Scott Johnson hired to be Cheika’s new boss of rugby

Michael Cheika’s powers will be significantly reduced after Scott Johnson was announced as the new director of rugby.

Former Scotland coach Scott Johnson will return to Australia as director of rugby

It’s taken the worst season in 60 years for the penny to drop but ­finally the board of Rugby Australia has worked out what everyone else already knew: the Wallabies are in total disarray and only drastic action can save the game from further embarrassment.

But some credit now to RA. They might have dithered longer than anyone wanted but at least they’ve owned up to the fact the Australian system has become a train wreck so they are taking bold steps to fix it.

Michael Cheika’s powers will be significantly reduced. He will remain as Wallabies coach through to next year’s World Cup but he’ll have to answer to his new boss Scott Johnson, who will fill the new role as director of rugby.

Johnson won’t return home until he finishes his current job with Scotland in mid-March but he is in for the long haul, charged with overhauling Australian rugby along the same lines as New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland.

The switch to a more centralised system encouraging the transfer and sharing of knowledge has been made possible only after the states agreed to start working together for the national cause.

RA chief executive Raelene Castle said: “This is a model that has proven to work successfully in a number of countries.

“Ultimately, everyone needs to make sure they see the Wallabies needing to be successful, and if the Wallabies are successful, it also means that the Super Rugby teams are successful.”

A former assistant Wallabies coach to John Connolly, Johnson was given his powerful new job because of the success he had in the same role with Scotland and his reputation as a hard taskmaster unafraid to make the big calls.

One of Johnson’s first big decisions will be choosing whether Cheika’s assistants at the Wallabies will remain. Stephen Larkham, Nathan Grey and Simon Raiwalui have all been criticised this year and while the fiercely loyal Cheika has suggested some changes, he’ll need Johnson’s permission before anything happens.

“There will be some announcements in due course but we want to make sure we show these people the respect and processes we follow,” Castle said.

Cheika will also no longer get to pick the Wallabies team himself after complaints his chopping and changing of the side was disrupting the team’s performance and morale.

The Test squad will be chosen by a panel, made up of Johnson, Cheika and a third independent selector, still to be appointed.

Cheika wasn’t at yesterday’s announcement and hasn’t spoken publicly since he was hauled before the board a week ago to explain what went wrong this year, but RA chairman Cameron Clyne said everyone agreed that wholesale changes were needed.

Clyne said: “What we’re interested in is sustainable success.

“Obviously, winning the World Cup next year is really crucial and we’re confident we can do that with the right program but what’s clear today in sport is that it only buys you support for a short time.

“What you need is sustainable success. We want to win the World Cup, then win a Bledisloe, then we want to win the Rugby Championship.

“The concerns we’ve had is that coaches have come and gone and a lot of the intellectual property has gone with them so what we want to do is really institutionalise the key components.”

Rugby Australia is also stockpiling a “fighting fund” to fend off poachers from rival codes and keep them in the 15-man game.

Armed with cash both from Rugby Australia’s Foundation and wealthy supporters of the game, RA wants to shore up the game’s most exciting young prospects as part of a new national approach to helping the Wallabies get back on top of the world.

Castle said: “We want to make sure that we secure the best young talent and keep it here so we’ve had a number of donors step forward and that will allow us to secure the talent that we identify.

“We have competitors in this market and rugby league’s one of those competitors so we need to make sure we’re in a position to ­secure that talent and keep it inside of rugby.”

Rugby’s poor attempts to retain its best players were exposed when NSW State of Origin forward Angus Crichton revealed he switched codes because the Waratahs told him he wouldn’t play Super Rugby until he was 23.

Earlier this month, Queensland Reds winger Izaia Perese announced he was defecting to the Brisbane Broncos.