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Rugby Australia will make recommendations from the external review of the Wallabies\u2019 disastrous World Cup performance available to the public, potentially by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
The recommendations will come from a three-person review panel that will review the Wallabies\u2019 2023 season and includes former Wallabies Andrew Slack and Justin Harrison, who is also CEO of the Rugby Union Players Association, as well as sports industry executive Darlene Harrison.<\/p>\n
The panel is currently reviewing the strategy and structure of the Wallabies\u2019 performance environment in 2023 which includes getting extensive feedback from players and staff who took part in the World Cup in France.<\/p>\n
The full terms of reference for the review are not currently known but are expected to include World Cup selection decisions \u2013 including leaving out former captain Michael Hooper \u2013 coaching and the overall environment for players and staff.<\/p>\n
Former Wallabies captain Phil Kearns stated that the review should have a wider remit beyond the 2023 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think firstly, I congratulate them if it\u2019s going be released soon, with the speed that review has been done,\u201d Kearns said.<\/p>\n
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Hamish McLennan and Phil Kearns with the Wallabies in 2020.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Stuart Walmsley\/Rugby Australia<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not a huge amount of rocket science involved on went wrong. It\u2019s pretty obvious. I think the deeper review needs to go into coaching at the grassroots level and all through different levels of our game and coaching methodology.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether the RA board should be held responsible for the World Cup debacle, where the Wallabies missed the knockout stages for the first time, Kearns believes that the focus should be on the players and staff who were at the tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cI think probably the people that have the least responsibility for that performance is the board,\u201d Kearns said. \u201cThe people that have the most responsibility are the coaching staff, selectors and the players.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, in 1995, we had a shocker in the World Cup. We lost the quarter-final and had the embarrassment of coming through the airport and seeing our supporters on the way over to South Africa to see us.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until personally, I got home and looked in the house of mirrors at a whole bunch of things from attitude through to skill and fitness all those things [came to mind]. And the person that was most to blame was the players.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Wallabies coach John Connolly said that he believes the review\u2019s findings will be obvious.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it will show is that all the troubles in the background are obvious,\u201d Connolly said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know the coaching was a mess. The assistants, one walked out the night before (the World Cup), we know that there were 23 people who were paid for the World Cup as our support staff, which is just ridiculous.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that we played incredibly poor rugby; that was like turning back time.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Wallabies coach John Connolly at the 2007 World Cup in France<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Fairfax<\/cite><\/p>\n Connolly believes that the players\u2019 feedback from the World Cup will not offer any surprises to the panel.<\/p>\n \u201cThey will probably tell us things that we already can see, we\u2019re not blind\u201d Connolly said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw the mess (in France), the review will tell us, we know the mess, we can see it.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to the Australian Financial Review<\/em>, Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh also confirmed the review would be used to assess whether too much money was spent on the World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n Eddie Jones walked out less than 12 months into a five-year deal as Wallabies coach after the World Cup disaster.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019ll be part of the review process,\u201d Waugh said. \u201cGiven where we are in the cycle, we\u2019ve got to be really sensible as to how we spend money.\u201d<\/p>\n The ousting of former chairman Hamish McLennan could delay the review, given the panel will need to present their findings to the Rugby Australia board and new chairman Daniel Herbert before their recommendations are made available to the public.<\/p>\n Former coach Eddie Jones is due to finish at Rugby Australia on Saturday and has still been coming into the Moore Park headquarters regularly in between his coaching commitments with the Barbarians.<\/p>\n Jones has already completed his personal World Cup review and was asked by Waugh to contribute to the panel\u2019s broader probe before his departure.<\/p>\n The 2023 World Cup review\u2019s recommendations will be made available to the public after the Wallabies\u2019 previous reviews of the 2019 World Cup and 2022 season were both kept confidential.<\/p>\n This review will sit separately from Rugby Australia\u2019s strategic review on the future of the game.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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