Wallabies did well but that can’t cover over cracks in the game

The Israel Folau incident against Ireland. Photo: AFP

Considering all the circumstances, the Wallabies did well to get as close to Ireland as they did.

What the Wallaby performance demonstrated, yet again, is that no matter the mess the game is in, and it is in a mess, we have outstanding rugby potential at our disposal. That said, there are many diehard rugby fans who would feel that we were badly done by last Saturday.

A couple of things should be said. Israel Folau’s yellow card was utter nonsense. If this continues, we are taking all the athleticism out of the game.

Folau under the high ball is a magnificent spectacle. It’s glorious sporting aesthetics but he collides with someone who hits the ground and Folau is suspended for a week.

Someone is kidding. Everything you do in a contact sport is capable of incurring an injury. If you don’t want to take that risk, you don’t play.

Then there’s the refereeing. Almost universally, and without whingeing, the predominant sentiment ventilated after the match was that the refereeing was woeful.

The best referees in world rugby are Nigel Owens and Wayne Barnes. Barnes was put in charge of the Test between the USA and Canada and Nigel Owens was refereeing Georgia and Japan. Is someone telling us we’ve sunk so low in world rugby that we merit, at best, a third or fourth-ranked referee?

Ireland versus Australia on Saturday night was second versus fourth in the world. It was given to a French referee. The assistant referee, Cameron Stone, has no experience, even at Super Rugby level. How the hell was he given a Test?

I’d make two final points regarding last Saturday. Ireland can’t win the World Cup with this side. There are too many players who will be over the hill by the time the World Cup comes around. They will have to rebuild.

Mind you, the Irish grassroots system is such that they may well be able to do that. But they had eight players in their starting line-up on Saturday over the age of 28.

Australia, with the talent, could be anything. But we have to fix the lack of height at the back of the lineout and we have to move the ball away from the ruck to give room for people like Kurtley Beale and Folau to express their gifts.

And the one thing the Wallabies have to learn is how to win when the situation is tight. Michael Cheika’s sides have lost too many close games. The Ireland team, when push turns to shove, can eke out a victory and that’s what they did in Melbourne and Sydney.

However, the very respectable performance by the Wallabies can’t be allowed to mask the deep-seated problems that continue to afflict the game.

I had a letter from a parent last week thanking me for my articles in this newspaper and telling me that his 11-year-old son had won awards as an outstanding all-round player.

He’s been captain of his district side. He’s played representative rugby. And then the father says this:

“ … Over the last couple of weeks, he’s told me about his passion to now play rugby league or AFL. I thought it was a fad thing, as we also support the Roosters. But he’s become more and more passionate about other codes. As parents, we couldn’t understand why he would want to move away from a game he seemed to enjoy, from which he receives accolades and in which he excels. Two nights ago, I drilled down to why he had so much passion for the other sports and not for rugby. His answer was ‘rugby is dying’.”

As the parent says to me: “If we’ve got problems of perception at this level, then we’ve really got problems.”

But no wonder kids are deserting the code. As I said last week, there’s no money for grassroots rugby. But there’s money for a big announcement a couple of days ago that a bloke by the name of Cameron Murray had been appointed to the “new role of chief commercial officer at Rugby Australia”. What the hell is this about?

And in the media release, we were told that Murray “will provide strong leadership across Rugby Australia’s commercial programs, including our partnerships, marketing and operations teams …” Are you any the wiser as to what he will do?

Remember, the Western Force were eliminated from Super Rugby because we couldn’t afford them. But we can now afford to appoint some bloke as a chief commercial officer.

So the staff at Head Office climbs towards 150. To do what, I have no idea.

Raelene Castle has had no difficulty finding a sympathetic ear among sections of the media to talk in jargon and rhetoric without any evidence that she knows anything about the game.

Her observations include, “We’ve got really great relationships with our four Super Rugby franchises.

“We’re around the table much more regularly and we’re having the difficult conversations, but making sure we’re coming through the front door, rather than having them in back rooms.”

What the hell does that mean?

Raelene, I think there will be more difficult conversations to be had in the future, with a new collective bargaining agreement to be negotiated in 2020, along with a new broadcast deal.

The vast majority of Rugby Australia’s revenue comes from the broadcast deal. So if the new broadcast offer in 2020 is less than the current offer, Rugby Australia will be forced to cut costs.

They have form in abandoning franchises. Who is to say the Brumbies or the Rebels would be safe if there’s another round of cost-cutting in the future?

In another platitudinous and meaningless observation, Castle said: “We all know the power of the Wallaby brand and the importance of the Wallaby brand to opening the rugby public’s support for the game. We’ve seen it in context here over the last three weeks. The fact that we’ve had three almost sold-out stadiums and two great Test matches is what people want to see.” The fact is, the Wallabies beat an Ireland B side in the first Test match and after losing the series have slipped to fifth in the world.

Yes, the Test matches were well attended and yes, the stadiums had good crowds. But we should point out that half the crowd were wearing Irish jerseys and singing Irish songs.

To put it in perspective, the Tests were played in small stadiums in Melbourne and Sydney.

Not the MCG or ANZ Stadium.

Talking about the Wallaby “brand”, Castle notes: “It’s a brand within the rugby world that’s incredibly well respected and the commercial opportunities that unlocks for us, being an Australian organisation looking to go into the Japanese market for two and a half years, with a Bledisloe Test match, a Rugby World Cup and an Olympics, could really maximise the power of the Wallaby brand.”

This is gold medal jargon. She obviously wants the rugby organisation to be more bullish about the Wallabies’ brand overseas, using it to generate revenue to invest back home.

But why is Raelene Castle taking the third Bledisloe Cup match to Japan on October 27?

I suppose she’s taking it there because a promoter will guarantee her cash and she’s afraid nobody in Australia will turn up to a dead-rubber third Test held in one of our stadiums. The going rate for the All Blacks to play abroad is $2 million so the Wallabies can expect about $1 million.

How do I know this? When I coached the Barbarians against the Wallabies last year, the promoters had to pay the Wallabies $1m to play the game.

But Raelene wasn’t finished with the jargon. She said last week: “We need to be using the Wallabies brand to make sure we’re maximising those opportunities and every dollar we can generate is an extra dollar we can invest in the rugby community and the grassroots.”

I beg your pardon! Last year, Rugby Australia spent just over $3m on grassroots rugby. This year, the AFL will spend $253m on grassroots footy.

Rugby Australia has spent more on marketing the Test matches than they did on the community game. The fact is, you can’t put that $1m from the Yokohama Test directly into grassroots rugby, because under the new collective bargaining agreement, 29 per cent of the revenue must go to the players.

So what about the other 71 per cent? We only have to have a look at how Castle and Rugby Australia chairman Cameron Clyne have spent the $5m they saved by chopping the Western Force.

According to the bean counters, that $5m has been mostly spent on expanded Super Rugby squads and improving the pay for the Sevens teams.

The grassroots have been dudded and so too have the loyal rugby supporters in WA.

One final thought, which has inspired a lot of comment from my readers. It baffles me how Rod Kafer can work for Rugby Australia and pitch up to commentate for Fox Sports in their coverage of the Wallabies. How this bloke can double-dip from the nose bag of rugby is astounding.

One irony escapes our rugby administrators. We expect of our players and coaches clear thinking under pressure and good judgment in the use of the football.

Rugby administrators can’t be expected to escape similar scrutiny. Sadly, there is a decided incapacity of administrators to think clearly under pressure.

And as for good judgment, the cupboard is bare.

■ Alan Jones will be on leave for the next three weeks. His column will return on July 27. Jones is a former coach of the Wallabies and hosts The Alan Jones Breakfast Show on 2GB and the Macquarie radio network and is host of Jones & Co on Sky News at 8pm on Tuesdays.