It's all over now for Robbie Deans as Lions thump Wallabies to clinch series

THE Robbie Deans era came to a catastrophic end. The clock ticks on every coach and it must be full-time for Deans now as Wallabies boss.

THE Robbie Deans era came to a catastrophic end Saturday night.

If Saturday night's series-settling Test against the Lions was the most momentous rugby event in Australia since the 2003 World Cup final, the numbing defeat must come with World Cup-level consequences for coaches and players.

Dingo has had his shot. It is time to exit. This is not teary-eyed emotion after a 41-16 smacking. All emotion is out of it.

The clock ticks on every coach and it must be full-time for Deans now this series against a resilient and united British and Irish Lions side is lost.

Saturday night was a calamity because the Wallabies are so much better than that. The scrum was awful but a selection blooper has also doomed Deans.

He decided to play the might of the Lions without a specialist five-eighth wearing No.10. That's different to saying James O'Connor is a poor player.

He's not. It was sheer willpower and a special surge that got the Wallabies back into the Test on half-time and he did fight gallantly all night.

What Lions five-eighth Jonny Sexton did to set up the second Lions try that killed off the Wallabies in the second half was an act O'Connor didn't come close to mastering in three Tests. Sexton varied his alignment, set a telling backline sweep in motion and backed up to score the five-pointer.

The Wallabies have no game-controller on the steering wheel right now. Only an exceptional halfback in Will Genia is papering over that folly.

The Wallabies need a five-eighth wearing No.10 and O'Connor injecting his skills elsewhere on the field. Deans blew that call but made excellent choices in Ben Mowen, Christian Lealiifano, Joe Tomane and Jesse Mogg for this series.

Deans must go, not after the November tour of Europe, not after The Rugby Championship in October but in time for a new coach to lead the Wallabies into the August 17 Test against the All Blacks in Sydney.

Whether it is Ewen McKenzie or Jake White who takes over is the question only when the Australian Rugby Union make the decisive call to part with Deans.

The new coach would have a whirlwind five weeks to find a spike with the Wallabies and start the run at the 2015 World Cup with fresh energy and ideas.

By recent Australian sporting standards that is a luxury.

It's twice the time that Darren Lehmann was given to get our cricket heads screwed on for the Ashes after Mickey Arthur was ditched as Australian cricket coach. It can be done.

ARU chief executive Bill Pulver is on record as saying there will be an ongoing process this year towards the selection of the coach for 2014-15 and that Deans has his support for the season.

That is a total misread of where the passions of the Australian rugby fan sit today. They want Deans gone. No one has coached the Wallabies in more than his 74 Tests in charge. He has produced some fine victories but his success rate of 58.1 per cent is not compelling enough to shout "another chance."

The Lions pulled the trigger in attack when the crunch came and how the Wallabies imagined they could.