Wallabies are close to world-class but needs a top-shelf administration

Inspired selections have put the Wallabies on track to be world class, but off the field it’s a different story.

Quade Cooper was an inspired selection at five-eighth for the Wallabies Picture: Getty Images

The Wallabies have certainly grown as a team so far this year and coach Rennie can be proud of the way his group finished the Rugby Championship.

Consecutive victories over the Springboks and the Pumas was the perfect way to bounce back after being outclassed by the All Blacks in the three Bledisloe Cup Tests.

I have always argued that you have to be a good selector before you can be a good coach.

It was when Dave Rennie became a good selector that the results suddenly changed.

Quade Cooper was an inspired choice. James O’Connor was then added.

There is only one to go, coach Rennie.

Make the call to Kurtley Beale and your Wallabies may be a genuine World Cup hope.

I have written about complacency before so, as the coaching group sits down to review their most recent matches against Argentina, they will be pleased with their first-half performances but not so happy with the second half.

World class teams are able to put opposition sides to the sword when they have them on the ropes.

We are not yet doing that, which means we are not yet in world class, but we are certainly moving in the right direction.

We are currently number three in the world behind South Africa and New Zealand, for what it’s worth; the world rankings are a bit of a joke.

How can we beat the Springboks twice in recent times, yet be behind them in world rankings?

In any case, we are a long way ahead of where we were this time last year when we were languishing around seventh or eighth in the world; but we are still a work in progress though, encouragingly, we have massive improvement potential.

In the forward pack, the front row looks really solid. Since Taniela Tupou was handed the starting jersey, another significant selection change, he’s been a revelation.

We now have to settle on a second row pair and we still appear lightweight in this department. I would go with an experienced older head to run the lineout and pair him with a bruiser who can add some aggression around the paddock.

The back row looks really good. With Michael Hooper and Sean McMahon now back in the picture, it’s becoming a real strength.

To the backs, because our success, in recent weeks, has been through the use of the football.

Winning the ball is critical, but that’s what the forwards are there to do.

Success is elusive if we don’t know how to use the football. Our back three are not there yet.

Andrew Kellaway, the young man I brought into a Barbarian side a couple of years ago when no-one had heard of him, has bought his ticket. He and Marika Koroibete pick themselves.

We need a world class fullback. We have one.

Dave Rennie, make the call; Beale, I am certain, would be available for the coming spring tour.

I am sure the boys know this but we need to be more ruthless when we have teams like Argentina on the rack. As the great American World War II General George Smith Patton said, “War is simple, direct and ruthless”.

International rugby is the same. All the great teams have it – the ability to turn the screws and put away and opposition.

But on the field, the Wallabies are moving in the right direction; off the field, it’s a different story.

The so-called “centralised administration model”, that Hamish McLennan is championing, is a complete “smoke and mirrors” job.

McLennan wants to believe he has the magic formula to save rugby union in Australia. He’s merely spoofing a gullible media and he’s playing to the crowd.

We are told a centralised model will save money and fix Australian rugby. There is no more detail than that, apart from saying it works in New Zealand and Ireland.

To be fair, any system will work in New Zealand. The All Blacks have been the most successful team in world rugby for 100 years and there were no centralised systems back in the early days.

As for Ireland, they are currently well behind us in world rankings and we have won two World Cups while they have won none. Why would we want to follow Irish Rugby?

Why should the Australian provinces hand over power and control to McLennan and a fat cat bureaucracy at Rugby Australia?

Rugby Australia certainly doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to administration and high performance.

Remember, in 2019, Rugby Australia turned their back on a broadcast deal with Fox Sports which was worth double what they have with Channel 9.

This is one of the main reasons Rugby Australia have racked up debt of around $30 million in the past two years.

Remember too, in 2017, Rugby Australia signed Raelene Castle without doing appropriate due diligence; Castle handled the Israel Folau affair so poorly that Rugby Australia were forced to throw millions of dollars at the problem to save face.

Are we really meant to believe that Scott Johnson should be able to tell the provincial unions what players and coaches they can sign, and for how much?

Johnson is a failed international coach who has managed to avoid any form of accountability at Rugby Australia.

His win rate as an international coach was five out of 16. I make that 30 per cent.

Johnson was hired by Castle to death-ride Michael Cheika because she was not up to managing him.

Johnson runs the so-called “High Performance Unit” that is not high performing at all.

Our Australian Sevens teams performed miserably at the Olympics.

I have said before that Johnson is too tight with the Esportif Sports Management Agency.

Most of the coaches hired by Johnson, in his time at Rugby Australia, have come from the Esportif stable.

Will Esportif continue to be the agency of choice for Johnson as he tells the provinces what coaches and players they can sign?

McLennan has got it wrong. He should keep his nose out of the provinces’ business and focus on constitutional reform at rugby headquarters.

As chairman, McLennan runs the Nominations Committee and subsequently has the power to appoint Board members.

He already has too much power for an unelected representative of our game.

Grassroots rugby has no say in who runs our game and that is wrong.

Let’s be fair dinkum. A centralised model simply gives McLennan and Johnson more power.

Neither has demonstrated they are worthy of such authority. The administration of our game needs to be democratised.

Rugby Australia needs to engage with real rugby people and give them a say in who runs the show.

If they do that, supporters will pay a membership fee that could be spent developing the next generation of Wallabies.

Give the fans a vote.

Coach Rennie is now giving us a Wallaby team that could be world class. Australia deserves a world class administration to minister successfully to the rest of the rugby family.