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If Hamish McLennan could take three words back, they\u2019d probably be the ones he uttered about 40 minutes into Eddie Jones\u2019 welcome home press conference at Matraville High in January.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he\u2019d increased picks of overseas-based players, Jones grinned and said \u201cthey\u2019re all available\u201d but admitted they hadn\u2019t spoken about it.<\/p>\n
Sitting to Jones\u2019 right, McLennan added: \u201cWhatever he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a gag, but it still jarred. Here was the Rugby Australia chairman giving the Wallabies coach a pretty clear picture he could run his own show, and there\u2019d be a rubber stamp waiting at head office.<\/p>\n
Fast-forward nine months and the Eddie Jones experiment is in smoking ruins, with the Wallabies all but out of the World Cup and the game at a historically low ebb in Australia.<\/p>\n
One year into a five-year contract, Jones\u2019 future as Wallabies coach appears untenable, particularly after this masthead revealed he\u2019d been talking to Japan about taking over as coach. Polls, pundits and public discourse all tell the same tale: Jones must go.<\/p>\n
But right alongside Jones in the firing line is McLennan, with vast numbers of angry Australian fans taking to social media, group chats and radio talkback to call for the chairman to pack his bags as well.<\/p>\n
The reason is simple: it was McLennan\u2019s \u201ccaptain\u2019s call\u201d to recruit Jones, and so he\u2019s on the hook for all the destruction that has followed.<\/p>\n
McLennan had been talking to Jones about a role for the 2024-2027 World Cup cycle but when England sacked him in December \u2013 and with a bee still buzzing in his bonnet from the Wallabies\u2019 defeat to Italy a month earlier \u2013 the RA chair swooped. With the board\u2019s approval, Dave Rennie was sacked with a year left on his contract.<\/p>\n
There is a valid debate about whether Rennie deserved to be sacked, and it has been accentuated by the Wallabies\u2019 pathetic World Cup results. But, while harsh on Rennie, McLennan\u2019s move to bring back Jones \u2013 who had taken England to the 2019 World Cup final \u2013 had defendable logic.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hamish McLennan (left) and Andy Marinos (right) listen to Eddie Jones talking at Matraville High.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n As the months progressed, though, logic started going out the window and what began as a blizzard of welcome publicity and hope turned into an increasingly erratic and bizarre coaching show from Jones, who had turfed all of Rennie\u2019s assistants and surrounded himself with an eclectic coaching staff, many with jumbled roles.<\/p>\n Then, after slow but visible progress in a winless Rugby Championship, Jones lurched to the nuclear option and picked a ridiculously inexperienced World Cup squad. It was time for a new start, Jones said, ignoring the dangerous \u2013 and now realised \u2013 short-term risks to the game\u2019s health in Australia.<\/p>\n With Australian rugby now in a crumpled heap, the businessman in McLennan acknowledges he is also accountable for Jones\u2019 results, and though he wants to stay on as chair, understands he may not. He told this masthead he would \u201clive with that\u201d if the Rugby Australia board decide to make a change in the chairman role, as part of the inevitable reset needed to put the stink of the 2023 World Cup in the past.<\/p>\n Given this is the same board that approved Jones\u2019 hiring, and presumably agreed to him appointing six different captains (as per the RA constitution), McLennan is probably on safe ground. But Australian rugby fans are extremely restless and Jones\u2019 departure may not sate their rage.<\/p>\n Wallabies players after the loss in Lyon.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n McLennan\u2019s misstep wasn\u2019t the hiring of Jones. That\u2019s a move others would have made as well.<\/p>\n The misstep was a lack of due diligence about Jones\u2019 notoriously impulsive instincts, and then an alarming lack of oversight and control as Jones steered the good ship Wallaby towards an exposed reef.<\/p>\n At some point, should McLennan or other board types with rugby nous not have pulled Jones up and asked: \u201cOne five-eighth and the most inexperienced Wallabies World Cup squad ever … what are you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n But having been so excited to have Eddie back, the default position at Rugby Australia \u2013 after any weird Jones incident, podcast quote or selection call \u2013 appears to have been shrugged shoulders and a \u201cthat\u2019s just Eddie being Eddie\u201d.<\/p>\n Little wonder Jones felt the freedom to have a job interview with Japan on the eve of the World Cup.<\/p>\n To his credit, McLennan fronted up for interviews on Monday after the Wallabies\u2019 loss and admitted he was accountable for all the decisions that had been made. Whether that will end with McLennan staying or going remains to be seen.<\/p>\n Watch all the action from the <\/b>Rugby World Cup 2023<\/b> on the Home of Rugby, Stan Sport. Every match streaming ad-free, live and in 4K UHD with replays, mini matches and highlights available on demand.<\/b><\/p>\n Sports news, results and expert commentary. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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