Shutting up Israel Folau should be least of rugby’s worries

Rugby star Israel Folau said gay people were going to hell in a social media post.

I wrote in this column some weeks ago that if we do in rugby 2018 what we did in rugby 2017, we will be guaranteed the 2017 result.

And by any reckoning, that ­result was awful.

We have a new CEO in Raelene Castle and she must be given a chance to find her feet, but she’ll need to do more than worry about what Israel Folau has to say in relation to gay people and whether Israel’s comments align with rugby’s “inclusion policy”.

All most rugby fans know about rugby’s inclusion policy is that it includes too much failure.

Israel Folau is entitled to his view. Let him express it. He will be judged accordingly and would not expect not to be so judged.

There are more important things in the world of rugby than telling people what they can say or think. Try starting with our performance against New Zealand franchises in the Super Rugby competition. We haven’t won against a New Zealand side since 2016.

Now remember, the “visionaries” within Rugby Australia decided to torpedo the Western Force because we didn’t have enough players to sustain five teams? That was always a nonsense.

It is coaches that we don’t have, but that issue I have already raised via this column.

We were told the WA players would be absorbed into the other four franchises and there would be a corresponding improvement in rugby depth, reflected, presumably, in 2018 results.

Well, the bulk of the WA players went to the Melbourne Rebels and they were flogged last week by the Wellington Hurricanes. There’s no other word for it.

These performances are metaphors for a failed system. If you want to beat New Zealand teams, you must start at the basement in order to get to the rugby penthouse.

That means our schoolboys and under-20s sides need to win regularly if our Super Rugby teams and our Wallabies are to beat New Zealand.

It follows that if these youth teams are to win, they need to be well coached and the best young players have to be identified, retained, selected and developed. That is not currently the case.

Raelene, forget your free speech campaign and if you want to talk inclusion, make sure we start including our very best junior players in future rugby programs. That is not happening.

First stop, Raelene, take charge of the schoolboys program. You pay the bills, so get on with it. Put a broom through the schoolboys rugby swamp.

The old boys’ network currently holding court is costing us dearly. Our best young players are going to the NRL or worse still, into New Zealand rugby franchises.

Just this season, Nick Frost from Sydney’s Knox Grammar, the son of a prominent employee of Rugby Australia, chose to take up a contract with the Crusaders. What message is that sending?

The boys are voting with their feet. This season, the best schoolboy back since Kalyn Ponga, Billy Smith from Scots College, has gone to the Sydney Roosters.

Who does Kalyn Ponga play for? When I last looked, he was with the Newcastle Knights rugby league team.

And the best forward since Angus Crichton — is that the same young man who’s with the NRL’s South Sydney? — Charlie Rorke from Riverview College, has gone to the Canberra Raiders.

It’s not just at schoolboy level that we’ve got problems. The ­national under-20 set-up is a shambles. The coach of the under-20s until recently has been Adrian Thompson. Well, it has to be said, he is a coaching disaster. As head coach of the under-20s at the Junior World Cup, between 2013 and 2016, his record was 7th, 5th, 5th and 6th.

He’s just been replaced by the Waratahs assistant coach, Simon Cron. Was the job advertised?

Cron, to be fair, has had success at the club level, but under Cron, the Australian under-20s side also ran 6th.

This fellow, Thompson, has an interesting title — National Performance Programs Manager. But in rugby, he’s never been high performance at anything. According to his profile, he never achieved anything as a player or a coach, yet he represents Rugby Australia in schoolboy rugby deliberations.

If he was genuinely representing rugby and the parent body, he would have taken control of the schoolboys from Australian Schools Rugby Union president Bob Wallace. After all, Rugby Australia fund the schoolboys.

If you control the purse strings, you are surely entitled to control the program.

Instead, Thompson has shown zero leadership and zero high performance. Where are you, Raelene? Those who’ve preceded you have run away from these realities. That’s why we are where we are.

In fact, there are no pathways for our next generation of successful schoolboys. Surely Rugby Australia should have the most successful and the best working for them.

How can we expect schoolboy sides and under-20s sides to win if they’re run by people who aren’t winners? You don’t have to look too far to find successful programs.

Take the England experience. They take on New Zealand in the under-20s and win regularly.

Since 2013, England have won three under-20 World Cups and they’ve been runners-up to New Zealand twice. What do they do?

Well, under the management of the former outstanding ­England flyhalf Rob Andrew, they invested in academies; they took control of schools rugby; they provided a genuine high performance program.

The difference? Rob Andrew is a winner, a proven force as a player, a coach and administrator. And thanks to his vision, the England junior pathways are spot on, relevant and delivering.

It could be said that England are 10 years ahead of us and we’re going to have to make some changes in a hurry or continue to perform as also-rans.

Until our schoolboys and under-20s can compete with ­England and New Zealand, our Super Rugby sides and our Wallabies will never believe they can win regularly. We have ruled the rugby world before, in the 1980s and the 90s. The rugby world wanted to study the Australian way.

Rob Andrew came to Australia before he represented England in order to train with my Wallabies. He was ambitious to do well.

The success of the 80s and 90s can be repeated, but not with the current structures.

It’s going to take courage.

It’s going to take a fresh bunch of people, because the current crew are not getting it done. And because they’re not, Michael Cheika is being asked to deliver with his hands tied behind his back. If we can’t keep the best, we have no hope of being the best. There’s no room for “average people”.

We can’t allow our young people to be demoralised because they’re drowning in mediocrity, surrounded by mediocrity, coached by mediocrity and, as a result, being dismissed as part of rugby’s mediocrity.

Understandably, the ambitious see a system that doesn’t work and go where their talent can be identified, evaluated and cultivated.

So, welcome aboard, Raelene Castle. As Donald Trump would say, drain the swamp, move on the mediocre. But to do that, you’ve got to first identify them and make some tough decisions.

Does Raelene Castle have the ability and the knowledge to be able to do that? The clock is ticking. It’s five to midnight on the rugby clock.

If all this rugby mess is to be cleaned up, some of these average administrators need to be put out of their misery. But when some of them actually sit on the board of Rugby Australia, then I suppose there’s not much hope of that, in which case, if we go back to the beginning, we’ll be repeating in 2018 what we found unacceptable in 2017.