LYON, FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 24: Dejection for Australia players and staff after the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Wales and Australia at Parc Olympique on September 24, 2023 in Lyon, France. (Photo by Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images) Photo: Craig Mercer/MB Media
Former chief executive of the Australian Rugby Union John O'Neill has called for an independent review into all aspects of the game.
O'Neill's call comes in the wake of the Wallabies 40-6 thrashing by Wales at the Rugby World Cup and ahead of what is most likely the Wallabies' last World Cup game against Portugal on Monday morning.
"The truth is Australian rugby has got a major systemic problem and it's been coming for a while," O'Neill told ABC Sport.
"Essentially we're on life support now," he said.
He said Rugby Australia (RA) needs to set up a review into the game.
"It has to be independent, no conflict, no self-interest," he said.
"The review has to be of everything - everything has to be on the table."
O'Neill said the problems in the game start at the grassroots and go all the way to the elite level of the game.
He said the lack of pathways and proper junior development, as well as the poaching of talented players by rugby league, had damaged the 15-player code.
His call for an independent review has been backed up by former Western Force chairman Geoff Stooke.
"I think John's right, there needs to be an independent review - there's no point Caeser judging Caeser," Stooke said.
Those views, though, are not shared by Rugby Australia.
In a statement to the ABC, a RA spokesperson said: "There has been no shortage of reports done in Australian Rugby. We don't need more of them - we need action.
"Those reports have led to the plan that we are currently embarking on to unify the community game and the Super Rugby Level and our elite international teams."
Prior to the World Cup, RA announced the game would pursue "a historic reset" with a goal of "greater success on and off the field".
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Stooke approached RA in 2020 proposing to set up a technical advisory committee, which was endorsed by the head organisation.
The committee was the brainchild of Stooke, the former Wallabies coach, Bob Dwyer, former skipper Nick Farr-Jones and administrator and former national coaching director Dick Marks.
The quartet were joined by former Wallabies Barry Honan and Roger Gould and set about talking to rugby clubs and coaches around the country.
The committee wrote a paper for RA in 2020 on how to fix the game's problems at the grassroots and player development.
Stooke said there was a lack of quality coaching at the junior levels.
"Player development was becoming too exclusive, where certain players who could perform at say schoolboy level, were given a star on their butt and then were almost by default progressed through to under 20s and then super teams," Stooke said.
"And we felt there was a large core of players who were being missed in these pathways.
Stooke said his report to RA had been largely ignored.
"Virtually nothing's been implemented," Stooke said.
"The bottom line to that was that two members of my committee [Honan and Gould] resigned because of the frustrations they were feeling."
David Lyons, the current president of the Sydney University Rugby Club and a former World Cup Wallaby, is also frustrated at the current state of Australian rugby.
"So many young kids - before they've really got a lot of hard matches under their belt - are being whisked off to professional contracts, not really playing and not getting the hours under their belt," Lyons said.
He said Australian Rugby was its strongest when there were only three Super Rugby teams instead of the current five.
"Three Super Rugby teams which were successful," he said.
"There was a high amount of competition for places, and because of that we probably had stronger competitions because there wasn't as much opportunity for those people in club competitions and they'd have to really earn their stripes week-in week-out before they got a chance in professional rugby.
"I don't think Super Rugby's delivering those types of lessons like it once did."
O'Neill said you could not fix the Wallabies without fixing the grassroots of the game.
"There's a great saying in rugby: The bigger the base, the taller the pyramid," O'Neill said.
"All the major players in Australian rugby, put your self-interest in your back pocket, and let's act in the best interest of the game."
Wallabies react to defeat. Photo: Photosport
Despite a poor run of results since his return to the senior coaching role, with just one win in eight matches since the start of the year, O'Neill believes Eddie Jones remains the right man to coach the Wallabies.
"Sacking the coach is almost always the first port of call, but you really have to look at the players on the field and all the performance issues," O'Neill said.
"And now, there's a pile-on already on Eddie, and we've got one more game to go against Portugal.
"You know, [take a] time-out, take a deep breath and then [make] a proper assessment when all the emotions have died down."
- This story was first published by ABC