MARSEILLE: For the first time in the Rugby World Cup’s 36 year history, the Wallabies must watch the quarter-finals rather than play.
Humbling losses to Fiji and Wales tipped Australia out of the tournament and plunged the game into crisis mode.
Here are five burning questions that need to be answered as Rugby Australia tries to pick up the pieces and offer hope to scarred fans.
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1) Which Wallabies might finish up?
An official announcement is yet to come but Wallabies prop Pone Fa’amausili told Wide World of Sports that star winger Marika Koroibete was poised to hang up the boots at Test level.
As the reigning John Eales Medallist, that will obviously leave a big hole in the team.
Koroibete’s relentless thirst for work on both sides of the ball is revered within the Wallabies.
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But fellow overseas-based stars Will Skelton and Samu Kerevi have both indicated they are keen to play on.
“Yeah, it (retirement) hasn’t been on my mind,” Kerevi told WWOS.
“It’s more just being kind to my body, this next couple of months.
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“And again, I wasn’t happy with my performances in some aspects, so I’m just getting that back, back to back games, back in Japan and getting the confidence to play my game again.
“And, you know, whatever the future holds.”
James Slipper and Nic White are no spring chickens but will play Super Rugby in Australia next year and appear as hungry as ever.
2) Which Wallabies may not survive a coaching change?
Lock Richie Arnold is 33 and based in France and probably didn’t do enough at the World Cup to get a call back as a Giteau Law pick.
A different coach also might have no time for Eddie Jones’ pet project Ben Donaldson, despite the playmaker showing glimpses of his potential during the pool games.
Similarly, injury plagued hooker Jordan Uelese continues to get picked on theoretical upside rather than proven performance.
Prop Zane Nonggorr has plenty to do to prove he is Test quality while fellow forwards Matt Philip and Josh Kemeny could also be in the firing line.
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3) What happens now in the Eddie saga?
The elephant in the room.
Eddie Jones simply has to adequately explain his reported job interview with Japan as the Sydney Morning Herald continues to stand strongly behind its exclusive story.
There remains a strong possibility that Jones does indeed return to Japan, where he is a revered figure for his giant killing exploits at the 2015 World Cup.
That would be embarrassing PR for RA but perhaps a blessing in disguise after what was an unmitigated disaster of a campaign.
Jones’ record has been awful for two straight seasons and the public isn’t copping his attempts to spin some positives in terms of building for the future.
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Both Jones and RA chief executive Phil Waugh have given lukewarm comments regarding him seeing out his contract through to 2027 although Jones has also said he is willing to be “the fall guy.”
Would getting sacked by RA be a convenient out for him to return to Japan?
4) How realistic is a mooted Super Rugby restructure?
Wallabies great Michael Lynagh has agreed with Stephen Hoiles’ assessment that Australia simply cannot field five competitive Super Rugby teams.
World No.1 Ireland only has four professional teams, although their population is much smaller than Australia.
Incredibly, 10 of Ireland’s starting XV that destroyed Scotland last weekend play for Leinster, giving them unrivalled cohesion.
But Waugh told reporters in Saint-Etienne that the Aussie five – Waratahs, Reds, Brumbies, Force, Rebels – were here to stay.
“Yeah, that’s our commitment,” Waugh said.
“And I think then it’s around actually how do you build the depth rather than diluting talents across the five. How do you get a little bit more creative in supporting the five Super Rugby teams? And I think that’s building real purpose and identity across those five Super Rugby teams.”
5) What can we expect from RA’s review?
Waugh, in his first year in the hot seat, will be a busy man in the summer months as he tries to steer the ship back in a positive direction.
Jones expects a World Cup review to take place in November and the results of that won’t be pretty.
Waugh told WWOS that there was “a lot of evidence that we need better alignment across high performance and the focus of many unions on community.”
And former Wallaby Morgan Turinui echoed Hoiles’ opinion that another lengthy and expensive review was not required, even given the unprecedented French flop.
“Phil Waugh, here’s the keys,” Turinui said on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts.
“This is the opportunity for Phil Waugh as CEO to continue doing what he’s already started doing, go to the states and say ‘now it’s time for unity, now it’s time for centralisation’.”
Turinui added that the “harsh reality” was that Australia would likely miss out on more quarter-finals going forward.
“The World Cup is getting more and more competitive. There’ll be bigger teams and big nations like Australia missing out on quarter-finals… I’ve heard talk of an independent review.
“We’ve had four or five independent reviews into the game in the last 20 years I would have thought and they’ve all said the same thing, which is that centralisation is the thing we must get to.
“Independent review, we’ve had them and they were never acted upon. They’re sitting there in a drawer somewhere.
“There’s got to be a review of Eddie Jones, what his plan is and is his desire to be the Wallaby coach, first off. And that’s probably directly with Phil Waugh…
“Strategy around selection, which I think we’ve all said has backfired. Gone for youth, left a lot of experience at home, didn’t balance that.”
