Rugby World Cup 2023: Rugby Australia must stop band-aid measures and make real change after Wallabies’ historic exit

Not because the players and coaches weren’t giving their all, but because it was so sad to see what has become of the game in this country. The game that gave me so much.

A 2015 World Cup final appearance aside, my era hardly covered ourselves in glory, and the decline in form over the last 20 years has been nothing short of a West Indian cricket-style collapse.

And the scary reality is that if we don’t face up to the hard, long term truths about why we’ve arrived at this position, things will only get worse.

This is not the time for quick fixes.

COACHING

I thought bringing Eddie Jones back for this World Cup was the right decision, but I was wrong and we absolutely would have done better under Dave Rennie.

After seven years with England, Eddie clearly took on the Wallabies job burned out and should not have been signed, which I know is easy to say in hindsight. Instead, he should have taken time off while Rugby Australia allowed Rennie to see through his contract and this World Cup cycle.

My experience with burnout is that you try to rush things to escape pressure. And then because you‘re in such a rush to fix things, you don’t slow down long enough to make good decisions and explain them. You also push everyone involved to their limit and eventually lose support from those around you, and it’s no secret very few assistant coaches will work with Eddie.

And from the couch, I think Eddie has made all those mistakes.

Still, I think what he was trying to do was right and, unless you watched all the press conferences, you wouldn’t know he was trying to make the Wallabies a less structured and more powerful team.

Which is necessary to win a modern day World Cup.

GOVERNANCE

It remains to be seen what changes RA will announce in the weeks to come but I wouldn’t be surprised if Eddie quit, as the situation looks unworkable.

The burnout issue and, if true, the report that he was interviewing for the Japan job before the World Cup are big problems. Fans deserve to know who oversaw the decision to bring him back, plus an explanation as to how they arrived at it.

If indeed it was a captain’s call, it’s hard to see Hamish McLennan staying on much longer as RA chair, as the pressure to fix the game mounts. But this is only part of the problem.

The more macro issue is that World Rugby is not going to make decisions to just suit the game in Australia and its hyper-competitive winter sports market. Fans here want to see more ball in play, but the game globally is slowing down and I can’t see things changing.

From a governance perspective, it is imperative that RA rebuilds the relationship with NZRU to lobby World Rugby to speed the game up. But that relationship has been tested since McLennan took over and fought for a bigger share of the Super Rugby TV broadcast deal.

That said, we’ve been trying to lobby World Rugby to speed the game for years, which makes me think we need to change everything about how we approach the game (more on that later).

A potential fix RA is keen to push through is centralisation.

But, like Eddie, if they don’t slow down and find a model that suits all professional and community clubs, a rushed fix could make things worse.

GRASSROOTS & PATHWAYS

Unless private equity can be revived, rugby in Australia must learn to operate on even less money.

This could mean scrapping the Giteau Law altogether and allowing key forwards to play in Europe, where they get paid well and prepared better for Test match rugby, given Super Rugby is no longer the breeding ground it once was.

We also need to accept that rugby league has the money to win most poaching wars for good schoolboy talent – and rugby union needs to adjust.

Perhaps rugby needs to identify positions where we are comfortable with players serving an apprenticeship in the NRL, particularly centres and outside backs, and save what precious recruitment money we have on developing players that don’t suit league, such as front and second-rowers.

By being more selective and only entering into bidding wars with the NRL if a prospective player meets certain criteria, more funds could be distributed directly to grassroots.

This, of course, isn’t as simple as it sounds, because if kids aren’t being inspired by our Wallabies and Wallaroos, no amount of funding is going to bring them over.

A balance needs to be found between big-money, short-term signings and the long-term good of the game.

STRATEGY

The Wallabies will never win another World Cup until we master a power-based game.

This is rich for me to say, because I would never have been selected if Robbie Deans was picking forwards based on power.

But it’s clear running the ball at all costs is no longer rewarded due to how the game is refereed and until we become more pragmatic and prioritise winning rugby over entertaining rugby, Australia will keep slipping down the rankings.

Fortunately, there is evidence that a power game can be entertaining, because if you bash a team early, opportunities later in the game open up.

France are excellent at this and I think Aussie rugby could learn something here rather than simply focusing on entertainment over winning.

*****

I used to hate it when past players weighed in on present day issues, but I feel I must because I don’t feel there has been a satisfactory explanation to the public of the factors that have led to the current state of Aussie rugby.

Only once we understand and accept the realities can we, as a game make good decisions about a path forward.

So, yes, things are pretty bleak.

But I’ll leave you with a little story of hope from across the ditch.

Leading up to the 2007 World Cup, the NZRU and coaches thought the answer to shaking the All Blacks’ “choker” tag was to make the team fitter by pulling their best players out of Super Rugby to train.

But that didn’t work and the pain of choking again to France in the quarterfinal made those in charge finally face up to reality.

And the truth was that, despite their talent, the All Blacks struggled under pressure.

So with the help of psychologists, Richie McCaw and others faced reality and were able to make changes that helped them win back-to-back World Cups.

Now the time has come for the powers that be in Aussie rugby to face up to reality and accept what we are doing and our style of play isn’t working.

And if that truly happens, then I still have hope.