being the NSW Rugby Union, founded back in 1874, and the Queensland Rugby Union founded in 1882. Community rugby would remain the responsibility of the state unions.

Blind Freddy can see that such a wholesale change would put a lot of noses out of joint and bruise plenty of egos. That’s why it’s been talked about for so long but nothing has happened.

But the evidence that it can be transformational is impossible to ignore. Ireland is the shining case study. A country of 5 million people, one with much domestic competition for talent from soccer and gaelic football, sits at the top of the world rankings and is now equal favourite with South Africa to win the World Cup.

In Australia, NSW and Queensland have long been most resistant to change. But the writing has now gotten so large on the wall that even they are finding it’s impossible to ignore. Word is that the Brumbies in Canberra, the Rebels in Victoria and the NSW Waratahs are ready to move. The Force have incredible financial backing from Twiggy and Nicola Forrest and after being garrotted by the Pulver administration in August 2017 are naturally fiercely protective of their independence. That leaves Queensland, so often the contrarians, mulling over how the new world sits with them.

If such a radical change is agreed it will, as Nick Farr-Jones said on Monday, be a “long and expensive rebuild”.

McLennan summed up the case too, telling the Financial Review: “we need to seize the moment for constitutional and structural reform. This really has been a case of doing the same thing, the same way, over and over and expecting a different result. Insanity.”

I’ll be upfront and say that I have supported McLennan since he took over as chairman of Rugby Australia in May 2020 and think he should stay on to get this job done. He took on the top role of an organisation in crisis, near insolvency and struggling with the federated model.

Under his leadership, Australia has won the rights to host the 2027 Men’s Rugby World Cup, the 2029 Women’s Rugby World Cup, locked in the 2025 Lions tour to Australia and signed an extension of Rugby Australia’s broadcast deal with Nine to 2025 (Nine is also the publisher of AFR Weekend). With the support of strong CEOs and a hard-working, talented board, he has also signed global giant Cadbury as the major sponsor.

Our game needs stability now more than ever and there are strong foundations in place for Australian Rugby to be a global power once again. It won’t be an easy journey but as the saying goes, no crisis should go to waste.

Portugal, Fiji, Wales and stress

Before any of that, the Wallabies have another match to play. At Saint-Etienne at 2.45am Monday AEST, Australia will beat Portugal comfortably and attack from all over the park.

The Wallabies still have a mathematical chance of achieving a quarter-final berth but in reality the probability of this happening is somewhat less than a punter winning the USA Power Lotto. Fiji have the bit between their teeth and will not be losing to either Georgia or Portugal in their remaining pool games.

”We are on a mission from God” the Blues Brothers stated so passionately to the Mother Superior of the orphanage where they were raised. Be assured that in this Rugby World Cup, the Fijians are on a “Mission from God” for their families scattered over the 300 islands of Fiji. Yes they are strong, fast and tough, but it’s their spiritual self-belief that no other team can match.

In Lyon, the match against a ruthlessly well coached Wales was a great case study in the psychology of stress. The Wallabies went into the game under massive pressure, having copped a verbal battering after losing to Fiji and then knowing they were effectively in a knock-out situation in front of 20,000-plus Wallaby supporters in Lyon, fans who expected nothing less than a win.

Early mistakes gave Wales ascendancy and then the “stress contagion effect” kicked in and spread anxiety like a virus across the team. Smart decision-making went out the door and Welsh reserve flyhalf Gareth Anscombe had a field day, kicking six penalty goals that supercharged the scoreboard pressure. Ultimately, the young Wallabies crumbled under the pressure.

Now the blame game is on and it’s very emotional.

What about Eddie Jones?

In my view, Jones’s fate is in the hands of his players. Rugby Australia will undertake a comprehensive review once the team gets home that will involve the coaches, medical team, strength and conditioning personnel and most importantly every player in the squad. It needs to be fiercely independent.

Direct feedback from a number of players before they departed for France indicated they loved Jones’s non-compromising style and intensity – is this still the case?

If there is strong support for Jones across the squad, he should be retained as coach.

However, if hard evidence does emerge that he was actively negotiating with the Japanese Rugby Union for its vacant head coaching role prior to the World Cup then his position would be untenable. Jones might just preempt all this and pull the pin after the final game against Portugal.

It’s worth noting that since his arrival in January 2023 no one has worked harder than Jones to prepare this team. He has made many tough and unpopular calls and those calls have only made the pile-on more intense, full of vitriol and very personal. At 63, maybe there is an easier way for Eddie to live life.

As coaching reviews go, there is precedent in player discontent helping to usher out even the most successful coaches. Things didn’t go well for Alan Jones in 1987 and player power was pivotal in his exit.

As background, Alan Jones’s achievements as Wallabies coach from 1984 to 1987 were some of the greatest ever in Australian rugby history. The 1984 Grand Slam has never ever been equalled by an Australian team and the 1986 team he led on an eight-week tour of New Zealand was the first to beat the All Blacks at home in a Bledisloe Cup series since 1949. He also coached Australia to a Hong Kong Sevens title in 1985.

I had the privilege to be a member of all these teams.

Come 1987, Alan coached the Wallabies in the inaugural Rugby World Cup. Australia were favourites to win, given the massive success through 1984-86 with

Jones as coach, ably supported by the Queensland legend Alex Evans.

A last-minute Serge Blanco try in the semi-final at Concord Oval was allowed, even though his France teammate Laurent Rodriguez had knocked on in the lead up. We lost, and lost again in the playoff for third against Wales at Rotorua, sunk on the bell by a penalty kick from the sideline.

Following the World Cup, Australia embarked on a nine-game, two-test tour to Argentina to face a Pumas team led by Hugo Porta that at the time was very competitive. I was made captain and the team was moderately successful, drawing the first test, losing the second, and winning six of seven provincial games, the other being a draw.

However, the touring squad was divided and tense. The Wallabies under Alan had enjoyed great success, but a sizable number of players were dissatisfied with his intense coaching style.

In the wake of all this, the coaching review found that too many players were unhappy and wanted a change. Thus ended the incredible Wallabies coaching career of Alan Belford Jones. For Eddie Jones, we will know soon enough whether the players are still with him.

As for the rest of this weekend’s games, Japan’s skill and speed was on full show as they defeated Samoa 28-22 in Toulouse early Friday AEST, with Japanese goal kicker Rikiya Matsuda making the difference converting two tries and three penalty goals.

Referee Jaco Peyper was busy, handing a yellow card to Japan and two to Samoa, with the second upgraded to a red by the bunker after a nasty head-clash from giant Samoan winger Ben Lam. Samoa bravely fought back from a 17-8 halftime deficit with 14 men but fell short in the final play of the game. England will top pool D, but with Argentina expected to beat Chile on Saturday it sets up a tantalising fight for second that will likely be decided when Japan meet Argentina next Sunday.

Pool A has Italy sitting second on the table with New Zealand third. This all changes on Saturday at 5am AEST in Lyon, as the All Blacks have essentially chosen their top 15 players to start, including all three Barrett brothers. The men in black will be making a statement and the Italians will be cannon-fodder.

South Africa have opted to rest the majority of their team who started against Ireland for their clash against Tonga at 6am Monday AEST in Marseille. As predicted, Handre Pollard has been chosen at 10, with a view to the quarter-finals, and the Springboks should be good enough to cement their place in the quarter- finals.

Simon Poidevin played 59 Test Matches for the Wallabies between 1980 and 1991, captaining the team on four occasions. Simon is one of only four Australians to have won rugby union’s World Cup, Grand Slam, Bledisloe Cup and Hong Kong Sevens.