The Kiwis didn’t even wait for an early exit from the Rugby World Cup – a definite possibility this weekend – to get their own review under way.
Prodded by the activist New Zealand Rugby Players Association, New Zealand Rugby commissioned and paid for an independent review that began earlier this year and landed with a thud before the World Cup even started.
The conclusion? The current NZ Rugby model is busted, outdated and dysfunctional, and the current board should be swept away.
NZ Rugby’s reaction? They agreed, and if they can get the provincial unions on board, NZ Rugby is in for massive changes from a governance perspective, with the next AGM in April looming as a significant moment in their history.
Australia’s governance model isn’t as complex or as restrictive as New Zealand’s but unless there is the same level of appetite for change, the British and Irish Lions tour in 2025 is going to be painful. It might already be too late.
They’ll come down to Australia and ease past the five Super Rugby teams and beat the Wallabies 3-0, and it’s not even guaranteed they’ll bring the same number of travelling supporters as they normally would.
Eddie Jones with the Wallabies in Lyon ahead before the loss to Wales.Credit: AP
Time is ticking. One full year of Tests is not a lot of time to prepare for the British and Irish Lions, whose press will demand that Australia is replaced by South America or the Pacific Islands in future itineraries if the Wallabies are not competitive in 2025.
For all the talk of the 2023 Rugby World Cup being a necessarily painful building block for 2025 and 2027, the Wallabies are in some disarray.
Ask yourself this question: who starts at No.2, No.5, No.6, No.7, No.10, No.11, No.12 and No.15 in the Wallabies’ first Test of 2024?
You can’t answer that because it’s not clear who’s going to bounce back after a brutal Rugby World Cup campaign.
That is by far the most worrying aspect of the Wallabies’ capitulation in France. Yes, the non-qualification from the pool stages was a disappointment, but the Wallabies were never going to win the tournament. That was Salesman Eddie’s pitch, to be taken with a grain of salt.
But Coach Eddie’s pitch, that a compelling young team would emerge from this tournament regardless of the outcome, should be taken seriously – and it’s very hard to buy it.
If you take a hard look at that 40-6 loss to Wales, and see the dysfunction across multiple units of the team, it is very hard to credibly identify the core of a team that is going to beat the Lions in 20 months’ time – or even get close.
Those are the alarm bells that should be ringing the loudest for Rugby Australia, which must in the first instance decide if retaining Jones will solve or worsen that issue.
Any attempts to conflate this Wallabies-specific problem with the broader, systemic issues at play, are unhelpful. Australian rugby can surely walk and chew gum at the same time. An acknowledgement that work is needed to improve the system shouldn’t be used as a free pass by the Wallabies coach.
Any review of the Rugby World Cup campaign, therefore, must be genuine in holding Jones to account. If it finds that, in fact, a core of a strong future Wallabies team has been established under Jones, then it must say so transparently, and with evidence to counter performances such as the Wales game.
If it does not, then it must conclude that the World Cup has been a double failure – an inability to advance the team through and also to set it up for future success.
These should not be difficult questions to answer, provided the terms of reference are robust and clear. Once answered, the question of Jones’ future should become clear, provided he has not activated either the Japan or the Suntory parachute by then. As for the idea that Australia can’t afford to sack Jones: there is always a negotiated settlement to be made.
This is the hard but necessary business of sports administration. It’s not personal, although egos can be bruised along the way. The Wallabies have to come first. Rugby Australia has to have a clear idea about how to compete in the Lions series in 2025 – with Jones or without him – because if it is an embarrassment, there are no guarantees they’ll be back.
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