Former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon once described the US conservative movement’s tactic to “flood the zone with shit”. The thinking was if you fill the airwaves with enough material, regardless of the content, the media will be overwhelmed and have no choice but to start repeating it.

And so it was during Hamish McLennan’s final days as Rugby Australia chairman. The numbers were well and truly against him, and rather than work to turn the tide in private, McLennan went public, trying to bend reality to his will.