Has Australian rugby been taken over?

What is going on when Rugby NSW becomes a transit lounge for journeyman coaches and administrators from New Zealand?

RA’s director of rugby Scott Johnson watches on at Wallabies training PIcture: Stu Walmsley, Rugby Australia Media.

The expression Happy New Year is more than a cliche. It represents the genuine wish that accompanies the offering of such sentiment, that the New Year will bring new hope and new opportunity.

For the rugby family the new year has, unfortunately, begun with revisiting many of the imperfections of the past year.

In my last column for 2019, in early December, I wrote, among other things, that the association of rugby’s new Godfather, Scott Johnson, “with the rugby agent Esportif needs to be explained”.

I asked: “Why are we getting all these coaches who are represented by Esportif?”

Well, if nothing else, there is a continuing brazenness about the behaviour of those who administer our game.

Let’s begin with NSW. What is going on when the once proud Rugby NSW becomes a transit lounge for journeyman coaches and administrators from New Zealand?

From the outside, and few are welcome inside, it still looks as if Johnson and the Esportif sports agency are using the Waratahs franchise as a halfway house for struggling Kiwi coaches and administrators.

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What is more disturbing, again from the outside, it appears that the Esportif agency is using their bevy of coaches to launch their player agency in Australia.

Esportif set up shop in Sydney last year. They have been busy getting their coaches jobs in Australian rugby while at the same time signing up many of the ­successful Australian under-18 players.

How has the NSW/Waratahs franchise fallen into this pit?

It seems like a lifetime ago that the Waratahs won the 2014 Super Rugby title, beating the Crusaders 33-32 in the final — their first finals appearance since 2008. ­Michael Cheika was the coach.

Since 2014, the Waratahs have failed to make a Super Rugby final.

When Cheika departed, the Waratahs chose to appoint the Kiwi assistant coach Daryl Gibson to the much coveted head coaching role.

Gibson had the reins for five seasons with a brilliant roster that included Israel Folau, Kurtley Beale, Sekope Kepu and Michael Hooper.

Gibson, an Esportif coach, was a failure. I understand he unexpectedly resigned in a planning meeting at the end of another poor Waratahs season. He had earlier in 2019 asked the NSW board for a contract extension.

Gibson’s departure should have been a good thing for Australian rugby, a chance to anoint one or two homegrown options as a breeding ground for future Wallaby coaches. Not so.

Seemingly at the behest of Johnson, the Waratahs have appointed another Kiwi by the name of Rob Penney — another Esportif product. I understand he is a nice bloke. But he failed at Munster and in Japan.

How does he get the job? If a coach is world-class and can share his knowledge with emerging assistant coaches that are homegrown, I can understand, just, appointing a foreign coach; but if the foreign coach is a journeyman, why should he be taking the coaching opportunity ahead of an Australian?

Penney should never have been given the job; but as soon as the Kiwi CEO, Andrew Hore, signed his Kiwi mate, Hore jumped ship.

But Hore, too, had requested and was granted a contract extension earlier in 2019. Hore is also from the Esportif stable.

So NSW are becoming a transit lounge for journeyman Kiwi coaches and administrators. And this has been sanctioned by Rugby Australia, Rugby NSW and their boards.

But just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it does.

A Welshman, Steve Tandy, also from the Esportif stable, has been coaching the Waratahs’ ­defence for the last couple of seasons. He was a failed coach in Wales. But the Santa Claus of Australian rugby gave him a position that should have gone to an Australian. Tandy has now joined Hore and Gibson by jumping ship in the middle of the Waratahs pre-season preparation.

He has taken a position with Scotland. Scotland is where Johnson hails from in his last post.

Tandy, in Scotland, replaces Matt Taylor, who is now the new Wallabies defence coach.

Was the job advertised? What a merry-go-round.

When Johnson was the backroom boss of Scottish rugby, he was challenged about his association with the Esportif agents.

He appointed many coaches represented by his own agent, Esportif, and it did not go down well in Scotland.

Now, it seems to the outsider, that he is doing the same thing in Australia with, it seems, the support of Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle and chairman Cameron Clyne.

Johnson has appointed Dave Rennie as Wallabies head coach and Taylor as defence coach. Both Rennie and Taylor are represented by Esportif; and on top of all of that, the procession of coaches at the Waratahs are all represented by Esportif.

Is it not valid to ask: has Australian rugby been taken over by Scott Johnson and Esportif?

Is this occurring with the ­approval of the board of Rugby Australia?

Is Johnson a shareholder of Esportif? And if not, why is he filling our coaching positions with mostly Kiwi coaches represented mostly by Esportif? Make no mistake, Esportif now have many coaches and decision-makers well placed in Australian rugby.

Johnson has given them a huge leg-up as they launch their sports agent business in Australia.

Understandably, Esportif can now run around signing young Australian players on the premise that they also represent the coaches who select players and make contract offers.

Player and coach agents have become a necessary evil in our game.

Some behave like parasites, feeding off the effort and income of players; but when one agency appears to be the preferred supplier, players will obviously align themselves with that agent to ­ensure they have the best chance of career advancement and ­selection.

It does not help that Johnson himself is represented by Esportif.

As this company grows its business in Australia, we need to be aware of the influence over coaches and players that they are seeking and, indeed, exerting.

The rugby family must ask itself if it is comfortable with Johnson using Esportif as a preferred supplier of coaches and players.

I have nothing against Johnson. I hope he does well because we need Australian rugby to do well.

But what is happening is the consequence of a leadership vacuum at Rugby Australia and Johnson, and Esportif, are the beneficiaries of the administrative incompetence that afflicts Australian rugby.

There is barely a person in the game who does not believe that Clyne should go now, and so should Castle.

I have some sympathy for ­Castle. She is apparently answerable to a board that has little understanding of the proper direction of the game, let alone how to address the game’s imperfections.

While Castle cops the blame for the Folau affair, there is no doubt that every move she took was signed off by the board and may have been induced by the board. Will we ever know?

Clyne is running around telling anyone prepared to listen that Rugby Australia performed brilliantly in the Folau settlement.

This is nothing more than a ­pathetic effort to control the narrative. A confidential settlement that includes an apology to Folau, along with a bucket full of money, is clearly a win for Folau.

Meanwhile, the Waratahs are now looking for a new CEO and a defence coach to go with their new Kiwi head coach.

And Rugby Australia have to find a replacement for Clyne and probably a new CEO, because the board has clearly led Castle to her demise.

Yet, coming through the backdoor are outfits such as Esportif, seeking to advance their influence amid the confusion and lack of leadership at Rugby Australia.

Since Clyne became chairman of Rugby Australia, the whole scene has become a disaster. The Western Force were knifed on the premise that the game was broke and, reportedly, a bailout package of $50m from Andrew Forrest was rejected.

Then, of course, the issue that must seal the fate of those who run the game, the removal of the game’s best player and crowd puller, Folau.

An independent panel consisting of three people, all of whom had previously been consultants to either Rugby Australia or Qantas, validated the decision to get rid of Folau.

Where are they now, after Rugby Australia has been forced to eat humble pie and offer Folau an apology and a multi-million-dollar settlement?

Prior to this, there had been a so-called restructure of the Wallabies coaching set-up.

One year out from the Rugby World Cup, Cheika was entitled to believe he was being white-anted.

It was always the case of sack him or support him. Clyne did ­neither and sidestepped the announcement of the coaching restructure in a “Claytons” press conference.

These are inexcusable consequences of an imperfect administration.

Yet now, piled on top of all of this, it seems all rugby decisions have been outsourced to Johnson and the Esportif sports agency.

Johnson came from Scottish rugby with virtually no record of success. Yet he seems to have been given full decision-making powers on all rugby matters.

The mind spins when you consider that Johnson has overseen the following movement of coaches:

• Rennie, a Kiwi from the ­Esportif stable, signed as the Wallabies head coach.

• Taylor, from the Esportif ­stable, signed as the Wallabies defence coach to replace Australian Nathan Grey, who is likely to replace Tandy of the Esportif stable as Waratahs defence coach.

• Penney, a Kiwi from the Esportif stable, is signed as Waratahs head coach to replace Gibson, also a Kiwi from the Esportif stable.

• And Hore, a Kiwi from the Esportif stable, has been released mid-contract and is yet to be replaced.

Perhaps this makes for a happy new rugby year. But I suspect the rugby family would endorse the sentiments of Oscar Wilde: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

That, I guess, is the sense of optimism that we will need, in the months ahead, in confronting what is happening to our game.